The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (0-1) and 12th-ranked (Amway Coaches Poll powered by USA Today Sports) UCF Knights (2-0) are slated to lock horns and match wits in a Saturday night (7:30 p.m. ET) tussle at Bounce House in Orlando, Fla. We analyze the Tulsa-UCF college football betting odds and lines, with picks and best bets.
The Knights are ranked 12th in the Amway Coaches Poll.
Tulsa at UCF: Betting odds and lines
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Friday at 10:40 a.m. ET.
- Money line: Tulsa +650 (bet $100, win $650) | UCF -1112 (bet $1,112, win $100)
- Against the spread/ATS: Tulsa +21.5 (-110) | UCF -21.5 (-110)
- Over/Under: 72 (O: -110 | U: -110)
Tulsa at UCF: Three things to know
- Central Florida went 10-3 a year ago when the Knights averaged a robust 43.4 points per game (fifth FBS). UCF’s three losses in 2019 were by a combined margin of seven points. The Knights opened their 2020 campaign with a 49-21 win over Georgia Tech (Sept. 19); they followed that victory with a 51-28 triumph at East Carolina last week. The win over ECU was an ATS loss on a bad beat: The Pirates (+28) scored a touchdown with 19 seconds remaining.
- For Tulsa, Saturday’s game marks the middle contest of a grueling three-game stretch to open the 2020 season. The Golden Hurricane opened with a 16-7 loss at ranked Oklahoma State. Tulsa’s next game (Oct. 17) is slated to be against ranked Cincinnati. The Hurricane have been a UCF nemesis, winning each of their last three games against the Knights. Tulsa edged UCF 34-31 last year, battling back from a 31-24 fourth-quarter deficit in the process.
- Knights QB Dillon Gabriel has thrown for 825 yards and 8 touchdowns through two games. Gabriel has completed 67% of his 88 pass attempts. Now a sophomore, the UCF signal-caller should be glad to be back on his home turf. As a freshman in 2019, he went 108-of-163 (66.3%) for 1,688 yards at home. Gabriel threw 17 TDs without logging an interception in those 163 home attempts.
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Tulsa at UCF: Odds, betting lines and picks
Prediction
UCF 38, Tulsa 14
Money line (ML)
STEER CLEAR. A lot of juice brackets the real win probabilities in between.
Against the spread (ATS)
UCF sometimes gets overvalued in these American Athletic Conference games. The Knights are 2-7 ATS over their last nine league games, and that includes a 1-3 mark over the team’s last four AAC contests in Orlando.
Expect a big effort from Central Florida with revenge on its mind. And that effort comes against a dinged-up Tulsa squad after a physical effort against Oklahoma State. The Hurricane lost RB Shamari Brooks and LB Yohance Burnett to ACL injuries in that Sept. 19 loss. Both were seniors expected to be key performers in 2020; Brooks was a 1,000-yard rusher a year ago.
The market pegged this game at around 19.5 to 20 points when the line was released. UCF IS STILL A VALUE PLAY IF YOU CAN GET A -21 LINE.
Over/Under (O/U)
The top play in this game is the UNDER 72 (-110). Figure UCF’s offense as being overvalued and its defense being undervalued, both by enough to impact the final score by several scores.
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