College football underdog picks, insight and analysis 

A pair of outright underdog winners last week with Oklahoma State (+11) and Miami (+4.5) was not enough for us to have a winning week. The season long record on underdog only college football picks is 15-18 ATS with work to do down the stretch in November as the biggest games of the college football season are ahead and the leading online sportsbooks will be taking the biggest betting action in November with some huge match-ups and rivalry games. 

Using some of the defensive dominators along with updating the stronger, balanced offenses will assist you with some of your stats and weekly handicapping. But there is much more and the heat gets turned up in November with teams pushing for conference titles, bowl games and the top teams shooting for a playoff position.

The underdogs are out there and here were some notable outright underdog winners last week. 

Kansas State +23.5 over Oklahoma 48-41
Oklahoma State +11 over Iowa State 34-27 
Colorado State +10.5 over Fresno State 41-31 
Kentucky +9.5 over Missouri 29-7
Kansas +6 over Texas Tech 37-34 
Miami +4.5 over Pitt 16-12 
Tennessee +4 over South Carolina 41-21 
Louisville +4 over Virginia 28-21
Charlotte +4 over No. Texas 39-38
UCLA +3 over ASU 42-32 

As college football hits November, there are eight undefeated teams, and all of them are 8-0 heading into this week. Five of them have a bye this week: No. 1 LSU,  No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 5 Penn State and No. 13 Minnesota. No. 4 Clemson has a walk this week as a 46-point favorite over Wofford and No. 12 Baylor hung on Thursday 17-14 over West Virginia as an 18-point favorite. No. 15 SMU has the toughest game this week as a 5-point underdog at No. 24 Memphis.

Alabama hosts LSU on Nov. 9 in a SEC West showdown and the early projected line is Alabama -7. One of those teams will fall from the unbeatens. The Crimson Tide have beaten the Tigers eight straight times.  

Minnesota hosts Penn State on Nov. 9 and one of those teams will also lose for the first time. Penn State will be laying near a touchdown on the road.

NCAA Football Underdog Selections for Saturday, Nov. 2 

339 BYU (+3.5) at Utah State - Cougars Moneyline +140
348 Kansas (+6) vs Kansas State - Jayhawks Moneyline +190 

Both BYU and Kansas allow more than 210 rushing yards a game, which is a concern in these match-ups as is the special teams for both teams. But the situations are pretty good with BYU off a bye and Kansas getting K-State off a huge win, and the yards-per-play numbers and our projections see close contests and yards making both 'Dogs capable of winning.

Big battle in the state of Utah as BYU (3-4) travels to Logan to tackle Utah State (4-3). The Cougars have lost each of the last two years to Utah State as a slight favorite. BYU has five winnable games remaining after taking on a very tough schedule with home losses to Utah and Washington and two road losses recently as slight favorite at Toledo (even yardage) and So. Florida, who BYU dominated time of possession and out-gained by USF by 125 yards before losing late. Two weeks ago the yardage was near even and BYU beat Boise State as a 7-point underdog with freshman quarterback Baylor Romney making his starting debut. The BYU Cougars have been good enough to beat Southern Cal, Tennessee and last week Boise State with all three of those opponents having a better offensive and defensive yards per play than BYU (except Tennessee 5.3 offense to 5.4 for BYU). Utah State is 3-0 at home against weaker teams when the Aggies were at least a 23-point favorite in each contest. In their last three contests, Utah State was buried by LSU 62-7 and Air Force 31-7 while getting out-gained 601-168 by LSU and 472-128 by Air Force and only picking up 7 first downs against the Falcons. Even in a win over Nevada sandwiched between, Nevada had nearly 10 minutes more possession time against Utah State. What's the problem? A first year offensive coordinator that has messed up QB Jordan Love, who has a 8/9 TD-to-INT ratio after 32 TD's and 6 INT's last year. Despite playing the superior strength of schedule (SOS), BYU has a -0.2 yards per play differential while Utah State is only slightly better 0.0. Still must consider that BYU is playing the most recent two games without QB Zach Wilson (thumb). Both of BYU's freshman quarterbacks have started a game this season, and duel-threat redshirt freshman Jaren Hall suffered a concussion against USF with Romney starting against Boise State and playing well. Now they get extra prep, reps and rest with BYU off a bye and not announcing the starting quarterback. We like that and side with BYU in "The Battle for the Old Wagon Wheel". 

What a win for Kansas State (+23.5) last week knocking off No. 5 Oklahoma, 48-41. The Wildcats offense is in sync, but a tough situation for K-State to avoid a letdown. Kansas (3-5) has their best chance in years to snap the 10-game losing stream to rival Kansas State. The Jayhawks snapped a 4-game losing streak taking down Texas Tech last week 37-34 just one week after nearly pulling their own major upset in a 50-48 last second loss at Texas. Kansas QB Carter Stanley has passed for more than 900 yards and 13 TD's with just one INT in the last three games and K-State does not rush the quarterback too well but is strong on third down defense. While naysayers will point to the Jayhawks 100 yards per game worse defense than K-State, I'll note that Kansas State's yards per play defense (6.2) is worse than Kansas (6.0). The Wildcats also allow 5.6 yards per rush to rank bottom 15 in the country while Kansas runs the ball for 5.2 yards per rush to rank top 20 and has balanced the attack with Stanley's strong passing the past three games. Digging deeper inside the numbers, we note than Kansas State has been out-gained in each of their last five contests but managed to win three of them. Home 'Dog call on the Jayhawks with a good chance to both run and pass for at least 200 yards making them a 'Dog that can deliver outright. 

Shop and compare lines at the leading online sportsbooks and also check out the bonus offers. You can also check out Sports Insights live odds and betting data with percentages of bets on teams taking from a consensus of seven leading online sportsbooks Including BookMaker and 5Dimes. 

FairwayJay is a leading national sports handicapper and is recognized as one of the sports industry's most insightful analysts. Read more great insights from Jay here and follow him on Twitter: @FairwayJay