College football Week 7 predictions, odds: Three picks, best bets for Saturdays slate

Penn State’s season is all but over.The Nittany Lions, ranked No.2 in the country in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, have lost back-to-back games, including last week to UCLA in the biggest upset of the season.Perhaps there is still a path to the College Football Playoff should Penn State win out (which would include victories over Ohio State and Indiana) and get help, but the writing seems to be on the wall for James Franklin’s bunch, and it’s a familiar motto: There’s always next year.But next year is months away, and Penn State has a schedule to finish out, starting with a showdown against Northwestern on Saturday in front of what could be an ornery crowd at Beaver Stadium.Not only will the atmosphere likely be muted, but Penn State will also need to deal with quite the schedule spot after hosting Oregon, flying to the Rose Bowl, and then commuting back to Central PA for this tussle.The Nittany Lions should have enough in the tank to win, but this will be ugly.The Pick: Northwestern +22.5 (-115, FanDuel)Everybody in college football was rooting for Sam Pittman, an affable throwback to the ol’ ball coach days, but it just wasn’t meant to be for the “Pit Boss” in Fayetteville. It’s an especially bad break for Pittman because Arkansas was doing some things quite well this season, most notably on offense.The Hogs grade out as the 12th-best offense in the country according to SP+, which is a boost for this matchup because they’ll need to be able to keep up with a high-octane Tennessee offense.New (old) head coach Bobby Petrino should have his team ready off the bye, so back the Pigs to give a solid account of themselves on the road and get their season back on track.This one doesn’t make much sense to me.

Florida has two wins this season.One came against Long Island University and the other against Texas, which has revealed itself to be a fraud. Texas closed as a 5.5-point favorite on the road against Florida, which was coming off a bye, meanin...