USC-UCLA Week 12 College Football Odds, Lines, Spread and Bet

A best bet for Saturday’s USC-UCLA matchup. The Trojans are slight favorites against their intra-city rivals.

Pat Forde | Nov 17, 2022

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Bragging rights aren’t the only thing on the line Saturday night when No. 16 UCLA hosts intra-city rival No. 7 USC on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.

USC is the Pac-12’s only hope for a College Football Playoff berth and the Trojans need to win out to have any chance to qualify. The Trojans will clinch a spot in the Pac-12 title game with a victory against their bitter rivals.

UCLA, following last week’s upset at home against Arizona, has a more challenging road to the Pac-12 title game but all roads involving defeating USC. The Bruins won last year’s matchup, 62-33, and the teams have split the last four contests.

Let’s dive into this game for one of this week’s Forde Four bets. You can also find picks for Oklahoma State-Oklahoma, Utah-Oregon and Akron-Buffalo.

USC vs. UCLA Odds

USC Straight-Up Record: 9-1
USC Against The Spread Record: 6-4

UCLA Straight-Up Record: 8-2
UCLA Against The Spread Record: 6-4

Bet on USC-UCLA at SI Sportsbook

This is going to be a scorefest, so the first inclination was to bet the over — but that’s a sky-high total. Think of it this way: a 40-37 game barely get it done. It may well end up 49-45, but if there are a couple of drive-killing turnovers that might be enough to bring home the under. So, let’s punt on the total and move on to who is going to win.

USC coach Lincoln Riley said this week that a couple of key injured players are back practicing and hopefully available against the Bruins: linebacker Eric Gentry, who was hurt against Utah on Oct. 15; and receiver Mario Williams, who has missed the last two games and hasn’t caught a pass since that upset loss to the Utes. Wideout Jordan Addison wasn’t a factor against Colorado after missing the two previous games and should be ready for a bigger role.

If the Trojans are getting healthy, that’s huge.

UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson dispensed some bulletin-board material this week when he said, “We want to break 60” against the USC defense. If the Trojans needed that last little bit of motivation to prepare hard and play hard, they got it. Caleb Williams and the USC passing game has been great all season, but especially explosive the last four games: 1,498 yards and 18 touchdowns through the air. The Bruins have little hope of stopping that unit.

BET: USC -2.5 (-118)

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Published Nov 17, 2022

PAT FORDE

Pat Forde is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who covers college football and college basketball as well as the Olympics and horse racing. He cohosts the College Football Enquirer podcast and is a football analyst on the Big Ten Network. He previously worked for Yahoo Sports, ESPN and The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Forde has won 28 Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest awards, has been published three times in the Best American Sports Writing book series, and was nominated for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize. A past president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and member of the Football Writers Association of America, he lives in Louisville with his wife. They have three children, all of whom were collegiate swimmers.