USC vs. Arizona State odds, spread, lines: Week 5 college football picks, predictions by computer model
A pair of Pac-12 rivals meet up in the Coliseum as USC welcome Arizona State for another conference tilt in college football's Week 5 action on Saturday.
Southern Cal is perfect through 4 games after surviving a scare on the road to Oregon State, pulling out the late touchdown drive to stay undefeated.
Arizona State is starting over after giving Herm Edwards the ax following a 1-3 start including losses to ranked Oklahoma State and Utah.
What do the experts think of the matchup? Let's see how the College Football Power Index computer prediction model projects the game.
USC vs. Arizona State odds, spread, predictions
Week 5 college football picks: USC vs. Arizona State
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As expected, the computer is going heavily with the Trojans, who have the 93.7 percent chance to defeat the Sun Devils on Saturday.
By contrast, Arizona State has the 6.3 percent shot to upset Southern Cal.
The oddsmakers tend to agree, as USC comes into the game as 26.5 point favorites, according to the lines at SI Sportsbook, which set the over/under mark at 62.5 points for the matchup.
USC checks in at No. 9 on the index's updated 131 college football rankings, a jump of 2 spots after the win at Oregon State last Saturday.
The computer projects USC will win 10.8 games on the season and owns a respectable 26.6 percent chance to make the College Football Playoff.
To get there, FPI estimates that USC will win games by a margin of 16.5 points week to week going forward, tied for 1st in the Pac-12 with Utah.
AP top 25 voters moved Southern Cal up 1 spot to the No. 6 position in the official polls for Week 5, just behind Clemson, and in position to move into the top 4 should it stay perfect the rest of the way.
Arizona State owns the No. 80 position on the FPI national poll, down 9 spots from last week and expected to lose games by an average of 2.8 points going forward, according to the computer.
Related: College football scores | College football rankings | College football schedule
College Football Power Index
Football Power Index (FPI) college football rankings and computer prediction model are a measure of team strength that predicts a team’s future performance.
Rankings and scores predictions are based on 20,000 simulations of a team’s season, using a combination of analytics, including scores to date, quality of opponents, and a team’s schedule.
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College football rankings
According to AP top 25 poll
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Clemson
- USC
- Kentucky
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma State
- NC State
- Penn State
- Utah
- Oregon
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- Washington
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- Texas A&M
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- BYU
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