2015 College Football Picks & Predictions: Playoff Contenders Stock Report – Week 8

2015 College Football Picks & Predictions: Playoff Contenders Stock Report – Week 8: In a weekend dubbed separation Saturday, the conference races are starting to become clearer after Week 7 of the college football season. Several teams in the Power 5 conferences now control their own destiny in their respective divisions, and a few more teams that still had a shot at sneaking into the College Football Playoff saw those chances disappear. With another week of college football in the books, let’s take a closer look at the biggest winners and losers of Week 7. Plus, don’t forget to check us out all week long for free college football picks and expert football picks against the spread.

2015 College Football Picks & Predictions: Playoff Contenders Stock Report – Week 8

Stock Up

The Alabama Crimson Tide are well on their way to rebounding from their loss to Ole Miss. Nick Saban’s bunch dominated Texas A&M on the road both sides of the ball, running over the Aggies with their power ground game and forcing four turnovers as they brought the Aggies’ high-powered passing attack to a halt. If Alabama wins out, an SEC title and a spot in the College Football Playoff are all but guaranteed.

Not only are the Iowa Hawkeyes still undefeated, but their dominating win over Northwestern in Week 7 gives them at least a two-game lead on every team in the Big Ten West because of tiebreakers. By the way, Iowa avoids Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan and Penn State from the Big Ten East, so the Hawkeyes could easily head into the conference title game undefeated and one upset win away from making some serious noise on the national level.

It took a fake field goal and another big effort from RB Leonard Fournette, but the LSU Tigers knocked off the Florida Gators in a battle of top 10 teams to stay undefeated. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Tigers, but their quarterback play is slowly improving, and as long as Fournette is leading the ground attack, LSU is dangerous. A looming showdown with Alabama in a few weeks could decide which SEC West power ends up in the College Football Playoff.

While the loss to Northwestern is the season opener still looms large, the Stanford Cardinal continued their comeback campaign in Week 7 by smashing UCLA. Stanford now controls its own destiny in the Pac-12 North, and with games against California and Notre Dame still on the schedule and potential date with Utah in the conference title game, the Cardinal could still make a case to be in the College Football Playoff if they keep winning in impressive fashion.

Stock Down

A botched punt that is going be remembered for a long time cost the Michigan Wolverines a victory over rival Michigan State and dealt a deathblow to their chances of sneaking into the College Football Playoff. Michigan could still make some noise in the conference, but the manner in which this game was lost was no doubt crushing for a team that had been surging with confidence.

Two weeks after an ugly loss to Florida, Ole Miss saw its chances of playing in a major bowl disappear in Week 7 with a loss to Memphis. The Rebels vaunted defense couldn’t slow down the Tigers, who put up 37 points and threw the ball up and down the field at will. Worse yet, Ole Miss actually led this game 14-0 in the first quarter before Memphis took over the game.

If the Boise State Broncos thought they would rally back make a major bowl by being the best team outside of the Power 5 conferences, they can think again. In one of the ugly first halves of football in recent memory, the Broncos turned the ball over seven times and dug themselves a 45-10 deficit to Utah State. Boise State never mounted much of a comeback, eventually losing 52-26.

Get more 2015 College Football betting odds for the 2015 season updated daily on NSAwins.com including updated odds to win the 2016 National Championship.