- Iowa won 20-19 at Michigan as a 5-point underdog, the only outright upset among six marquee Week 4 games.
- No. 1 Texas escaped Tennessee 20-17 but failed to cover as a 5-point road favorite.
- Georgia routed Oklahoma 41-13, covering a double-digit spread by more than two touchdowns.
- Oregon beat USC 41-27 on the road, clearing a 60.5-point total, the highest of the six marquee lines.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Iowa beat Michigan 20-19 on the road Saturday, covering as a 5-point underdog and winning outright in the only such upset among six marquee Week 4 college football games that otherwise went mostly to form against the closing numbers.
Iowa’s Road Win
The Iowa Hawkeyes closed as 5-point underdogs at Michigan and left Ann Arbor with a 20-19 win, beating the number by six points and winning outright. The Michigan Wolverines entered the game ranked 18th in the AP Top 25, one spot behind No. 17 Iowa, and the market still made Michigan a five-point favorite at home.
Sunday’s AP Top 25 moved Iowa up to No. 14 and dropped Michigan out of the poll. The Wolverines fall to 3-1; the Hawkeyes move to 4-0, and the 39 combined points slipped under the 40 total by a single point.
Texas Escapes By A Field Goal
The Texas Longhorns, the nation’s No. 1 team and a 5-point road favorite at the close, held off the Tennessee Volunteers 20-17. Tennessee’s backers needed the final margin to stay inside five points, and it did, by two.
Texas is 4-0 and kept the top spot in the AP Top 25 released Sunday, but the number that mattered to bettors went the other way, and the 37 combined points landed well under the 54.5 total. Texas entered the summer favored to win the SEC at +280, and Saturday’s three-point escape in Knoxville was its second one-score win in three weeks, after a 24-23 home win over Ohio State on Sept. 12.
Georgia And LSU Cover Big
The Georgia Bulldogs turned a double-digit line into a rout of the Oklahoma Sooners, winning 41-13 to cover by more than two touchdowns, and the 54 combined points cleared a 44 total by 10, the widest over of the day.
The LSU Tigers did similar work against the Texas A&M Aggies as an 8-point favorite, winning 35-6 in Baton Rouge. Both were the kind of results that make a closing number look conservative in hindsight: neither favorite let the game stay competitive long enough for the spread to matter.
Six marquee Week 4 results against the closing college football props board:
Iowa at Michigan
- Final
- Iowa 20, Michigan 19
- Closing spread
- Michigan -5
- Spread result
- Iowa covers
- Total
- 40
- O/U result
- Under
Texas at Tennessee
- Final
- Texas 20, Tennessee 17
- Closing spread
- Texas -5
- Spread result
- Tennessee covers
- Total
- 54.5
- O/U result
- Under
Oklahoma at Georgia
- Final
- Georgia 41, Oklahoma 13
- Closing spread
- Georgia -10.5
- Spread result
- Georgia covers
- Total
- 44
- O/U result
- Over
Oregon at USC
- Final
- Oregon 41, USC 27
- Closing spread
- Oregon -3.5
- Spread result
- Oregon covers
- Total
- 60.5
- O/U result
- Over
Texas A&M at LSU
- Final
- LSU 35, Texas A&M 6
- Closing spread
- LSU -8
- Spread result
- LSU covers
- Total
- 53
- O/U result
- Under
Missouri at Mississippi State
- Final
- Mississippi State 31, Missouri 24
- Closing spread
- Mississippi State -3.5
- Spread result
- Mississippi State covers
- Total
- 59
- O/U result
- Under
The Total That Cashed
The Oregon Ducks and USC Trojans carried the slate’s highest college football game totals number, 60.5, into a game the market priced as the highest-scoring of the six, and the teams delivered on it. Oregon won 41-27 on the road in Los Angeles, and the 68 combined points cleared the total by 7.5.
Oklahoma-Georgia was the only other over among the six. The remaining four closed under their numbers, including a Texas A&M-LSU total that missed by 12 in a game that was a blowout on the scoreboard but a defensive one in the aggregate.
Mississippi State Holds Off Missouri
The Mississippi State Bulldogs beat the Missouri Tigers 31-24, covering as 3.5-point favorites with 3.5 points to spare, while the 55 combined points fell four short of the 59 total. That made it four unders in six games on a day when Oregon-USC and Oklahoma-Georgia carried the only overs.
