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College Football Week 5 Betting Trends: How the Public is Playing Georgia vs. Alabama & Other Top CFB Matchups

C Jackson Cowart

Last Updated: September 27, 2024 5:38 PM EDT • 4 min 10 sec read.

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe throws against the Georgia during the SEC Championship. Georgia vs. Alabama is a hot topic when it comes to college football Week 5 public betting trends.
Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe throws against the Georgia during the SEC Championship. Photo by Gary Cosby Jr. via Imagn Images.

With all eyes on Georgia vs. Alabama ahead of Saturday's 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff, the latest college football betting trends show a clear stance from the public on the biggest matchup of Week 5.

Bettors are buying the Crimson Tide over the Bulldogs in a matchup of college football championship odds favorites - so much so that Alabama moved from the underdog to the favorite on Friday behind a rush of public money.

The public is also laying the big spread on Miami and quarterback Cam Ward, who enters Week 5 as the Heisman Trophy odds favorite ahead of tonight's home tilt against Virginia Tech at 7:30 p.m. ET.

In addition to our Week 5 college football predictions, here's a look at the best college football Week 5 public betting trends and money percentages from one of our top college football betting sites:

College football Week 5 public betting trends

College football public betting trends and money percentages courtesy of BetMGM as of Friday morning.

Most-bet games (tickets)

  • Georgia vs. Alabama
  • Virginia Tech vs. Miami
  • Oklahoma vs. Auburn

Most-bet teams (tickets)

  • Miami -17.5
  • Georgia -1.5
  • Oklahoma -2.5

Most-bet teams (handle)

  • Miami -17.5
  • Oklahoma -2.5
  • Georgia -1.5

Our NEW college football player prop odds tool can help you find the best odds on any market across legal sportsbooks in your area!

Don't miss the rest of our Week 5 college football picks.

Public CFB underdogs for Week 5

College football odds via BetMGM as of Friday morning. Follow the latest college football scores for line history and matchup info.

Alabama (+105) vs. Georgia

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the public would be all over Alabama, which opened at +3.5 in May and was dealing at +2.5 earlier this week.

Early money moved that down to +1.5 for most of the week, and the betting splits entering Friday still featured a majority of money and bet slips on the favored Bulldogs, who haven't lost in their last 42 regular-season games.

But the public kept firing off on the Crimson Tide, who opened at +145 and haven't closed as a home underdog in 17 years. Those odds didn't last long as two-thirds of all moneyline bets were on Kalen DeBoer and Co.

That forced at least one of our best sportsbooks to flip the line in favor of Alabama ahead of Saturday's matchup.

Outside of BetMGM, the rest of our best sports betting sites still have Georgia favored by as many as 1.5 points, though we could see that change before kickoff.

None of them have Alabama as a true plus-money underdog on the moneyline, though you can still bet the Crimson Tide to win at +100 odds via bet365.

Mike Spector broke down this matchup in further detail in our Georgia vs. Alabama prediction.

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Colorado (+400) at UCF

Death, taxes, and the betting public rallying behind Colorado as a big underdog.

Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter teamed up to lead the Buffaloes to a thrilling 38-31 win last week over Baylor, but it's been almost a year since they won a road game against a power conference opponent.

That hasn't deterred the betting public from backing Deion Sanders' group, which opened at +425 and had seen 91% of all moneyline bets entering Friday.

Fittingly, nearly 75% of all spread bets were on UCF, which saw the line move 1.5 points in its favor even as its moneyline price lengthened at the same time. Spector agrees with that move in his Colorado vs. UCF prediction.

It seems like the tides have turned ahead of kickoff, as you can now bet Colorado at +450 via BetMGM even with the flood of public money to this point.

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BYU (+140) at Baylor

With a perfect record through four weeks, BYU is ranked for the first time since joining the Big 12. And bettors are buying the Cougars' hot start.

BYU opened at +3.5 against Baylor after last week's 38-9 win over Kansas State, which closed as a 7.5-point favorite and took an early 6-0 lead before getting outscored by 35 points after that point.

Kalani Sitake's team still opened as the underdog this week against Baylor, which blew a 24-10 lead last week against Colorado and was trounced by Utah two weeks earlier in its Big 12 opener.

Those losses have clearly shaken the confidence of public bettors, who were backing BYU with 70% of spread bets and a whopping 85% of moneyline wagers entering Friday.

That didn't persuade our best sports betting apps to move the spread, which still sits as high as +3.5 at FanDuel and BetMGM, and the moneyline has actually moved against the Cougars after it opened at +115 for the road 'dogs.

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College football picks roundup: Week 5

College football betting odds pages

Here are our best college football betting sites:

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Written By:
C Jackson Cowart
C Jackson Cowart is a publishing editor and lead writer for Sportsbook Review. An award-winning writer, reporter, and editor with a decade of sports media experience, "C-Jax" has worked with ESPN, Forbes, theScore, and various daily newspapers before joining the Sportsbook Review team. He's a proud graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he served as a beat writer for the Tar Heels' championship run through the NCAA men's basketball tournament in 2017. Jackson has spent the last five years covering sports betting as a predictive analyst, features writer, and industry reporter. Since joining the team in 2023, he's played a key role in Sportsbook Review's coverage of the Super Bowl, March Madness, and NBA playoffs while serving as the lead writer for the growing WNBA and NASCAR betting scenes. Though he's cashed some big bets over the years -- including Lamar Jackson to win MVP (twice) -- he's still haunted by enough second-place bet slips to wallpaper his home office. While Jackson is a committed "process over results" bettor with a keen eye for advanced stats and subtle bias in futures markets, he also embraces sports betting as a vehicle for entertainment and personal investment. He's written about everything from hot dogs to groundhogs and still hasn't forgiven his "inside source" for a sabotaged bet on the Gatorade color in Super Bowl LV.