2019 College Football Schedule: Every Week 8 Game, Ranked by Our Watchability Model

The Week 8 college football schedule may not be the best. It may not be the most exciting. But to a bettor, every Saturday is a dream come true.

To help everyone enjoy the slate — bettors and non-bettors alike — our Bryan Mears created a formula to rank the games. It includes:

• The quality of each team, which comes from Collin Wilson's oddsmaker-style power ratings, available to Action EDGE members.
• The point spread. The closer the game is expected to be, the better.
• The over/under. The more points, the better.
• The number of bets we've tracked in The Action Network app. If everyone else is excited about it, you probably should be too.

Here are the most watchable games for Week 8, according to our model.

Week 8 College Football Schedule

Watchability, Broken Up by Time Slot

Watchability doesn't do you much good if you can't break up your day properly.

Early Afternoon Window

• #9 Florida at South Carolina (7.2)
• #3 Clemson at Louisville (7.1)
• Iowa State at Texas Tech (5.6)
• West Virginia at #5 Oklahoma (5.4)
• #11 Auburn at Arkansas (4.9)
• Purdue at #23 Iowa (4.8)
• #6 Wisconsin at Illinois (4.8)
• TCU at Kansas State (4.8)
• NC State at Boston College (4.5)
• Oregon State at California (4.5)
• Toledo at Ball State (4.2)
• Kent State at Ohio (4.0)
• Georgia Tech at Miami (3.7)
• Northern Illinois at Miami (OH) (3.3)
• Houston at UConn (2.4)
• Central Michigan at Bowling Green (2.4)

There are a few interesting games in the noon window, but for the most part, it's elite teams as big favorites against bottom feeders of their leagues.

Thanks to the tight point spread and rising power rating of each team, South Carolina-Florida gets the highest watchability score.

Afternoon Window

• #18 Baylor at Oklahoma State (9)
• #12 Oregon at #25 Washington (8.5)
• #2 LSU at Mississippi State (7.3)
• Indiana at Maryland (5.4)
• Duke at Virginia (5.4)
• Temple at #19 SMU (5.3)
• North Carolina at Virginia Tech (5.2)
• Southern Mississippi at Louisiana Tech (5)
• UL Monroe at #24 Appalachian State (4.4)
• #22 Missouri at Vanderbilt (4.4)
• South Florida at Navy (3.8)
• Tulsa at #21 Cincinnati (3.7)
• Middle Tennessee at North Texas (3.3)
• Charlotte at Western Kentucky (3)
• Coastal Carolina at Georgia Southern (2.8)
• #20 Minnesota at Rutgers (2.7)
• New Mexico at Wyoming (2.2)
• Old Dominion at UAB (2)
• Buffalo at Akron (1.4)

When playing with the variables and weights to create these rankings, it sometimes helps to look at the very bottom to see if you're doing it right.

And sure enough, I think this window is proof that we passed the eye test.

Buffalo at Akron and Old Dominion at UAB bring up the rear, with Rutgers-Minnesota down there as well, despite the Gophers being ranked. No one should be subjected to Rutgers football, though, so I think it's quite accurate.

At the top, we have some interesting games — Baylor-Oklahoma State got the highest score of the day thanks to its high marks in every factor, with LSU-Mississippi State and Oregon-Washington next.

Night Window

• #16 Michigan at #7 Penn State (8.1)
• Florida State at Wake Forest (6.6)
• Tulane at Memphis (5.9)
• Texas A&M at Ole Miss (5.9)
• #17 Arizona State at #13 Utah (5.5)
• Colorado at Washington State (5.4)
• Kansas at #15 Texas (5.2)
• Kentucky at #10 Georgia (5.1)
• Army at Georgia State (4.3)
• Western Michigan at Eastern Michigan (4)
• East Carolina at UCF (3.7)
• San Diego State at San Jose State (3.1)
• Rice at UTSA (1.9)
• UTEP at Florida International (1.8)

You may be wondering why Utah-Arizona State is so low. The low Over/Under, in combination with Arizona State not ranking nearly as high in our power ratings (32) as they do in the AP Poll (17), have given that game just a 5.5 on the watchability scale.

Penn State vs. Michigan highlights the slate, which shouldn't be a surprise despite the low total.

Late-Night Window

• Tennessee at #1 Alabama (6.1)
• Arizona at USC (5.8)
• #14 Boise State at BYU (5.3)
• Air Force at Hawaii (5.2)
• Nevada at Utah State (3.7)

I for one am most excited to watch Air Force-Hawaii, given the contrast in styles. Triple-option vs. Air Raid is always fun.

But overall, this is a pretty weak late-night slate with Alabama as a massive favorite headlining at 9 p.m. ET.