College Football Week 5 Matchups

ESPN's Gameday crew did the right thing by giving some exposure to FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. Kudos to the mothership of sports entertainment. This week, it's back to reality, as the Saturday morning pre-game show hits Athens, Georgia for a crucial SEC showdown between the ninth-ranked Bulldogs and No. 6 LSU, at Sanford Stadium.

The last time Georgia was ranked in the top 10 and played a prime-time home game against a top 10 opponent was five years ago, when the Bulldogs lost to Alabama, 41-30, as a 6.5-point favorite.

Georgia (2-1, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) opened as a 3-point favorite against the Tigers, and is still laying a field goal at Sportsbook.

The Bulldogs are in after a rain-soaked, 45-21 win over North Texas, a victory marred by mistakes that allowed the Mean Green to tie the game early in the second half. Capitalizing on a pair of special teams breakdowns, North Texas scored on a 99-yard kickoff return that cut the lead to seven in the second quarter and a blocked punt early in the third the Mean Green recovered to tie the score.

Now the Dawgs take on an LSU (4-0, 1-0 SEC) team that features former Georgia quarterback Zach Mettenberger, who is 14-3 as the Tigers' starter. The Bayou Bengals are in after a 14-point home win over Auburn, in which running back Jeremy Hill rumbled for a career-high 184 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Receiver Jarvis Landry contributed with seven receptions for a career-high 118 yards while running for a score, too.

The Bulldogs have covered five consecutive intraconference games and seven of their last 10 overall. On the flipside, LSU is mired in ATS slides of 3-7 against SEC foes, 1-4 in September and 2-5 overall.

Other games to note include (with lines courtesy of Sportsbook): On Saturday, a physical game is slated for South Bend, where Oklahoma is laying -3.5 to Notre Dame; the Iowa Hawkeyes have gone from a 3.5-point underdog to laying -1 to Minnesota in Minneapolis; high-octane Houston is laying 2.5 at upstart Texas-San Antonio, which scored a road win in El Paso last week; and the UNLV Rebels, who have lost 23 consecutive road games, are laying 2.5 at New Mexico.

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