Host Allan Bell is joined by sports betting experts Mike McClure, Andrew Gombas and Micah Roberts on The Early Edge podcast. They give you their best bets for college football and UFC Fight Night for Saturday, Sept. 3.
During the storylines, Andrew offers some thoughts on UFC Fight Night, which is in Paris and starts at 3 p.m. ET. Mike has his MLB weather report. Micah then cautions bettors who might be considering wagers on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The chaos surrounding the team and Tom Brady might be cause to think twice about backing them this season.
Allan kicks off the picks with the SportsLine Play of the Day, and it's a college football pick from Boise State vs. Oregon State (10:30 p.m. ET). The site is backing Boise State +2.5, as the Broncos were 5-1 against the spread on the road last season. They are covering in 70 percent of the model's simulations.
Mike offers one of his favorite bets, a first-quarter college football play, going Under 10.5 First-Quarter (-115) in Cincinnati vs. Arkansas (3:30 p.m.). The Bearcats lost a lot of key players on defense, as well as quarterback Desmond Ridder. "What they didn't lose was their offensive line," McClure says, and that means they should be able to run the ball. "We know what Arkansas is going to do," the expert adds. "Arkansas wants to run the football down your throat at all times." It should be a conservative game, especially in the early going.
Andrew then has his picks from the UFC card in Paris. That means an early start, and Ciryl Gane is set to face Tai Tuivasa in a heavyweight main event. His first MMA pick is Khalid Taha -115 over Christian Quinones in a bantamweight bout on the preliminary card, which starts at noon ET. Taha struggles against grapplers, but Quinones is a striker, so Gombas likes the German to win. "I think Taha has the power upside, I think he's gonna have the bigger moments here," Andrew says. "I like him to get it done, and you're getting it at almost a pick'em line."
Gombas then has two plays on the Charles Jourdain vs. Nathaniel Wood featherweight fight on the main card. The expert likes Under 2.5 Rounds (+125) and Jourdain -140 on the money line. He says Jourdain is the much better striker and expects him to win by knockout.
Micah wraps things up with a college football pick from Arizona vs. San Diego State (3:30 p.m. ET), and he is backing the Aztecs -6. "You've got a spread that should be double digits and you're only laying 6," Roberts says. San Diego State is opening a new stadium and has a new quarterback, one-time local high-school star Braxton Burmeister. But Roberts expects him to mostly manage the game and avoid mistakes while allowing the "big, beastly offensive line" to open holes for the running backs.
Early Edge is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enable push notifications so you always know when the latest episode is available! Every episode is also available on YouTube. Follow @SportsLine on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow our crew on Twitter: @AllanBell247, @Mike5754, @BetsandPicksMMA and @MicahRoberts7. You can listen to The Early Edge on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Early Edge podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of The Early Edge podcast." For more betting picks and analysis, visit SportsLine.com. To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit CBSSports.com/podcasts.
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