Posted at 10:00 AM EST. Odds are subject to change.

Alumni Stadium (Chestnut Hill, MA), Chestnut Hill, MA

Stream: ACCN

Boston College +6½ -110 over Florida State

12:00 PM EST. Florida State fired Mike Norvell on Sunday, about twelve hours after Clemson beat them 36-24 at home, and the school is eating a buyout of roughly fifty million dollars, the third-largest in college football history. That's how far this has fallen since the 13-0 season in 2023. Rick Stockstill, the director of scouting and a former Middle Tennessee head coach, is the interim now, with a new defensive coordinator and a new play-caller, and the whole thing is a teardown in progress. Three straight losses, a 3-5 record, and now they have to get on a plane and go win a road game, which is something they haven't done since November of 2023.

And before anybody gets too excited about the other side, yes, Boston College just lost 47-2 to Duke. Two points. A blocked extra point returned for two was the entire offense. The worst loss of the Bill O'Brien era, and everybody saw it. That's exactly why you're getting six and a half instead of three. But the Eagles are back home now, where they're 3-1 this season, they need two more wins for a bowl, and their defense takes the ball away better than anyone in the ACC. A humiliated home team with something to play for is a different animal than the one that got run off the field in Durham.

The matchup is where this falls apart for Florida State. They haven't won on the road in almost three years, and they're walking into Chestnut Hill with a defense that Clemson just put 415 yards on, without their best receiver, Duce Robinson, who tore his ACL against Clemson and is done for the year, and without their star running back, Ousmane Kromah, who's out for the season too. The FSU homers will tell you about the interim-coach bump, how a new voice means new energy, but a new voice doesn't fix a defense that can't stop anyone and it doesn't win you a road game you haven't won since 2023. The turnovers have been killing this team all year, and now they're going up against a defense that lives off taking the ball away.

So here we are: a 3-5 team laying six and a half points on the road to a team with a better record, at noon in Chestnut Hill, and the books know the name on the jersey still sells. Boston College can win this game outright. They're the better team right now, at home, against a program that's tearing itself down midseason, and the six and a half is just the cushion. We wouldn't touch Florida State with a ten-foot stripper's pole.

Sportsinteraction