There's only one college football game on Thursday, but it's a critical one for the American Athletic Conference standings as the Houston Cougars travel to take on the Tulane Green Wave in an 8 p.m. ET kickoff from Yulman Stadium. Both sides have been tested against top-10 teams thus far in 2019, and while neither has anything to show for it in the win column, they're hoping their daunting schedule will prepare them for this AAC opener. The latest Houston vs. Tulane odds have the Green Wave listed as 4.5-point favorites after the line moved as high as 5.5, while the over-under for total points scored is 58, up from an open of 56. Before locking in any Tulane vs. Houston picks of your own on Thursday, you'll want to see the current college football predictions from the proven model at SportsLine.

The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every FBS college football game 10,000 times, and those who have followed it have seen massive returns. Over the past four-plus years, this proprietary computer model has generated a jaw-dropping $5,310 profit for $100 bettors on its top-rated spread picks.

The model enters Week 4 of the 2019 college football season on a blistering 30-10 run on its top-rated picks. It also called Kentucky (+9.5) covering against No. 9 Florida and No. 5 Oklahoma (-23.5) covering against UCLA in Week 3. Anybody who has been following it is way up.

Now, the model has dialed in on Houston vs. Tulane. We can tell you it is leaning under, and it has an extremely strong against the spread pick that cashes in well over 60 percent of simulations. That one is only available at SportsLine.

The model knows Tulane, which has wins over Florida International (42-14) and Missouri State (58-6), has been vastly improved under Fritz. Senior wide receiver Darnell Mooney leads Tulane with 12 receptions for 183 yards and one touchdown. For his career, he has 118 catches for 2,042 yards and 15 trips to the end zone. He had a career-best 48 receptions for 993 yards and eight touchdowns in 2018 and will be targeted early and often on Thursday.

Defensively, the Green Wave have been led by junior linebacker Marvin Moody, who paces Tulane with 15 tackles, including seven solo, and two passes defensed. He appeared in all 13 games last year, with five starts, and finished third on the team with 71 tackles. Against FBS teams this season, Tulane has a point differential of plus-five, compared to minus-12.5 for Houston.

But just because the Green Wave are perfect at home does not guarantee they will cover the Houston vs. Tulane spread on Thursday. 

The model also knows Houston is poised to make a serious run in the AAC this season thanks to the head coach-quarterback combination of Dana Holgorsen and D'Eriq King. Holgorsen was the architect of several of college football's top offenses during his stint at West Virginia (2011-18). King, a dynamic dual-threat quarterback who has drawn comparisons to Kyler Murray, has already accounted for 630 yards of total offense and nine touchdowns despite playing a challenging schedule through three weeks. 

And while Houston is just 1-2 straight-up this year, the Cougars have covered with room to spare in both of their FBS matchups against Washington State and Oklahoma thus far. They were also underdogs in both games, the situation they find themselves in on Thursday. 

So who wins Tulane vs. Houston? And which side of the spread can you bank on in well over 60 percent of simulations? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the Tulane vs. Houston spread to jump on Thursday, all from the advanced model on a 30-10 run on college football picks, and find out.