Hey look, everybody is over .500, although The Kid better hope his hypotheticals come with -105 style pricing, or else he's in the red. Chances that continues one more week?
Current Standings
- I_S: 20-16 overall
- Chris: 19-16-1 overall
- KidB: 18-17-1 overall
Chris's "The Defending Champions" Picks
Stanford vs. Washington State UNDER 55 - Stanford's pass defense is really good, but they went to the Tennessee School of Red Zone Efficiency; heck, they didn't top 35 against Army. Wazzu, meanwhile, can pass and that's it. I don't trust either team to win this game, so let's get that under.
Michigan State (-21) @ Purdue - firmly believing that I've just been unlucky with picking good vs. trash lately. Also pretty sure Michigan State can rack up this margin in well less than three quarters, because they don't know what the fourth quarter is yet.
West Virginia (-5.5) @ Texas Tech - I greatly appreciate that neither team cares about defense in the slightest, but I most appreciate that Texas Tech's secondary consists of traffic cones and road signs saying SPEED LIMIT 70 because nobody really wants to be in Lubbock. The whole place is like a giant outdoor closet.
Oklahoma State (-20.5) @ Kansas - I think this is the third week in a row I've picked against Kansas. WHEN WILL I LEARN?
East Carolina (-15.5) @ South Florida - has anyone found Willie Taggart's bus? I feel like this is something we should look into.
LSU @ Florida UNDER 47 - this is the "so obvious you shouldn't touch it" pick, but spite never listened to reason. And yes, I'm only picking unders this week because I'm still bitter about last week.
KidB's "Free Money" Picks
Washington State+17 over STANFORD: Too many points here for a team who's QB just broke the FBS record for passing yards in a game in a 59-60 loss.
Michigan State-21 over PURDUE: Sparty used to be a team that I would never touch ATS. They had a habit of going Full Virginia Tech and refusing to win a game by more than a touchdown, which made them better for fade fodder. But this particular version of Sparty can actually score a little bit. And Purdue is just really bad at football, and beating a terrible Illinois team last weekend does nothing to undermine that conclusion. Sparty wins this one big.
Buffalo-14.5 over EASTERN MICHIGAN: Hahahahaha. Eastern Michigan. Bahahahaha. This is the team that gets outgained by 329 yards a game. This is unquestionably the worst team in the FBS, and with teams this bad, you've got to keep fading them until Vegas catches up. Vegas is still lagging behind.
LSU-1 over FLORIDA: I'm more than a little confident in this pick. I've been contributing to the creation of this weekly article since early in the 2011 season. I'm not certain of the exact number of picks that includes -- I don't recall whether we did bowl games in 2011 and 2012 -- but it's probably safely north of 300. And I'm not saying that this is the most confident I've ever felt about one of these picks, but It's probably top 5, and certainly top 10. Maybe that's worth something; maybe that's worth nothing. Take it for what it's worth.
AKRON-14 over Hipster Miami: Hipster Miami could have a hangover effect after the physically and emotionally grueling 42-41 victory over a team that hasn't won a football game in three years. Oh, and Akron's actually pretty good this year.
Florida International+13.5 over UTSA: This will be my first time backing Ron Turner. We'll see how it works out for me.
I_S's "Milos Raonic Quality" Picks
Wisconsin/Illinois over 58. I've been terrible at totals this year, but this really feels like one of those 63-24 games, doesn't it?
Texas A&M -2 over Ole Miss. Fade the team coming off their biggest win in ages? Which they got at home with Game Day in town? Yes, please. Especially against a team coming off an uncharacteristically bad performance.
ULM +21 over Kentucky. UK is coming off a big win and has shown the tendency to putz around against inferior opposition. What's up, 23-7 final?
North Carolina +16.5 over Notre Dame. Between Stanford and Florida State has to be the best time to catch Notre Dame possibly ever. If Larry Fedora can get out of his own way for 60 minutes, UNC could even threaten the upset.
UNLV +10 over Fresno State. UNLV is bad, but they do have a history of being feisty at home, and Fresno is bad too.
Penn State +1 over Michigan. So Michigan is playing their third night game in school history. Gonna be a big thing and all. Honestly, I'm not sure playing in front of a big home crowd is what the doctor ordered for Coach Hoke. Things could turn ugly pretty quickly if a couple breaks go White James Franklin's way.
Your turn. Go!