Here goes something… 6-4 with my Free NCAA Picks for Week 8, and how about my DirecTV ESPN GamePlan Package Picks? Well, just 6-5, but that moves me 3 games up on the season – and in a tough week I’ll take that for sure.
LSU Tigers (-3) @ South Carolina: (WINNER) “You bet – free money.” Closer than I thought, but free money comes in with a winner – you have to like that.
Missouri Tigers (+6) @ Texas Longhorns: (LOSS) “Maybe Texas is better and this game is at home for them, but” – next time no buts, the Longhorns are playing great football, good enough to make them the best team in the Nation. I wasn’t much of a believer, and some weird penalties kind of kept Missouri out of it early, but Texas is good everywhere.
Virginia Tech @ Boston College (-2.5): (WINNER) The fact that BC was unranked and a favorite in this one fit perfectly. I liked the Eagles before I realized that, and afterward it made me even happier. Still, this one was close and it came right down to it. BC was the better team, even with some big mistakes.
Oregon State Beavers (-13.5) @ Washington Huskies: (WINNER) “Free money again. This fits so many of my “good bet” categories I’m not even going into detail.” Does 34-13 qualify as a win? Oh it does? Cool, I was really worried about this one.
Mississippi State Bulldogs (+7.5) @ Tennessee Volunteers: (LOSS-but) I started out liking the Bulldogs, but after further review, and later in the week I did the best I could to let you guys know that I would “stay away from this one” and bought back my bet by taking Tennessee – I hope you recognized that, all it did for me was give me a push and lose me my vig.
Utah State Aggies (+21) @ Nevada Wolfpack: (LOSS) “I just don’t think Nevada should be favored by 3 touchdowns against anyone in their conference, and despite the Aggies attempt to crush my soul be getting pounded by San Jose State last week, I think they are a good bet here.” Okay, I was dead wrong. Utah State is that bad and there is ONE school Nevada should be favored by three touchdowns against – the Aggies. Blast!!!
Pittsburgh Panthers @ Navy Midshipmen (+3.5): (LOSS) “First of all, this game won’t come down to points – either the Midshipmen win or they’ll get beat pretty good.” I thought Navy’s option two looked good and I was wrong, Pittsburgh just grabbed on to LeSean McCoy’s saddle and watched the score go up and up. Bad loss for me here, but I did slightly warn you about this possible outcome.
USC Trojans (+42) @ Washington State Cougars: (WINNER) “This spread is freaking huge – I’ll take it.” Hahaha – bet against Washington teams, what can I say, this motto is getting easier to believe in so watch out for it next week. Still, this game was 41-0 at half time and USC just ran out the clock instead of scoring again. USC’s backups could have covered this margin. This game was just as big a joke as I thought it would be.
Kansas Jayhawks (+20) @ Oklahoma Sooners: (WINNER) “I just think Kansas is closer to Oklahoma’s level than this. OK will be up to play this game after having their #1 ranking plundered from them, and I think they win this game, just not by this much.” Well there, the Jayhawks were up for the battle and if a couple things go their way this is even closer – still, as is, the Jayhawks put up enough points to cover in Oklahoma.
Ohio State Buckeyes (-3) @ Michigan State Spartans: (WINNER) “Really? Hmm… I don’t see it that close.” Well, I can’t wait to tell you that I saw this one coming. The Spartans aren’t a Top 10 football team – one loss to USC doesn’t make the Buckeyes garbage. Penn State – Ohio State should be interesting.
Game Plan
Wake Forest Demon Decons @ Maryland Terrapins (+2.5): (WINNER) The Terps win outright, by a huge margin, and continue to be one of the weirdest teams in college football. Wake, no problem, but Delaware? Oh, there was a tough contest they barely got away with a win in. Weird.
Western Michigan (-1.5) @ Central Michigan: (LOSS) “I like CMU QB Dan Lefevour,” and I should have stuck with that. Dan was balls on Saturday, taking it to Western Michigan and getting a huge win for his CMU squad. Damn it.
Miami (OHIO) Redhawks (+10) @ Bowling Green Falcons: (WINNER) “The Falcons have allowed as many points per game as they’ve scored, and that’s never a good thing. These two teams have a nice history, and that usually ends up with Miami taking the game against the Falcons.” What do you know, Redhawks win. Sometimes that history is a good thing to follow (see this game) sometimes it’s not (see Michigan and Penn State – ha).
Syracuse Orange (+24.5) @ South Florida Bulls: (LOSS) Damn Syracuse, what was I doing going away from betting against them? Ah, this one was closer than the score indicated. In fact, if it weren’t for that late 2nd quarter score, this would have been a different ball game. South Florida took mo into halftime and multiplied that into a bunch of points and a loss for me.
Vanderbilt Vandals (+15) @ Georgia Bulldogs: (WINNER) “This game was close in ‘06 and close in ‘07 and this Vanderbilt team is better than they’ve had in a long time. Georgia is a very good football team, but they aren’t a “blow you out” group by any means. They’ve had trouble playing close with their opponents, and a complete upset here wouldn’t surprise me. They only beat Tennessee by 12, Arizona State by 17 and South Carolina by 7 – Vandy is better than all three of those schools. Close game here, that’s my bet.” There you go – the Bulldogs were in control, but I was right on the button about them, not a blow you out football team, especially against a never give up Vandals group. This was a nice win.
Army Black Knights @ Buffalo Bulls (-10.5): (LOSS) Buffalo needed a lot of action late and an overtime to beat the Black Knights as obviously this one got the better of Ole Lucky on Saturday.
North Carolina Tar Heels (-4.5) @ Virginia Cavaliers: (LOSS) Carolina had my win wrapped up with almost no time left, but wrapped is a joke in college football because Virginia tied this one up with a touchdown at 47 seconds left in regulation. Boo me. Then Carolina kicks a field goal and now I’m at the weird position of rooting for the Cavs to score but not a touchdown. They scored… a touchdown… I lose. Damn it!
Middle Tennessee State (+14.5) @ Louisville Cardinals: (LOSS) “This one seems easy.” And it seemed even easier after MTS went into halftime up 3. Ah, but games are not just one half, those tricky games, and Louisvilles three touchdown 4th quarter just got me out of the money – thanks fold. The Cards won by 19 – And while I’ll admit my loss, I still think I was on the right side of this game.
Toledo Rockets @ Northern Illinois Huskies (-8.5): (WINNER) “Toledo beat Michigan at the Big House last week… So what? Michigan is terrible, I’d take Northern Illinois over the Wolverines any day of the week and this game is at home. The Huskies have been good all year. I don’t see it, but most “experts” on a pretty prolific site have Toledo in this one. I’ll take the Huskies and be a renegade… Follow who you please.” If you followed me on one of my better picks of the week, ignoring the “experts” on said site (lets call it Lovers because it may or may not rhyme) then you took home an easy win that showed how bad Michigan really is right now. Yhatzee.
Mississippi State @ Tennessee Volunteers (-7.5): (WINNER-but) I won this side of the bet, but I didn’t like it after further review – still, all this win did was get me a push because I bought back my bet earlier in the week by taking Tennessee here.
Idaho Vandals @ Lousiana Tech (-20): (WINNER) 32 point win for LT – that’s a cover folks.