In one of the least shocking election results of the year...

...Marcus Mariota of the Oregon Ducks won the Heisman Trophy tonight as the outstanding ball-handling college football player from a really good team in the country. (Don't deny it. That's what it's been.) Mostly, it's been quarterbacks over the years, especially the last decade-plus, when except for 'Bama's Mark Ingram, every winner in years starting with a "2" has been a quarterback.

The top players at each position were singled out over the past week at the various award shindigs, with these consensuses (consensi?) reached:

Top quarterback: Marcus Mariota, Oregon. Lots of great QBs out there - why, Ohio St has a slough of them! - but Mariota absolutely deserves every accolade he gets.
Top running back: Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin. Great from start to finish, but it was his 408 in three quarter against the vaunted "Blackshirts" that was his Mona Lisa.
Top receiver: Amari Cooper, Alabama. In a year of great receivers - and great FRESHMAN receivers in particular! - Cooper lived up to his hype week after week, and deserved his moment in the Heisman spotlight today.
Top tight end: Nick O'Leary, Florida St. A great TE is ideally both a great blocker AND has great receiving skills. O'Leary does.
Top center: Reese Dismukes, Auburn. We'll be honest: we have no idea who the best offensive linemen are. But we know which teams have the best lines, and Auburn and Iowa certainly are on that short list.
Top interior lineman: Brandon Scherff, Iowa.

Top defensive player: Scooby Wright, Arizona. A spectacular player. Magnetized to the ball, as he always seems to be around it. But it wasn't one of those years when there was a serious defensive threat to the MVP campaigns of Mariota and others, as there is on the NFL side.
Top defensive end: Nate Orchard, Utah.
Top linebacker: Eric Kendricks, UCLA.
Top defensive back: Gerod Hollimon, Louisville.
Top placekicker: Brad Craddock, Maryland. This was our biggest surprise - Robert Agouyo at Florida St was the defending "best" and certainly didn't do anything to lose the title.
Top punter: Tom Hackett, Utah. As an Aussie football player, Hackett's skills there serve him extremely well punting - not kicking for height but to place the ball where he wants to place it.


Top scholar/athlete: David Helton, Duke.
Top coach: Gary Patterson, TCU. As always, a crowded field: hard not to include both Mississippi coaches, Jerry Kill at Minnesota, David Cutcliffe at Duke, Paul Johnson at GT, Urban Meyer at Ohio St... But Patterson may have been the only one who transformed his own style to fit the circumstance, to great success.

Do you agree? Comment and let us know!

This bodes well for Yale, among others...

As November enters its latter stages, the biggest rivalries take center spotlight space starting this week. Here's encouraging news for those underdog rivals: The two rivalry games Thursday evening were won by the underdog! In Durham, NC, the North Carolina Tar Heels absolutely dominated the favored and ranked (and FF darling!) Duke Blue Devils, winning 45-20 but leaving another twenty or more points on the table with red zone turnovers, and eliminating their rival from the chance of winning the ACC Coastal division.

Across the country, in the grunginess of the Oakland Coliseum, the Oakland Raiders finally finished the deal, knocking their old AFC partners and foes, the Kansas City Chiefs, off their five-game win streak and out of a playoff spot for the moment with a 24-20 win with an EIGHTEEN-PLAY drive, unbelievable for a team which also committed THREE penalties on a fourth down play that could've ended the game in their favor. But like when we  discussed SMU last week, Bottom Six teams have a quality about them...an uncertainty, if you like - that most teams don't have. 

Highlights of the upcoming Week 12...

Games of interest for the week of November 18-24, 2014...

RIVALRIES! North Carolina @ Duke Thursday night (Duke favored by 6-9 points), and the Kansas City Chiefs head to Oakland Raiders that night as well (KC by 8). The other big FBS rivalries are in California: Stanford @ Cal in the afternoon, and USC @ UCLA in the evening (both FF and Vegas favor the Bruins by 3, so it's a pick'em game on a neutral field!). But the really fun rivalries are in the FCS, where Saturday is the day of The Game: Yale @ Harvard (Harvard should be a 16 point favorite), as well as two classics out west: Sacramento St @ UC Davis (the Hornets are favored by one on the road) and Montana St @ Montana (the Griz should win by 4 at home). Update: upsets Thursday! Duke loses BIG, 45-20, and the Raiders beat the spread AND KC, 24-20!

CANADIAN LEAGUE CONFERENCE FINALS on Sunday! It's going to be Montreal @ Hamilton,  the rubber match of the Eastern Conference slugfest! Hamilton won the last game of the season by more than Montreal beat them earlier, thereby securing the home field for this game to determine the East's entry into the 102nd Grey Cup! We see this as a pick'em game on a neutral field, so give the Ti-Cats the edge at home by three.

Meanwhile, Edmonton earned the right to travel to Calgary for the Western Conference final, where they'll be heavy underdogs against the best team in the regular season at 15-3. We pick the Stampeders by 10 at home, but Edmonton has shown that they're the best hope of preventing Calgary from raising the Cup this year, with a pair of 9-9 teams battling for the chance to face this game's winner next week.

BACK ON THIS SIDE OF THE 49th PARALLEL, there are some great games coming up this weekend! The K-State/WVU matchup Thursday should be a lot of fun, as will Minnesota @ Nebraska on Saturday. Curiosity as to what Kansas will do at Oklahoma - can they continue the strong play of their last two (home) games? Arizona @ Utah offers a hope of some great play, as does Ole Miss @ Arkansas.

THERE ARE SOME BAD MATCH-UPS out there, too...Why are you playing FCS teams at this stage of the season, Florida? Georgia? Alabama? Auburn? For all the chest-puffing and boasting the SEC does, games like this (against Eastern Kentucky, Charleston Southern, Western Carolina, and Samford) make them look foolish and scared. Which is foolish, since they could easily schedule a lower level FBS school if they needed another bodybag game, for the pre-season! If you need a break from the admitted rigors of the SEC schedule, put a bye in there!

The worst one, however, is our old pal Savannah St, who plays their (ahem) traditional rival BYU on Saturday afternoon. Our tier system and Sagarin's ratings make this about a 55-point spread, meaning the Cougars should win by eight touchdowns. WHY? Why play this game at all? Was BYU that desperate for a game that they had to schedule the lowest level FCS team they could find? 

There are two other interesting games in the FCS: former multiple champion Youngstown St plays at current multiple champion North Dakota St (the Bison are twenty point faves), and on the other end of the scale, Towson goes to bottom-feeder Rhode Island, just about the only team lower than they are (Towson's a seven point fave).

And we CAN'T FORGET THE NFL, the league that never goes dark! Following the Adrian Peterson verdict today (out the rest of the season), it'll be interesting to see the Viking crowd reaction when Green Bay comes in Sunday and runs up fifty on them,too. Detroit's got a big challenge, going to New England the week after seeing them annihilate Indy. Miami has a great test this week too, going into Mile High to face Denver. Finally, in the spirit of the SEC, the Jacksonville Jaguars go into Lucas Oil Stadium to face the Indianapolis Colts, a 15-point favorite (a line you very rarely see in the NFL, but a very accurate one in our opinion). Pittsburgh and Carolina get the last byes of the season this week.

The truth about Duke:

Straight from Brett McMurphy of ESPN...

In its last nineteen games, Duke Blue Devils football is 16-3.
In its last nineteen games, Duke Blue Devils basketball is 14-5.

As we've always suspected, Duke University's really a pigskin school...

Reviewing our Week 10 predictions!

Well, if you've been with us this week, you know we've been firing on all cylinders in Week 10! Here's our results...

Successes: Bowling Green over Akron...NIU over Ball St...Temple closer than a TD to Memphis...Baylor destroying Oklahoma...Duke big over Syracuse...Army over UConn...TCU over Kansas St...LSU took Alabama to overtime....Toronto over Ottawa late...Hamilton wins against Montreal (half-credit)..,Cardinals big over the Rams. We'd like to be able to claim Minnesota's win over Iowa, but we didn't, so we can't.

Missteps: We said UL-Monroe would win against Appalachian St; the Warhawks gave up a late FG to lose 31-29...We were surprised Old Dominion beat FIU 38-35, but they had to score ten points in the last 65 seconds to do it...Ohio St beat Michigan St, on the road...Arizona St sure impressed us, handling Notre Dame...Didn't think Saskatchewan still had it in them to beat Edmonton...and the half-credit Hamilton was because we did NOT think the Tiger-Cats would win by enough to win the division (8). They won by fifteen. (Yes, that's more than eight.)

(And there's still the chance that Chicago could stay close to the Packers tonight.) So, right now, we are 10.5 - 5.5, so we will take that!

...and now, the nitty gritty details!

You'll notice, when you look at the new tiers for Week 10 of the NCAA FBS season, that we've started doing some more subdividing of the teams beyond the six-member tiers we'd cut them into previously. Treat the plus/minus markings the same way you would school grades (we ARE old school teachers, after all!) - a plus indicates that we think they're slightly better than the rest of the tier; a minus that they're slightly worse.

Also, you'll notice that Tier R is under investigation for steroid use, as it's grown abnormally large in a short time frame. Frankly, we didn't think those teams could be easily separated, so we didn't.

Later today, we'll post outright predictions for next week's games...and then we'll see how they compare with the Vegas betting lines. As those of you who were following our posts yesterday are aware,  our tier arrangement forecast games better than either Vegas OR our own personal instincts did this week for the college ranks. (The NFL has achieved such parity that it's a crapshoot each week; if we try this with the pros, it'll be a complete lark!) Regardless of the outcome - which we forbid you to use for betting purposes! - it should be interesting to follow!

As for specific details of the new arrangement:

1. We've chosen our Final Four - at least, for the moment! TCU and Alabama are clearly the most accomplished of the one-loss teams, with strong victories yesterday and elsewhere, along with the most tenuous of losses on their records (last second losses on the home field of top teams). They sit along side undefeated and proven Mississippi St and Florida St as the four best...for now.

2. Baylor, Oregon, and Ohio St are next in line. Again, they've shown their strength consistently, and particularly yesterday, and should be the next in if one of the four above falters.

3. If we had to rank right now, we'd go Bulldogs first, then the Crimson Tide, Seminoles, Horned Frogs, Ducks, Bears, and Buckeyes seventh.

4. Arizona St, Duke, and LSU are for real. While it's hard to picture them in the playoff at this point (especially the three-loss Bayou Bengals), they have shown doubters wrong throughout the season.

5. While they put up a battle yesterday after the outcome was decided, SMU is clearly #128 in the land. Which is such a shame, after all the work June Jones and others did to bring them back from literal extinction and the dregs where they've returned to. But as the only winless team in the FBS - and without anything even close to a win on their resume - we're forced to applaud effort at this stage, knowing they've no chance for competitiveness.  

Here's another good regular read: Sam Cooper!

Cooper does a commendable job recapping many of the storylines of the weekend past in college football - some of these we've touched on, like the Maryland refusal to shake hands; some of them we haven't, like the tragedy of Connor Halliday's broken leg at Washington State or the yanked field goal of the aptly-named Pitt kicker Chris Blewett, or even the more delightfully named Munchie Legaux at Cincinnati. Take a look yourself, courtesy of Yahoo Sports! 

Week 9 upset alerts...and "as expected" alerts!,

Start in Division 1A - excuse us: "FCS"! - where defending champion North Dakota St trails 10-6 at the half to South Dakota St, which would be a huge upset, especially on the Bison's home field! What are NOT upsets are losses by Rhode Island (#13 in a row, falling to 0-9 this season by losing 28-13 at Delaware) and our personal favorite, Savannah St, who fell 59-7 at South Carolina St to extend its losing streak to eighteen, nine last year and nine this.

As for the FBS ranks, as usual, some of the "upsets" we called in advance, and some we missed entirely: 

Duke took two OTs to beat Pitt, who helped them out by missing a 26 yarder on the last play of regulation. We favored them, though Vegas had it the other way. Two OTs means we were half right.

East Carolina lost both their game and their favored underdog status today...TCU trails West Virginia by thirteen late in the third...and at the World's Largest Cocktail Party, the best drinks are being served on the Florida side of the parking lot, leading Georgia 24-7 in the third.

Looking forward to Week 9 in college football with our SCIENTIFIC tools!

There are some great games coming this weekend, the first one on Thursday night when Tier F Louisville hosts Tier A Florida St! By tiering, the best game of the weekend should be Auburn @ Ole Miss, where the polls have the Tigers above the Rebels, but we have Ole Miss in Tier A and Auburn a rung lower in B; hence, we're favoring Ole Miss (and, if we were actually making bets, "taking the points").

Other marquee games include TCU @ West Virginia (tiers A vs. C), Kentucky @ Missouri (tiers D vs. E; unlike the oddsmakers, we like the Wildcats), Arkansas @ Mississippi St (tiers H vs. A), Arizona @ UCLA (again, they're favoring the lower tiered team, so we'll take tier C Arizona and the points over the tier E Bruins), and Stanford @ Oregon.

Going strictly by tiers, and using the old saw about home field being about a three-point advantage, we've noticed that the point spread for this week's games generally matches up very well with our 20-tier system. As a general rule, the expected margin of victory will be somewhere between 1-2.5 points per tier, plus or minus the three points for the home field. The actual average is 1.75 points per tier, with the median at 1.5 points per tier. So, if two teams are four tiers apart on last week's listing, expect the higher team to be favored by 4-10 points, most likely 6-7, + the three points for home field.

Given those parameters, and strictly using our wisened separation tool better known as "guessing" where teams should fall, we took a look at the 54 FBS games scheduled this weekend for "outliers" to see if there were some easy predictions we could make based on this statistical creation:

Predictions based on our tier system and the Vegas odds...

*Iowa should be favored by more than 4 at home against Northwestern.
*Rutgers shouldn't be eleven point underdogs at home against Wisconsin (more like 2).
*Florida International shouldn't be 6 1/2 point dogs at home to Rice (also about 2).
*Why is Duke not favored over Pitt? Tier D over tier I? They should be giving points!
*North Carolina will be closer to the Hurricanes than seventeen points...
*Boston College shouldn't be getting points from Virginia Tech (or, at least not three)!
*Eastern Michigan shouldn't be more than about a touchdown underdog to Central Michigan (not 16 1/2 points, anyway!). 
*Louisiana Tech should be a much bigger favorite over Tier R Western Kentucky - six points at home isn't sufficient.
*Virginia at Georgia Tech shouldn't be just the three point home field advantage...the Yellowjackets deserve at least a TD spread in their favor.
*Part of the continued over-valuing of the Cougars after Tayson Hill's injury: Middle Tennessee should NOT be the underdog at home again BYU.
*And Kentucky should be favored over Missouri - or at least, not down six!
*We see both UNLV and Ole Miss as higher tiered teams at home (against New Mexico and Auburn, respectively), and with the three-point home bump should be more than one and two point faves, in turn. More like five each.
*Oklahoma St will be a one TD underdog to Kansas St, not two.
*Arizona will flat out beat UCLA in Los Angeles, not lose by four.
*Fresno St may be favored at home, but Wyoming shouldn't be getting 10 1/2 points!
*See previous comment with Utah not getting five points against Arizona St!
*Finally, it's hard to estimate what the trip to the islands does to a team, but we think Utah St deserves more love than a three point spread when they play at Hawaii late Saturday night!

We'll see how those predictions go this weekend! Eighteen chances to be proven wrong! A prognosticator's dream!

We've reached the Week 8 CFB tiers Penthouse!

That's right, the thirty best teams as decided on the field so far this year, divided into the top five tiers (and no closer, as berated before!), for your amusement!

Tier E:
This is the tier with all different conferences represented...in case anyone cares. Present in Tier E are the Mountain West's highest ranked school, Colorado St (7-1, 3-1), Georgia Tech (6-2, 3-2) from the ACC, the Mid-American's hope for a major bowl bid in Marshall (still unbeaten at 8-0, 4-0), the SEC rep Missouri (6-2, 3-1), UCLA (6-2, 3-2) from the Pac-12, and Wisconsin (5-2, 2-1), representing the Big Ten. [Do you think that's about right for Marshall? Are those five teams ones you can see giving the Thundering Herd an even game on a neutral field? That's our criteria for tiers. Comments, please!]

Tier D:
Arizona St (6-1, 4-1) and USC (5-3, 4-2) had a great game a couple of weeks back, and land together here as reps for the Pac-12. Duke (6-1, 2-1 ACC) is here, as well as Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC) - two incredibly high positions for "basketball schools"! Finally, we find Oklahoma (5-2, 2-2 Big 12) and the highest AAC member, the surprising East Carolina Pirates at 6-1, 3-0 in conference!

Tier C:
From here up, we're looking at schools that could legitimately keep dreaming about making the first four-team playoff! The favorites are yet to come, of course, but these teams still have a chance: Arizona (6-1, 3-1 Pac 12), Kansas St (6-1, 4-0 Big 12), LSU (7-2, 3-2 SEC), Nebraska (7-1, 3-1 Big 10), Utah (6-1, 3-1 Pac 12), and West Virginia (6-2, 4-1 Big 12). 

Tier B:
Like last week, every team here can rightfully say they could beat any team, any day, as even their one defeat came in a strongly competitive situation against a top-notch team: Auburn (6-1, 3-1 SEC), Baylor (6-1, 3-1 Big 12), Georgia (6-1, 4-1 SEC), Michigan St (7-1, 4-0 Big 10), Ohio St (6-1, 3-0 Big 10), and Oregon (7-1, 4-1 Pac 12).

As the NCAA committee announces their first rankings Tuesday, expect to see four of these six teams in the four playoff positions...any of whom could be dislodged on a single Saturday!

Tier A:
Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC), whose one loss was at a Tier A school by one score; Florida St (7-0, 4-0 ACC), who's still undefeated thanks to the lack of prosecution against Jameis Winston; Mississippi St (7-0, 4-0 SEC), the rightful #1 team in the nation; Notre Dame (6-1 as an independent), whose only loss was a one score game at a Tier A school; TCU(6-1, 3-1 Big 12), whose only loss came to a then Tier A school (still a tier B) in a criminal clock-keeping game that allowed field goals against them at the end of each half on the opponent's field; and yes, we're keeping Ole Miss (7-1, 4-1 SEC) here, having lost a one-score game to a top-notch team in LSU (albeit Tier C) on their field. Comparing losses with the Tier B schools, we'll keep the Rebels over any of them at the moment. Still more to play, though! 

[And if we had to pick four teams right now? Um... Mississippi St...Florida St...Alabama...and TCU would be our fourth right now. Notre Dame has a history of poor performances in championship situations, and I like TCU's "good wins versus what kind of loss it had" ratio over Ole Miss.]

Reviewing another FANTASTIC Saturday in college ball!

- Baylor finally got what was coming to 'em today, and West Virginia finally beat one of those Tier 1 teams it played so well! Justice both ways...

- If Bob Stoops doesn't have open campus tryouts for a new kicker next week, then the Oklahoma coach should have his head examined...

- There are some teams that may sneak up on us when the Final Four are revealed in seven weeks or so (we'll publish a pice on THAT later in the week), and Minnesota may be one of them! Like Auburn last year, the luck of the Jedi is with the, this year...

- Duke / Virginia was as advertised, the Devils winning a tight one with a 4Q TD, 20-13...

- The Bottom Eight was packed with reverse upsets across the board: UMass winning big for the second week in a row, Appalachian St destroying Troy 53-14, Kent St beating the US Military Academy 39-17, and Idaho wins its first game of the year, 29-17 over fellow B8'er New Mexico St...

- Would anyone spotting the Texas A&M Aggies, please report their disappearance to the NCAA...

- The Battle of the University of California was also tremendous, with plenty of lead changes and great plays in UCLA's 36-34 victory over California...

- Ohio St, LSU, Marshall, TCU, Michigan St, Ole Miss and Oregon all demonstrated that sometimes, games DO go as expected, and the top team DOES win fairly easily...

- ... And sometimes, SMU is just as bad as we think they are. Cincinnati defeated the hapless Mustangs 41-3, in Dallas yet.

- Poor Todd Gurley. Your backups are proving that it was more the Georgia offensive line's doing than yours...

- Seven TD passes for USC tonight...game winning FG for Colorado St over their main rivals from Utah St... What happened to Florida and Kentucky today? Did their 3OT game a month ago wear them out (eventually)?... As good as the North Carolina QB looked against the Irish last week, it shouldn't have been a surprise that they could rise up and take out Georgia Tech 48-43...

- Did you see Nebraska QB Tommy Armstrong leap the linebacker en route to an almost-TD against Northwestern? Alas, they planted his knee outside the end zone, and Abdullah had to run it in on the next play. the Huskers won 38-17...

- Unlike Georgia's Gurley, it's hard to be clearer as to how important Tayson Hill was to BYU than to watch how they've gone from a 4-0 threat for the title playoff to an 0-3 afterthought following his injury, losing again last night to Nevada-Reno 42-35...

- And last and certainly most, what an epic game between pretentious Notre Dame and criminal coddlers Florida St, won by the Seminoles 31-27 after a last minute score by the Irish was called back on an offensive pass interference call that...well, it took guts to make the call. 

Highlights of the upcoming WEEK SEVEN!

There are some MASSIVE games in Week 7! We're in the middle of the college season, probably a third of the way through the NFL plate, and down to four weeks left in Canada before the Grey Cup playoffs begin, so there are a ton of important match-ups to look at:

CFL: The two games that should be close are on Saturday, when Montreal goes to Toronto for ownership of the East lead (depending on whether Hamilton holds serve Friday night when Ottawa comes to town), and the big game for second place in the West Sunday, when Edmonton visits Saskatchewan. The Eskimos are riding high and hold a one-game edge over the defending champs, but hosting the game should give the Rough-Riders an edge. Will it be enough to give them the win? They sure need it, because British Columbia is just a game behind them (and would be tied in the loss column with them if Edmonton wins Sunday)! 12-2 Calgary travels to 6-9 Winnipeg in the other game on Saturday. Predictions: Hamilton, Toronto, Calgary, and Edmonton. Especially Edmonton.

NCAA: The beginning of our Tuesday night schedule is tonight, with Louisiana-Lafayette going to Texas State. (When the Wednesday games start in a few weeks, you can feast on football seven days a week! Bliss!)  Thursday has VaTech at Pitt and Utah at Oregon State, two potentially close games, and Friday sees Fresno on the blue at Boise, and Temple travelling to Houston. No calls on any of those games - the lines are too accurate to pick against. But Boise just lost their best receiver...

On Saturday, a plethora of games to choose from! Highlights include several Tier 1 teams in action, including the nightcap with two top tier teams, Notre Dame at Florida State. We think 11 1/2 points is too big a spread - take the Irish. Other top tier teams in action include Baylor at Tier 4 West Virginia (8 1/2 points is too close - the Bears will want to make a statement), Alabama hosting Tier 3 Texas A&M, TCU hosting Tier 2 Oklahoma State, Ole Miss hosting Tier 7 Tennessee, and Oregon hosting Tier 5 Washington (we want to say that Chris Petersen will keep it closer than 21 points, but in reality, three TDs is probably about right). Other top games will include Tier 3 Kansas State at Tier 2 Oklahoma (take the Sooners and the 8 points); Tier 5 Virginia at Tier 3 Duke (the Blue Devils deserve more than 2 1/2 points - take them); Tier 2 UCLA at their UC brethren Cal-Berkeley; Tier 5 Rutgers at Tier 3 Ohio State; Tier 3 Clemson at Tier 6 Boston College; Tier 2 Georgia at Tier 6 Arkansas (we really want to give the Bulldogs the edge, but...no. No prediction.); Tier 6 Missouri at Tier 4 Florida (Missouri isn't as bad as they were last week, and Florida isn't as good. Take the Tigers and the 6 points.); Utah State at Colorado State, both Tier 6; Tier 3 Nebraska at Tier 7 Northwestern; and Tier 4 Kentucky going into Tier 2 LSU (and winning outright! Take the points!). The late games include Nevada upsetting Tier 6 BYU at home (write it down!), and Tier 4 schools Stanford at Arizona State (no prediction, but we struggle with why the Sun Devils are the underdogs...).

FCS: Games of interest to us...Northern Colorado (whom we just posted about today) goes to the red turf of Eastern Washington; Southern Utah goes to Pocatello to play ISU; Cal Poly visits Sacramento State in a potential shootout (CSU Sacramento's games tend to be 59-55 affairs!), and our personal favorites, the Savannah State Tigers, host Bethune-Cookman, who is a 214-point favorite. (No. Not really. Odds don't post for FCS games. But Savannah will find a way to lose this one big and probably embarassingly. That's why we love them.)

NFL: Ignoring the yawner Thursday night (Patriots by more than ten over the Jets), Sunday's line-up includes Atlanta at Baltimore, Seattle at St. Louis (they'll beat the Rams by MORE than the seven points listed), Cleveland at Jacksonville (take the Browns), New Orleans at Detroit (the Saints road woes are real - take the Lions), Kansas City at the Chargers (a classic case of people not realizing how good San Diego is this year, and that KC 2014 is NOT KC 2013), Arizona at Oakland (doesn't matter if Tiger Woods is there again, the Raiders lose by more than four), and the big game, San Francisco at Denver. It's tempting to pick Denver here, just as it is to pick Dallas over the Giants and the spread, but we'll be conservative.

College Tiers after Week 6! (Part A)

Another truly exciting weekend of college football, culminating in the fourth straight victory for the state of Mississippi over a top-notch SEC team! The two Egg Bowl participants are a combined 12-0, and sit in the drivers' seats in the hardest division in football, the SEC West!

Leveling up this week from last.... Oregon and TCU (despite their first loss, they proved they belong in the big leagues) to Tier 1; LSU up to Tier 2; Clemson, USC, and Duke up to Tier 3; Kentucky and Utah up to Tier 4; Washington and Minnesota up to Tier 5; Boston College, Iowa, Utah St and Miami of Fla all moved up to Tier 6; and Bowling Green and Tennessee move into Tier 7.

Those who fell at least one tier include Auburn, Arizona, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Missouri, Louisville, Penn St, Oregon St, BYU, Air Force, Wisconsin and California.

The full Tier listing comes up in the next post in a few minutes...