Here are the college football PROPHECIES for All
Hallow’s Eve …
BIG GAMES in the FBS)
There are five by our count:
Florida v Georgia (+2.5) – the World’s Largest Cocktail party is more
important than usual, because it will have a HUGE impact on which team carries
the olive at the end of the year! Florida’s 4-1, Georgia’s 3-2. Everyone else
has three losses in conference. When Florida wins and covers, they’ll
have a berth in the SEC title game all but wrapped up!
North Carolina @ Pitt (+3) – Two of the three undefeateds in conference play in
the ACC Atlantic division, along with Duke. The winner here has a clear leg up,
and we see Pitt pulling the upset, as three of our metrics (including
our own Following Football tier system)
agree.
Stanford @ Washington St (+13.5) – If Wazzu wins, they’re tied with the Cardinal and
have the tiebreaker. WHEN Stanford wins by LESS than 13.5, they’ll have
two games clear on the field and the Pac-12 North sewn up.
Notre Dame @ Temple (+9) – on a dare, we’ll take Temple to keep it closer
than nine. Call it motivation. IF the Rockets should win, expect a vault up
the rankings for not just them but all four AAC undefeateds.
Louisiana Tech @ Rice (+13) – for control of Conference USA West (along with
Southern Miss, each has just one loss). The point spread is too close to call,
but LaTech should indeed win by about two touchdowns.
BIG GAMES in the FCS)
We see six of them that could possibly decide conference titles:
Dartmouth @ Harvard –
This is the BIGGEST one! Both ranked top ten, Harvard’s been on top for years
but Big Green’s been gaining…and now, the Dartmouth Defense thinks it can stop
the high-powered Crimson offense. They’re wrong. Harvard by 10+ points. (Remember, there are no Vegas spreads in the
FCS, so we create our own.)
Jacksonville @ Dayton – the two “least weak” teams in the Pioneer League
pillow fight it out! If Dayton wins, they’ll stay unbeaten and have wins over
their two biggest threats, J-ville and San Diego. If they lose, well, it’s a
four-way tie at the top. At Dayton, we’ll take the Flyers to win, and
that’s as much as we can ask. Gonna be a close game!
Colgate @ Fordham –
very similar to its cousin in the Ivy League, the Patriot League also pairs its
two remaining unbeaten this week in a showdown essentially for the title. Fordham’s
been dominant all season long – we’ll call them 10+ point winners here, too.
Eastern KY @ Jacksonville St – Along with Eastern Illinois (whom JSU plays next
week), two of the three unbeaten play their round-robin starting this week. If
JSU can handle Auburn into a second overtime, they can sure handle EKU by a
touchdown or more.
James Madison @ William & Mary – A week ago, this might have been a classic…now, with
JMU’s QB out for the season, it’s the Cowboys all over again: William &
Mary wins comfortably.
Coastal Carolina @ Charleston Southern – CSU’s won five in a row, and sits 3-0 in
conference. Coastal is 7-0, ranked first in some polls, and obviously also
unbeaten in conference. Saturday, they meet for the Big South title, for all
intents and purposes. We’ll take the visitors, as tempting as it is to
take the home crowd and all. Coastal’s got it all rolling this year.
OK…here are the other games of interest
throughout the nation this weekend, and our picks on most of them:
Michigan @ Minnesota (+13.5) – With Jerry Kill’s retirement today, here’s betting
the Gophers play their hearts out for him Saturday. Gophers cover.
Oklahoma St @ Texas Tech (+3) – OSU should be able to handle the Red Raiders fairly
comfortably. Cowboys cover.
West Virginia @ TCU (-14) Thursday night – Something says this game will be closer than we
think. All the metrics say 9-13 points, and the injuries are starting to
catch up to both TCU and Baylor, and we think the title will head north into
the state of OK somewhere…
USC @ Cal-Berkeley (+6) – They felt embarrassed at UCLA; they will NOT be
embarrassed to the rich kids! Cal covers the six points.
Oregon @ Arizona St (-2) Thursday night – If you think the Sun Devils are going to win, might as
well take the two points as well! Odds of a one point win are slim…
Ole Miss @ Auburn (+7) – Only interesting because it’s an SEC West battle,
and all seven teams there are amazing. We like Auburn to keep it close.
South Florida @ Navy (-7.5) – there’s a LOT more than a touchdown between these
teams. Navy by double that.
Florida International @ Florida Atlantic (+3.5) – bonus points if you can name what city either team
is located in! (Neither can we.) FIU
is decent; the Owls are not. FIU despite the points.
San Diego St @ Colorado St (+4.5) – We started the season saying that the entire
Mountain division was better than the West, and that any of the best four teams
(AF, CSU, USU, and Boise) could win
the West easily. If that’s still true, the Rams win this game outright,
even if the Aztecs are the class of the West (and they are!).
Idaho @ New Mexico St (+4.5) – Two rivalry games to finish this section: the Vandals
and the Aggies had to roam the wastelands together when the WAC gave up
football and no one else would take them. (Remember
the season – 2010? – when the proposal was twelve games of Idaho v NMSU, six at
each school?) What would you think about Idaho winning three in a row? (They hadn’t won two straight since 2011.)
Take the Vandals to win by more than 5.
Louisiana Monroe @ Louisiana-Lafayette (-11.5) – The latter school tries to just call itself
“Louisiana” now, but it seems a shame to kill the connection betwixt the
schools. Like FIU changing to “The International” or something. But this line
seems like it’s about right – no pick ATS from us; just confirmation that
ULL should win by 11 or so.
AND, here are some of
the interesting games in the FCS this weekend…
Indiana St @
Illinois St (no Vegas lines, of
course) – Take Illinois St by at least 17 points.
Weber St @ Eastern
Washington – EWU by 15+ “on the
red”.
Montana @ Portland
St – Sorry, Mr. Clixby and
Grandpa Mike…Portland St by at least seven.
Maine @ Villanova – The Wildcats are better than everyone else except
the top three in the Colonial… Villanova by 7+.
Monmouth @
Kennesaw St – The newcomers are 6-2,
albeit against flimsy competition, but that’s fine for a team playing its first
year of football EVER! However, we think Monmouth will win this one.
Western Carolina @
Chattanooga – almost put this in the
BIG game section, but I don’t see WCU challenging Chattanooga, who should win
by 13 or more.
Furman @ Samford – hate picking Southern Conference games! They
always seem to go sideways on us! But we’ll try taking Samford by, say, at
least five here…
Wofford @ VMI – …and Wofford by a TD or more over the team that won
its first road conference game in three years last week!
Butler @ Marist – Close in every metric we use, but Marist comes out
on top in every metric, too. Marist by 3.
Sacred Heart @ St.
Francis-PA – St. Francis should hold
on to this one at home.
Pennsylvania @
Brown – The undercard to
Dartmouth/Harvard in the Ivy League this week should see Brown win a close one.
Alcorn St @
Southern – the two division champs
from last year in the SWAC meet, and we’ll take a narrow Jaguar victory for
Southern.
Alabama State v
Alabama A&M meet in a neutral
site game in Birmingham, and we’ll take State by three.
Norfolk St @ NC
Central – two closely matched MEAC
teams, with NCC destined to win by three.
Last but certainly least, Savannah St @ Howard, a matchup of two of the worst HBC teams of
2015 (or most any other year), and we’re of course obliged to pick against
Savannah State, selecting Howard to win by six!
Do we need to give you our picks for ALL the other games? Sigh… All right… Hang on…
Take VT (-2.5) over BC, Clemson (-10) over NCState,
Louisville (-12) over Wake, GT (-5.5) over UVA, Iowa (-17) over Maryland,
Purdue (+10.5) covers over Nebraska, Wisc (-19) over Rutgers, Texas (-7) over
Iowa St, Utah (-23.5 and still mad) over OSU, UCLA (-20.5) over Colorado, Tenn
(-7.5) over KY, Tx A&M (-15) over SoCarolina, Arkansas by 25 over UT-Martin
(no line), Houston (-13) over Vandy, UCF (+25) covers over Cincy, Tulsa (-3)
over SMU, Marshall (-20) over Charlotte, WKU (-23) over ODU, NoTexas (+9.5)
covers over UTSA, UTEP (+22.5) covers against USM, all the favorites in the MAC
cover, Air Force (-7.5) covers against Hawaii, Boise (-20) covers at UNLV, USU
(-24) over Wyoming, App St (-23) over Troy, and GASO (-21) over Texas St. Lots of favorites covering this week. If we
didn’t name the game, we’re not picking a side against the spread, but we like
the favorite to win.
In the FCS… winners in the MVC will be SDSU, NDSU, Northern Iowa
and Western Illinois; in the Big Sky, we like SUU, MSU, Northern Arizona; in
the Colonial, we’ll take Richmond, New Hampshire, Towson, and Stony Brook; in
the Southland, we like McNeese, Central Ark, Lamar, NW St, SHSU and SFA;
Presbyterian in the Big South; ETU and Citadel in the Southern; Duquesne, CCSU
in the NEC; Tenn St, EIU, and SEMO in the Ohio Valley; Campbell, San Diego, and
Drake in the Pioneer; Yale and Princeton in the Ivy; Bucknell and Lehigh and HC
in the Patriot; BCU, NCAT, and SC State in the MEAC; and JSU and Prairie View
in the SWAC.
Happy trails!
