GAME PICKS: WEEK 6
The monster month known as October has finally arrived.
MY 2024 RECORD: 130-45 overall (27-8 last week)
39-11 MAC (6-3 LW)
76-20 Top 25 (14-4 LW)
24-16 in additional picks (7-1 LW)
Stinker of a week for the MAC with all of those tough losses. Buffalo got wrecked by UConn, something that never sounds good. Old Dominion outlasted Bowling Green. Western Michigan didn’t live up to its road match Marshall. Ball State sadly ran into the wrong James Madison. And the defending MAC champs Miami needed OT to beat UMass.
Maybe the biggest surprise was the BG loss. Old Dominion didn’t play much good football in the first few weeks of the year, but really set the tone and limited Terion Stewart. BG took the lead with 3 minutes left in the game and ODU responded with a 79-yard scoring drive in the final minute. Give those Monarchs credit where it’s earned.
In top 25 games, I’m happy to have gotten the Alabama (over Georgia) and Arizona(over Utah) picks right. Not mad about getting the Illinois pick wrong (lost to Penn State), but I am mad that I keep overthinking Kansas State and whether or not I should trust them after the BYU loss. At least I raked in my extra picks (7-1).
On the football calendar, September’s always a fun party full of hope. But October is its own monster.
MAC GAMES
NORTHERN ILLINOIS OVER UMASS. If there’s any one MAC game I’m nervous about making, it’s this one. Go figure.
WESTERN MICHIGAN OVER BALL STATE. Vegas says this will be a 10-point game, but I’m ready to see how WMU Twitter’s doing in the third quarter when it has to fight back from being down by 3.
TOLEDO OVER MIAMI. If there’s another level to Miami’s offense, it’ll have to be evident pretty early on. Toledo’s a more proven team to this point, hard to go against them.
BOWLING GREEN OVER AKRON. I’m once again asking for Akron to give me a reason to believe in them this season.
TOP 25
#25 UNLV OVER SYRACUSE.
#23 INDIANA OVER NORTHWESTERN. I’ve been on the Kurtis Rourke bandwagon ever since he was a freshman at Ohio.
SMU OVER #22 LOUISVILLE. I could boil-down most of my reasonings for these game picks to “idk, just vibes i guess”
#21 BOISE STATE OVER UTAH STATE.
#16 IOWA STATE OVER BAYLOR.
#15 CLEMSON OVER FLORIDA STATE. Way less compelling of a matchup as we probably thought during the summer. Clemson actually might be a top-10 team right now if we want to give them some sort of forgiveness for the Georgia game. Expect Clemson to pile it on when they can.
#12 OLE MISS OVER SOUTH CAROLINA.
#11 USC OVER MINNESOTA.
WASHINGTON OVER #10 MICHIGAN. I think there might be a lot of chalk this week, but not here in the National Championship rematch. If the hype train of Steve Belichick can’t stop Michigan’s run attack with no pass game behind it, I’d be tugging my collar.
#9 MISSOURI OVER #25 TEXAS A&M. There aren’t enough ranked vs. ranked games this week, but hopefully this delivers. But as far as picks go, my stupid little brain keeps saying “Mizzou has Luther Burden III and the other team does not.”
#8 MIAMI OVER CAL.
#7 PENN STATE OVER UCLA.
#6 OREGON OVER MICHIGAN STATE. I love that MSU’s quarterback is a teenager and he’s growing out there. I like State to win some possessions on defense, but not necessarily the game (note to self: simply copy + paste this take for each MSU game until further notice).
#5 GEORGIA OVER AUBURN.
#4 TENNESSEE OVER ARKANSAS.
#3 OHIO STATE OVER IOWA.
#1 ALABAMA OVER VANDERBILT.
EIGHT ADDITIONAL PICKS
My personal rule here: No boring picks. I’ll define that however I wish.
APPALACHIAN STATE OVER MARSHALL.
RUTGERS OVER NEBRASKA. I don’t know if this is an “I want that to happen” or an “I think this’ll happen” pick, but yes either way.
WEST VIRGINIA OVER OKLAHOMA STATE.
STANFORD OVER VIRGINIA TECH.
PITT OVER NORTH CAROLINA. I don’t have time to find this out. When’s the las time we had Rutgers and Pitt begin the college football season with a combined 10-0 record?
ARIZONA OVER TEXAS TECH.
WAKE FOREST OVER NC STATE.
UCF OVER FLORIDA. I don’t feel great about this one. This makes me sick. UCF’s favored and I hate it. The vibes are awful for Florida and my poisoned brain thinks I should still take them here. Damn this damned sport.
