GAME PICKS: WEEK 7
Picking MAC, Top 25, and eight additional games each week throughout the 2024 season.
MY 2024 RECORD: 148-56 overall (18-11 last week)
43-11 MAC (4-0 LW)
88-25 Top 25 (12-5 LW)
26-22 in additional picks (2-6 LW)
Gotta love Blood Weeks. Last week’s was awesome, and I’m happy that I called my shot on a few of them. Washington over Michigan wasn’t the craziest pick considering the Huskies were slight Vegas favorites. Had SMU over Louisville and the ‘Stangs never trailed in the contest. But those were lay-ins compared to all of the more intriguing results from the weekend: Vanderbilt over ‘Bama, Arkansas over Tennessee, Minnesota over USC.
I swept the four MAC picks and almost skunked my additional eight game picks. Ah well. Let’s just turn that early-October corner and have a bounceback week this time.
MAC GAMES
EASTERN MICHIGAN OVER MIAMI. Again, ginormous test for Eastern Michigan this weekend with Miami coming to town. This is one of those games where you look at both teams and ask how bad each side really wants it, and is either side actually going to prove that they’re MAC contenders this year? I think EMU’s going to want to get creative with its offense, and a strong enough early game from Cole Snyder can end up being the difference in the long run. The key though, is for EMU’s secondary to play well in the late phases of the game.
BALL STATE OVER KENT STATE. Who’s the worst team in college football right now? I’m not saying it’s definitely either of those two, but it’s going to be tough to argue against the loser of this game because either Ball State goes home with a 1-5 record, or Kent State drops its third straight home game to go 0-6 on the year.
TOLEDO OVER BUFFALO. Buffalo, you guys let me down against UConn and I'm still salty about that. Toledo by 20-something.
WESTERN MICHIGAN OVER AKRON. The Ball State game, as I predicted, got slightly hairy because of how sloppy the game was played at times. As much as I want to give Akron more credit for the way it handled BG last week, I can't get myself to lean towards Akron in my picks this week.
BOWLING GREEN OVER NORTHERN ILLINOIS. I knew months ago that I would have a tough time reading into this game, didn't think it'd be this tough though. They both played excited early, but have slipped by losing games they both probably should've won at their home sites (NIU to Buffalo, BG to Old Dominion). Truthfully, I don’t know what to expect from this one.
OHIO OVER CENTRAL MICHIGAN. Trusting my gut instinct on this one. Ohio’s doing fine, CMU escaped Ball State and San Diego State by a combined four points.
TOP 25
#23 ILLINOIS OVER PURDUE. Illinois might have to be ranked #23, but there aren’t 22 teams better than Illinois. I refute this ranking.
CAL OVER #22 PITT. This is the game where both Cal and Pitt have to decide whether or not they should destroy the ACC’s Dragonballs. Pitt, ever-so-destructive as a sometimes giant killer in the sport, has been carrying six ACC Dragonballs the whole time. Cal, evidently, has been holding the seventh hostage this entire time. Long story short, I just don’t think we’re ready to witness the power of these two teams hitting the field with a combined record of 8-2.
#21 MISSOURI OVER UMASS.
#18 KANSAS STATE OVER COLORADO.
#17 BOISE STATE OVER HAWAII.
#16 UTAH OVER ARIZONA STATE.
ARIZONA OVER #14 BYU. Last time I picked Arizona to upset a Top 25 team, they let me down. This time, I just have to believe I was too early to pull the trigger last week and I was actually supposed to pick the Wildcats this week.
#13 LSU OVER #9 OLE MISS.
#11 NOTRE DAME OVER STANFORD.
ALSO #11 IOWA STATE OVER WEST VIRGINIA. How many times in AP Poll history have two teams been tied in the rankings?
#10 CLEMSON OVER WAKE FOREST.
#8 TENNESSEE OVER FLORIDA.
#7 ALABAMA OVER SOUTH CAROLINA.
#5 GEORGIA OVER MISSISSIPPI STATE.
USC OVER #4 PENN STATE. Calling it now: this game is going to see 360 combined rushing yards by both sides.
#2 OHIO STATE OVER #3 OREGON.
#1 TEXAS OVER #18 OKLAHOMA.
EIGHT ADDITIONAL PICKS
My personal rule here: No boring picks. I’ll define that however I wish.
UNRANKED VANDERBILT OVER KENTUCKY. ¡Viva Pavia!
IOWA OVER WASHINGTON.
WISCONSIN OVER RUTGERS.
NORTHWESTERN OVER MARYLAND.
MARSHALL OVER GEORGIA SOUTHERN.
LOUISVILLE OVER VIRGINIA.
GEORGIA TECH OVER NORTH CAROLINA.
RICE OVER UTSA. Picking Rice as a reminder to myself that I should meal prep more often and that I still have leftover rice I can eat on Saturday. Is Rice so banged up that their punter has to play quarterback now? I’d never know. Let’s go leftovers.
