Opening Night Pick

Here We Go!

Going to ease into the season with a Lean.

Wake Forest +6 vs Syracuse

This is a game I identified back in July. Syracuse is coming off a real nice season while Wake is coming off a struggle. I think Syracuse is probably a bit overrated right now while Wake is being taken a bit too lightly by getting 6 points. I am expecting a nip and tuck game with Wake covering the 6.

I also like Miss St in my preseason analysis however everyone is seemingly on the Bulldogs and the line has moved significantly so I will stay away from that one for now.

Final Thoughts Before the Picks Start

Some have asked me for conference previews, national championship predictions, etc.

I usually don't spend a lot of time mulling that over as I had no idea that Auburn would win the SEC West much less the national championship. However, I do like to try to find some teams that I think will be much better or much worse than the pundits think and profit early by picking on or against them.

Here are the teams that I like to surprise in September (no particular order):

Michigan- They have the right coach in place and he will get the most out their talent quickly.
Wake Forest- They will not be a true contender but will play tough and get some underdog covers.
Missouri- Not really a surprise team but Pinkel has the program in a great place and a team that now reloads instead of rebuilding.
SMU- June Jones has rebuilt yet another team and they will make some noise.

Here are some teams that I think will struggle mightily and I will be looking to fade:

Syracuse- Not that they will be horrible but from an ATS perspective, I think they will be dealing with some inflated lines as the people who missed out jumping on their bandwagon will try to early this year.
Michigan St- I think they will be suffering from a hangover from their miserable bowl effort last year and have not been in the role of the hunted for quite a while.
Memphis- This is a program in trouble and will need another coaching change after the season.
Cal- Unless Tedford can really pick it up, I imagine he will be gone. I am pretty sure his players know as well.
Georgia- Ditto for Richt, unfortunately he lost the magic and I don't seeing him getting back this year.

For the record, my official pick the national champion pick is Oklahoma over Stanford.

9/3 Picks Updated with Spreads

The long wait for the college football to resume is coming closer to and end and the spreads are up for a bunch of the games for the opening weekend.

To date, here are the sides that I like. I will be updating these picks as camps open for the teams and injuries occur, depth charts change, etc.

If you want to see my commentary, click on the link at the bottom.

Matchup                                  Pick
Miss St vs Memphis                Miss St -26.5
Indiana vs Ball St                     IU -6
UCLA vs Houston                  UCLA +4.5
Wake Forest @ Syracuse       Wake +6
Purdue vs MTSU                    Purdue -15
Oklahoma St vs Louisiana       OK St -34
Auburn vs Utah St.                 Aub -26
Oregon vs LSU                      Oregon +3

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pt-YexzIb71kbiuuufnbwjYNKgE-5aFLuFcYQ0T5N5g/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

Preseason College Football Picks 2011 - Part 2

I have made some additional updates, breaking down some questionable scheduling by various schools. Also, identifying the teams that meet my "3 away then play" theory.

Check out the links below and look for updates as they happen during the week by navigating to the working documents page.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pt-YexzIb71kbiuuufnbwjYNKgE-5aFLuFcYQ0T5N5g/edit?hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HCXoUdxqDd3XGnWcDApJ4SBSEzVmR0e_vliAmimwM0M/edit?hl=en_US