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2013 NCAA Football – Week 7 Betting Picks Against Spread

I’m on a hot streak.

I went 12-5 last week with my picks, bringing my season total to 39-21-4 on the season.

Week 7 of the college football season (October 12th to be exact) isn’t filled with as many marquee games as last week, but there are plenty of rivalry games.

We now have a good idea on which teams are good, but trap games and upsets often happen in the middle of the season. Favorites are often overvalued, so be careful with your picks. Vegas knows who the best teams are too, so the value isn’t there anymore.

We answer those questions and pick against the spread for all the big college football games on Saturday…we also sneak in a few Thursday night games in the MAC and American Athletic Conference

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2012 NCAA Football – Week 11 Betting Picks

I’ve had a very successful college football season. The spreads have been easy to work with and the favorites have covered in a lot of games I picked. Notre Dame has been fairly dependable to cover the spread (except last week), so their game against Boston College looks like a quality play in Week 11.

Will Oregon State keep surprising Vegas? They have done very well in the Pac-12 against the spread. They are on the road and play in Palo Alto on Saturday. Is Stanford up to the task of stopping the Beavers from winning a moneyline play?

We breakdown the bets and pick some NCAA college football games against the spread.

Florida State (-14.5) at Virginia Tech (+14.5) – My pick is Virginia Tech +14.5

Both of these teams are under .500 against the spread this season. I think this line is too high for Florida State to cover on the road. Blacksburg is a tough place to play at night. Even though VT is having a down year, the crowd will be into this one.

Louisville (-3) at Syracuse (+3) – My pick is Louisville -3

Louisville is coming off a tough loss to Cincinnati. They will be motivated to keep their great season alive. Syracuse is no pushover, but Louisville is 14-4 ATS (against the spread) in their last 18 road games.

Massachusetts (+17) at Akron (-17) – My pick is Akron -17

This game will be ugly. UMass has yet to win a game and Akron has only one win under their belt. In their last three games, UMass has been outscored 136-7. Akron will cover in this contest.

Arizona State (+9) at USC (-9) – My pick is USC -9

USC is coming off of two losses against Pac-12 opponents…in games they could have won. The are coming into this game with a chip on their shoulder. ASU is a good team, but I see USC winning this game large.

Notre Dame (-19) at Boston College (+19) – My pick is Notre Dame -19

The Fighting Irish know they are lucky to come out of last week’s game unbeaten. They were leapfrogged by Oregon in the BCS polls and need to start winning games with extra style points. I don’t expect Notre Dame to lay off the accelerator in this contest. I know 19 points is a big number to cover on the road, but I expect them to cover the spread.

Wyoming (-1) at New Mexico (+1) – My pick is Wyoming -1

I have long had a love affair with the Wyoming Cowboys…from a betting standpoint. I spent most of the 2009 betting with them and I had a nice season. They are 6-2 against the spread in their last eight road games. New Mexico is an improved team, but Wyoming will leave Albuquerque with the upset.

West Virgina (+7.5) at Oklahoma State (-7.5) – My pick is Oklahoma State -7.5

I have been burned by West Virginia too many times this season. They are coming off three losses in which they looked pedestrian at times. Oklahoma State is 8-1 ATS at home following a loss. I trust them much more than the Mountaineers at this point in the season. The O/U is currently 79, which could easily be blown out of the water by the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Texas A&M (+14) at Alabama (-14) – My pick is Texas A&M +14

Texas A&M and Alabama both have close games against Oregon this season. The Aggies have done very well against the SEC this season. They are an unfamiliar opponent and have taken advantage of the unknown. They had a stretch in the middle of the season that was rough, but rebounded in the last three weeks. If Texas A&M can get their passing game going again, this game could be very close.

Mississippi State (+14.5) at LSU (-14.5) – My pick is LSU -14.5

MSU haven’t played very well the last two games. They were down to Texas A&M by five touchdowns by halftime. LSU is coming off a tough loss to Alabama last week. They always play every team well and never play down to the other team’s talent. LSU should have this spread covered by halftime.

Vanderbilt (+3) at Mississippi (-3) – My pick is Mississippi -3

Ole Miss is 7-2 ATS this season. Vegas and the betting community doesn’t seem to give them much respect. Vanderbilt has looked impressive the last two weeks, but it was against winless UMass and a Kentucky, who look like a high school team. This is close to a lock, since this line should stay around -3, with the public looking at the box scores from the last two Vandy games.

The betting lines are courtesy of Sportsbook.ag. These picks are for entertainment purposes.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Did Heisman Trust Leak The Bush Story?

This is purely speculative, but could the Heisman Trust be the party that leaked the story about Reggie Bush getting stripped of his Heisman trophy? Could they have leaked the story to see what the public’s reaction to the news be? It makes sense, right? I explain why this would have been a smart move and breakdown the whole Reggie Bush situation.

Yahoo! Sports ran a story yesterday that former USC tailback, Reggie Bush, would be getting his Heisman trophy stripped from him. He won the trophy as the best college football player in 2005. He took gifts and cash from agents and boosters while he was a college player, which retroactively made him ineligible to play during the 2005 college football season. USC was hit with sanctions and was forced to forfeit the games in which Bush played that season and was hit with the loss of scholarships and a two-year postseason ban.

The Heisman trust came out after this story went public and said that the trust hasn’t even taken a vote on the subject and are still deciding what to do about the whole Reggie Bush situation. I doubt that an established site like Yahoo! would have ran this story without multiple sources confirming that he was indeed getting the trophy stripped. The trust have never been put in a situation where they would have to strip a player of their award. The public could have reacted negatively to the story and could have swayed the votes of the trust. Since the reaction seems to be somewhat positive of the news, I’m sure the trust will act in stripping Bush of the award.

I want to stress once again that this is purely speculative, but it makes sense. The trust wants to make sure that the award keeps its prestige and isn’t tarnished in any way. If Bush is stripped of the award, it is rumored that the trust would just say that the award was vacant that year and wouldn’t award it to the person that came in as runner-up, Texas quarterback Vince Young. Young mother even came out today and said that Young told her that he wouldn’t accept the award if they decided to give it to him.

This whole situation is muddy and it would be best to keep the award vacant, it isn’t Miss America. In doing this, the trust would set a precedent that this would be the way to handle situations like this, if they were to happen again. Let’s hope that this will be the last one like this, since it has taken the NCAA five years to react to a situation that came out many years ago.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.

Is Jim Tressel On The Hot Seat?

Ohio State faces USC this weekend and things could be getting pretty hot under Jim Tressel’s sweater vest. The last top 10 team that Ohio State beat was Michigan in November of 2006. They have been spanked in their last few bowl games and didn’t win at home against Penn State last year. This USC game is more than just a circled game on their schedule, for Jim Tressel, it could be for his job.

Jim Tressel’s approval rating in Columbus has been near 75-80% for nearly his entire tenure as football coach of Ohio State. He won a National Championship right away when he took over and he’s been a good ride. They have been a staple in BCS bowl games since it’s incarnation and he’s kept his nose clean when it comes to NCAA infractions. Why am I saying that he’ll be on the hot seat? It’s not only me, the local ESPN radio affilate here in Columbus has also brought it up. They say if he loses to USC, his approval rating would drop below 50% for the first time. We all know, once the approval rating drops below half, something little can sway people to the most popular side of the argument.

If Ohio State loses to USC and it’s close, even closer than their bowl game against Texas last year, I think he’ll be fine. He’ll be fine until the Buckeyes go to Happy Valley and play Penn State on the road. If they lose both of those games, they could be in danger of not making a BCS bowl game. There are a lot of good teams this year and especially in smaller non-BCS conferences. BYU and Boise State already have a pretty good win on their resume and there’s 12 more weeks of college football left.

I’m not saying that Jim Tressel will get fired if they lose to USC and Penn State this year, but it will be the first time this discussion will be taking place. If they lose to Michigan at the end of the year, the discussion could turn into screaming. The pressure will be turned up to win next season, since Terrelle Pryor could leave after next season, since he would be 3 years removed from high school. If Pryor puts up big numbers, he’ll be taken in the first round because of his athleticism and upside. Tressel would be left with another young quarterback and would have to start over. Troy Smith isn’t walking through that door. Ted Ginn isn’t walking through that door. A.J. Hawk isn’t walking through that door.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.