Another dismal week on the Pick 10 front, as I only got four out of ten right. This picking against the spread thing is hard. Just one more reason why Vegas makes money.
Responding to my Hodge Podge, commenter Drew argues against a playoff for college foo-ball. Apparently, he favors this (which I shamelessly stole from The Sporting Blog):
Frankly, I can't see any reason why we shouldn't have a playoff. Bowls are boring and meaningless, vestiges of a by-gone era. Give me eight teams (we can argue about how to pick them) and play them down and every one of those seven games becomes meaningful. Instead of only two or three teams with a chance to win it all, you get eight. Television ratings will soar, money will flow, I'll stay interested.
Here's my picks this week, although I can save you the trouble of reading. I picked all the home teams to cover. This surely won't actually happen, but it has as much chance of happening as whatever I would pick otherwise. So, the text below has been made up to fit the pre-selection.
SEC
Tennessee (+3.5) at Vanderbilt: Honest. That's not a mistake. Vanderbilt is giving points to Tennessee. I think I felt a slight tremor in the earth, which was probably General Neyland rolling over in his grave. When the bookies call it for the Dores, it is officially time to get worried, but the system says FAVE.
Arkansas (-1.5) at Missi State: If Michael Smith is actually healthy, the Hogs should win, despite the Double Dick situation at QB. The entire fate of the team rests on one undersized running back . . . system says DOG.
Ole Miss (+3.5) at LSU: I can see this going either way. I think these teams are evenly matched. Question is, will the Rebels pull the late-season Nutt-loss? Fortunately, I don't have to make the choice because the system says FAVE.
OTHER
Michigan (+21) at Ohio State: This line looks almost as odd as the Vanderbilt one. Honestly, I think Michigan will stay within three TDs, but system says FAVE.
Michigan St. (+14) at Penn State: At one point I thought Joe Pa's final team was pretty good. Now I see them going to a boring bowl and getting the snot beat out of them. The game is in State College, so FAVE.
BYU (+7) at Utah: In Utah, they call this "the Holy War." Those Utahites, what comedians! On general principles, I root against BYU. So the system works! FAVE.
Pitt (+5) at Cincinnati: A preview of the new Vols coach? Yes, it's Wannstadt!! FAVE.
Florida State (-1) at Maryland: Arrrggh. The Terps won last week, which means they will surely crash and burn this week. But the system says DOG.
Texas Tech (+7) at Oklahoma: Here is where we find out if the Red Raiders are for real. Yeah, they beat the Longhorns, but that was in Lubbock and Lubbock can hurt your soul. I like the system pick, FAVE.
U Conn (+3) at South Florida: Man, I'm glad I have a system, because I have no idea about this one. FAVE.