I’ve been trying to think of a nice intro piece to put into the blog for about a week now, but I really haven’t been able to think of anything. I finally figured out why: I’m just so dang excited for football (Nebraska and Miami especially) that I can’t think about anything else! Instead of giving you some lame intro (those are coming, long season), I’ll explain how Bart’s Best Bets are going to work this season. Each week I will give you my five favorite College Football picks. They will be either against the spread (ATS), straight up (moneyline), or over/under (totals). This week, my five bets include three picks ATS and two totals. I start with a Thursday Night Special and end with a Sunday Night Shootout (fingers crossed).
Before we get to the picks, just a quick reminder, I don’t actually gamble real money, because gambling is illegal in Nebraska. If I could gamble legally, these would be the picks I would go with. All of the lines and totals are set at time of publishing (odds coming from oddshark), and will not change as the week goes on. So get’em while their hot! Here we go, Bart’s Best Bets Baby!
Thursday, August 31st
Oklahoma State (-18) v. Tulsa
You guys didn’t think I’d make you wait until Saturday did you? Heck no, we’ve got ourselves a Thursday Night Special! 17.5 looks like a pretty large number, especially for an opening game, but I really like Oklahoma State in this spot. Oklahoma State is ranked 10th in the preseason polls and I honestly think they could be closer to 6th or 7th. Mason Rudolph had a fantastic year last year and I look for him to have an even better one this year. The Cowboys also return their best wide receiver and running back from last years 10-3 team. Their defense isn’t near as good as their offense, but I don’t think that matters too much in this one. Tulsa was also 10-3 last year, but they lost their quarterback and two of their top receivers from that team. They lost quite a bit on defense as well, not that their defense last year was anything great. I wouldn’t normally take this high of a number, but an opening night game at Boone Pickens against an inferior in-state opponent is too hard to resist.
Friday, September 1st
Colorado State (+4) @ Colorado
The first thing to note with this game is that it is not actually in Boulder, it’s being played at Sports Authority Field (didn’t they go bankrupt?). So you can go ahead and forget home field advantage. A lot of people will probably be siding with Colorado and the relatively small number because of the great year the Buffalos had last year, but not so fast. They lost not only their starting quarterback, but they also lost a ton of their defensive players to the NFL Draft. I guess that’s what happens when a team has a good season, they go to the NFL, where they can actually get paid (don’t get me started). Colorado State played a game last Saturday against Oregon State, and they looked VERY good in the 2nd half. I think Colorado comes out rusty in the first half and Colorado State takes advantage early. I consider this game a toss up, and could be one of the most underrated games of the weekend. Don’t be surprised if Colorado State wins this thing straight up.
Saturday, September 2nd
Michigan (-5) v. Florida
This game is going to be awesome, at least that’s what I first thought when I saw that these two teams were playing. Then I found out that 8 (scratch that, 10 now) of Florida’s players including their best offensive weapon (Antonio Calloway) will be suspended for Saturday’s game against the Wolverines because of an off-season credit card scandal (huh?) and marijuana charges. Add that to their coach not having named a starting quarterback yet and you’ve got a rather large problem, no matter who you are playing. Michigan lost a TON from last years team to the NFL Draft, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and they also haven’t named a starting quarterback yet. The only advantage Michigan has is that their players stayed out of trouble this off-season (or at least didn’t get caught). Ol’ Harbaugh probably had them drinking whole milk and watching film on the weekends. Florida is going to be a really good team this year once they get all their players back and the quarterback situation figured out, but they are running into Michigan at the wrong time. Give me Jim “Milk Man” Harbaugh and his bunch by at least a touchdown on Saturday.
LSU v. BYU UNDER 47
Wait, BYU is 1-0 already? I didn’t even know they played a game last Saturday! Well that’s probably a good thing you didn’t watch because it was a terrible game! BYU v. Portland State (who?). BYU should blow their doors off with their starters showered and laying on their couch by the start of the fourth quarter, right? Wrong. They squeaked out a 20-6 against a team they should have hung at least 50 on. Sure, they might have been looking ahead to this week’s game against LSU, but that’s still not a good enough excuse. LSU should win this game, but I’m not going to lay 17 points on my boy Coach O and the Tigers. This game was supposed to be in Houston, but because of obvious reasons, they moved the game to the Superdome in New Orleans. I think LSU will be able to score on BYU, but I think LSU’s defense will shut down BYU’s offense. I know, I hate betting on unders too, but I see this game in the 24-10 range.
Sunday, September 3rd
Texas A&M v. UCLA OVER 56.5
Here’s the deal, I don’t know too much about either of these teams. Here’s what I do know: both coaches are officially “on the hot seat” and neither team is particularly good at defending offenses. I am confident that this game will be a shootout and will go over 56.5 by at least 7-10 points. Let’s be real here, the only reason I am taking this game is because it’s on Sunday (gotta fight those Sunday Scaries with something), and I’ve already had to suffer through one under this weekend, I’m definitely not rooting for two. When in doubt, bet the over, that’s what I’m doing here.
I hope you guys enjoy five straight days of football (yep, there’s a game on Monday) and have a FANTASTIC Labor Day weekend! I am irrationally confident in all of these picks and I hope you are too. Either way, I’ll be back next weekend with five more picks. DaveCh999 will also have his NFL picks for week 1!
Double COVERage 