Putting My Bookie's Kid Through College

Back by popular demand, as they always seem to make people feel better about themselves, are my picks of the week. This week, I'm picking nine games. I'm going with the road team on eight of them. For some reason, the road team is like getting dealt 10 J suited in Hold 'Em- I know I should just let it go, but for some reason I get enamored with it, and usually to my own detriment.

West Virginia -23 at UConn. Now that Adrian Peterson is out for the season, the Heisman race has pretty much been whittled down to two players: Troy Smith and Steve Slaton. This game is a chance for Slaton to really pad his stats. I'm thinking 200+ yds and 3+ TDs are in order for Slaton. Granted, the 3 TDs alone wouldn't be enough to cover the spread, but fortunately, West Virginia players are never known for respecting opposing players- or the law for that matter- so don't be surprised if they hang half a hundred on UConn.

Colorado +14 at Oklahoma. This will be the Sooners first game without Adrian Peterson, so one of two things will happen- either the Sooners will rally around the loss of their star RB and win huge, or they'll be so lost on the field that the Buffaloes will pull off the upset. For some reason, I'm going with the latter. Head coach Dan Hawkins is working hard to either inspire or confuse his team:
"Victory and defeat, they're brothers and sisters," said first-year coach Dan Hawkins. "They dance together. For these guys to understand really how to look the dragon in the eye and keep coming back in the face of adversity ... yeah, it's easy to hang your head, it's easy to question ... they learned a great lesson in life."
Ummm...rrrright. Still, I'm counting on the Buffs to look that dragon in the eye and come back to Boulder with a victory and their heads held high. Or maybe they'll just get drunk in Norman and have questionable sex with farmer's daughters.

Louisville -17.5 at Syracuse. Louisville was guilty last week of looking ahead to their impending showdown with West Virginia and barely beat Cincinnati. Hopefully, that served as a wake up call, and they'll use this game as a tune up. Syracuse just lost to West Virginia 41-14 last week, so the Cardinals should be using that score as a barometer to how they stack up against the Mountaineers. Louisville 45, Syracuse 10 sounds about right to me.

Notre Dame -13 vs UCLA. I've been trying to think of any reason for optimism for the Bruins. I've yet to come up with anything. This could get ugly.

Air Force -13.5 at San Diego State. SDSU is last against the run in the Mountain West. That's a recipe for disaster when you're going up against Air Force's triple option attack. The Aztecs have lost their last four games by 14 or more points. They should make it five on Saturday.

NFL:

San Diego -5.5 at Kansas City. I really don't understand why this isn't a double digit spread. I know that Arrowhead Stadium is usually good for three points, but that just means the Chargers will win 31-3 instead of 31-0. I'm a little scared by how much I like this game because it usually means that I'm missing something.

Arizona -3 at Oakland. It's a Pac-10 rematch of Matt Leinart vs Andrew Walter. Unfortunately for Walter, he had more talent around him when he was at Arizona State, and those teams still lost to Leinart. I'm pretty sure the Raiders are what we all think they are- a really, really lousy team that will be lucky to win two games this season. I'm ready to crown their ass with the #1 pick in the 2007 draft.

Green Bay +5 at Miami. How much would I have to bet on this game to actually watch it? I'm thinking $500 might do the trick. But, I'd rather bet 20 bux and watch an entertaining game instead. This game feels like a battle of field goals to me, in which case I'm taking the 5 points.

NY Giants +3 at Dallas. It's pretty obvious how Cowboys games will go. If there's pressure on Bledsoe, the Cowboys lose. If not, they win. That's really all there is to it. I think the Giants front four will be able to get the requisite pressue on Bledsoe which will lead to two god-awful game changing turnovers to lead the Giants to victory. But if that's not enough, Tiki Barber has announced he's retiring at the end of the season, and Peter King has called him a hall of famer. I can only assume that means Barber will be averaging 200+ yards/game for the remainder of the season in order to get his stats to a minimum level that would even warrant consideration.

YTD: 25-29-1