Week 1 College Football Picks

WOOOOOOOOOOO We are back boys and girls. The glorious season of college football is upon us, so therefore it's time to do the damn thing. This little pick contest was amusing last year, so why not do it again. If you weren't around last year here's the plan, I will choose 5 games each week, and we will pick against the spread. I'll be using the lines from Centsports, my free money betting thing, which if you are interested in, let me know. We aren't gonna keep track of spread and straight up records this year, primarily because it was a huge pain and I'm fairly lazy. Feel free to explain your picks and rationalize fully in the comments, but the only picks I will be counting will be those ATS. For those who don't understand spreads, 1st, how are we friends? 2nd, the team with the -# by them is the favorite. If you pick the favorite, they have to win by more than the -#. Simple, yes? Now the 5 games each week will be a combo of the games I find to be the most interesting, the lines I find the most interesting, and the ND game because I'm a huge huge homer. There will be some games I leave off, sometimes cause I dont care, sometimes cause other games/lines interest me more. Bama VT almost got this treatment cause I wanted to pick the UF line, which at last I heard was -72. Sadly I can't find it on anywhere anymore, so oh well.

Normally these will go up on Thursdays, but one of this week's games is on Thursday, so we go a little early. Plus, I wanted a little extra time to try and get people involved because the more the merrier. Your picks only be counted if they get in before the games. Only way I know how to do it, so that's how it is, if it means you only get scored on some of the games that week, so be it. Do me a favor, get em in before Saturday, timestamp checking is lame. So, all that being said, let's go!

THURSDAY GAMES:
#16 Oregon @ #14 Boise St. (-4)
PICK: Oregon +4
No, no no no no no. I feel like this is a gift from the NCAA to knock Boise St out of "BCS Buster Cinderella" contention early. I'm tired of these mid majors. Yes it was awesome that they beat OU with chicanery in the Fiesta Bowl a few years back, yes Chris Petersen has done a hell of a job w/ the Blue Broncs, yes man writers who feel like getting cute are picking them to go undefeated. Not this year. Lagarrete Blount is an absolute beast who will tear through the Boise D, and Masoli poses a lot of threats. Not Dixon level threats, but a lot of threats all the same. Secondary prediction: This game will be unavailable in Asia because the combo of smurf turf and whatever unis Oregon wants to bust out for week 1 would undoubtedly cause an epileptic epidemic in the youngsters of the land.

SATURDAY GAMES:
#20 BYU @ #3 Oklahoma (-22)
PICK: BYU +22
This game could be a lot more interesting than Vegas is expecting. Sure Oklahoma has the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in Sam Bradford, but all of his O-line friends who kept him alive last year are gone. Sure Jermaine Gresham stuck around, and they didn't have as much of a mass exodus on D as they could have, but they lost a lot of talent. I think OU wins, and I think they win by a few scores, but 22? Too high.


#5 Alabama (-6.5) @ #7 Virginia Tech
PICK: VT +6.5
Apparently I'm in the mood for dogs. This will not be an offensive slugfest, both teams tend to rely on their D and Special Teams. Bama fell apart w/ John Parker Wilson at the helm, and they don't even have him to rely on. Not only that, but Utah absolutely abused Bama's O line with Andre Smith suspended. Since the big man is gone for good, Bama is gonna have to figure out how to get back to the road grating line they had been working with. Bama will win this game, but it will be ugly and close.

#13 Georgia @ #9 Oklahoma St. (-5.5)
PICK: OSU -5.5
This to me is the most interesting game on this weekend's slate. Okie St is the chic pick to make noise this year thanks to all kinds of talent returning for Head Coach Mike Gundy. All World WR Dez Bryant is one of the best in the land and is poised for a huge year. But what will OSU do with raised expectations? On the other hand you have Georgia. The Bulldogs a year ago at this point were a preseason #1 and favorite to make the National Championship game behind 1st Rd NFL draft picks Matt Stafford and Knowshon Moreno. However they fell flat. Coach Richt seems to be at his most dangerous though when people are overlooking his squad, which this year is safe to say everyone is. This game, hopefully, will live up to the hype and give us the best contest of the week. I think OSU wins this by 2 scores and Dez Bryant giving some columnists a new dark horse Heisman candidate.

Nevada @ #23 Notre Dame (-14.5)
PICK: ND -14.5
In the past few weeks talking with friends, fellow alums, and random interweb folk, I've heard a lot of people doing their best Lou Holtz impression on this game. Nevada could put a scare into ND, their QB Colin Kaepernick has a cannon and is a real threat. I'm tired of this talk. I'm tired of trying to psych myself out as a fan and letting the failure of the last few years taint my view point. Remember that offense in the Hawaii Bowl? That is what we should see every week this year. For those who say "oooooh Hawaiii, how scarrryyyyy" fair, go ahead. We will deal with the year as a whole later this week. But for this week's game, this Nevada team lost to that Hawaii team giving up 38 points...Sure, Nevada will get a few scores, I've seen the over/under at 61. I'd say hit it hard because ND is coming out to make a statement in this game. This offense is ready to go, and a hair over 2 TDs will be cleared in this game.

So make your picks in the comments kids. Give me thoughts on games you'd like to see in the future, mock my idiocy, praise my prognostication (alliteration baby) or just be sarcastic. Doesn't really matter to me, you cant wipe this smile off my face. College Football is BACK!!!