Remaining College Bowl Picks

Well I decided since I have a little bit of time on my hands with break and because I did so well at picking games during the regular season (not really but let's just go with it), I'm going to challenge myself to pick against the spread for the remaining bowl games in college football. We'll start with the games this week and I'll come back next Sunday with picks for the remaining games.

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl: Clemson (-6.5) over Kentucky

Advocare V100 Independence Bowl: Texas A&M (+7) over Georgia: I really like Texas A&M to not only cover the spread but to also win this game. Jerrod Johnson is extremely accurate and even though the Aggies lost to Texas, they played them extremely tight and should use that momentum heading into the Independence Bowl.

Eaglebank Bowl: UCLA (-4) over Temple

Champs Sports Bowl: Wisconsin (+3.5) over Miami (FL)

Roady's Humanitarian Bowl: Idaho (+2) over Bowling Green

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl: Nebraska over Arizona (Pick 'em)

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: Houston (-4.5) over Air Force

Brut Sun Bowl: Stanford (+9) over Oklahoma: Vegas has loved OU all season long with or without Sam Bradford and the line for the Sun Bowl is more of the same. Toby Gerhart has one foot out the door already and he'll need another strong performance to help his draft stock and I think he carries Stanford to a victory.

Texas Bowl: Missouri (-6.5) over Navy

Insight Bowl: Minnesota (-2.5) over Iowa State

Chick-Fil-A Bowl: Tennessee (+6) over Virginia Tech

Outback Bowl: Northwestern (+7) over Auburn

Capital One Bowl: Penn State (-2.5) over LSU

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl: Florida State (+2.5) over West Virginia

Rose Bowl presented by Citi: Ohio State (+4) over Oregon: This is one of the more intriguing bowl games this season, Oregon's offense against Ohio State's defense is the matchup to watch. I really think Ohio State has the speed to stay with the Ducks and should be a very entertaining game.

Nokia Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati (+12.5) over Florida: This line might change before the game actually kicks off with the news that Urban Meyer is stepping down due to health reasons but as of right now it's hard to pick this game. Both teams now face a situation where their coach has left or will leave and have a lot to prove. I think Florida wins this game but I don't think they will cover the spread seeing how angry Cincinnati was that Brian Kelly left them before the bowl game to go to Notre Dame and will look to prove to the nation that they don't need Kelly to succeed.

International Bowl: South Florida (-7) over Northern Illinois

Papajohns.com Bowl: South Carolina (-4.5) over Connecticut

AT&T Cotton Bowl: Oklahoma State (+3) over Mississippi: This is a game neither school thought they'd be playing in back in the beginning of the season but both OSU and Ole Miss were inconsistent all season. I think Mississippi has been more inconsistent than Oklahoma State and that's why I like the Cowboys in this game.

Autozone Liberty Bowl: Arkansas (-7.5) over East Carolina

Valero Alamo Bowl: Texas Tech (-8) over Michigan State

Championship Week Picks

Tonight starts the weekend of games with BCS Bowl implications and I’m going to pick only 5 games that happen to work out as conference championship games even if they are not official.

#10 Georgia Tech – Clemson: Clemson is coming off a loss to South Carolina but they do have the ever-dangerous C.J. Spiller to keep them in this game. I think that Georgia Tech is just too tough and will be representing the ACC in the BCS Orange Bowl.

#5 Cincinnati - #15 Pittsburgh: This is a really interesting game due to the speculation that Cincinnati coach, Brian Kelly has been linked to the Notre Dame job and he has not done that great of a job to dispel his interest (I know he said he’s staying at Cincy, but it wasn’t convincing). It’ll be interesting to see how his players handle the distraction and show up to play because if they don’t, Pitt will be there to claim the victory. I like Tony Pike and the Bearcats in this one.

#3 Texas - #22 Nebraska: Everyone keeps saying that Nebraska has a shot at pulling the upset and while I agree that their defense will keep them in the ballgame, they just don’t have the offense to win the game. Colt McCoy runs and passes his way to solidifying the Heisman trophy and Texas is moving on to the National Championship Game.

#1 Florida - #2 Alabama: Earlier in the week I was ready to pick Florida pretty easily but Carlos Dunlap’s suspension made this decision a little more difficult to pick. The key for Florida is to stop Mark Ingram first and force Alabama to pass the ball to win. Alabama needs to get some sort or air attack going to keep the Gators defense on its toes and allow space for Ingram to carry the Tide to the National Title. I like Florida in this one close.

#7 Oregon - #16 Oregon State: Tonight’s game between the Beavers and Ducks should be a good one, the Civil War usually is. The game is being played in Autzen Stadium, one of the few stadiums in my opinion that really does have a home field advantage. The Ducks go into the stadium with a certain type of swagger and rely heavily on the crowd to get them going and to make it difficult for the opposing team.  Jeremiah Masoli and the Ducks get the win and head to the Rose Bowl.

Week 12 College Football Picks

We’ve got big games in the Pac-10 and Big Ten this weekend and the rest of the schedule is full of rivalry games that might not end up being as entertaining as rivalry games are supposed to be:

#12 Oklahoma State over Colorado

#6 Boise State over Utah State

#1 Florida over Florida International

#2 Alabama over Chattanooga

#3 Texas over Kansas

#4 TCU over Wyomimg

#8 LSU over Mississippi

#10 Ohio State over Michigan

#13 Iowa over Minnesota

#15 Virginia Tech over N. Carolina State

#16 Wisconsin over Northwestern

#17 Stanford over #25 California

#19 Oregon State over Washington State

#20 Miami over Duke

#21 Utah over San Diego State

#22 BYU over Air Force

#23 Clemson over Virginia

#24 Houston over Memphis

Michigan State over #14 Penn State: In the battle for the Land Grant Trophy, MSU pulls the upset. Penn State has flopped in their two previous games against serious opponents and I just don’t see them going into East Lansing and pulling off a victory.

Arizona over #11 Oregon: Arizona and Oregon both control their own destinies to get to the Rose Bowl to face off with Ohio State. Arizona and its 20th ranked rushing defense finds a way to stop the running attack of the Ducks and the Wildcats put themselves in the drivers seat for the Pac-10 Championship.

Week 11 College Football Picks

Here are the picks for week 11, there are some pretty interesting games on the docket this weekend:

South Florida over Rutgers: I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rutgers win but I really like South Florida and if they didn’t lose their starting QB a few weeks ago their season could have been really special.

Florida over South Carolina

Alabama over Mississippi State

Texas over Baylor

Boise State over Idaho

Georgia Tech over Duke

LSU over Louisiana Tech

USC over Stanford

Pittsburgh over Notre Dame: Charlie Weis needs to win this week and once more to probably keep his job at Notre Dame, I don’t think he does it and let the Urban Meyer to South Bend rumors begin!

Oregon over Arizona State

Miami over North Carolina

Houston over UCF

Arizona over California

Penn State over Indiana

Oklahoma State over Texas Tech

Wisconsin over Michigan

Virginia Tech over Maryland

BYU over New Mexico

Oregon State over Washington

Cincinnati over West Virginia: in a game that will go a long way in determining the Big East champ I think Cincinnati continues their undefeated season but they still have games against Illinois and Pittsburgh left

Iowa over Ohio State: Here’s the game that determines the Big Ten Champ. I think the Hawkeyes will once again rise above adversity and pull out its fourth win on the road in arguably four of the toughest places to play in the Big Ten.

TCU over Utah: TCU is probably the best team after the top 3 and I don’t think they’ll lose this weekend. It should be a good game but TCU is just so good on defense and their offense is no slouch either.

Week 10 College Football Picks

#23 Virginia Tech over East Carolina

#7 Boise State over Louisiana Tech

#1 Florida over Vanderbilt: Apparently Urban Meyer feels that Vandy will give his team a more difficult time that most believe. Why else would he only suspend his best defensive player for only a half? (Brandon Spikes has since suspended himself for the entire game to avoid being a distraction.) With or without Spikes, the Gators should roll.

#2 Texas over UCF

#9 LSU over #3 Alabama: Alabama just hasn’t wowed me yet and for all the crap that people talk about the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Crimson Tide has been just as impressive as the Hawkeyes. LSU finds a way to win by stopping Mark Ingram.

#4 Iowa over Northwestern

#5 Cincinnati over Connecticut

#6 TCU over San Diego State

#8 Oregon over Stanford

#10 Georgia Tech over Wake Forest

#11 Penn State over #16 Ohio State: This is a big game in determining the Big Ten Champion. Penn State needs to win and
hopes Ohio State beats Iowa and Ohio State needs to win the rest of the season. Penn State is at home, they are playing better, and they have senior leadership at the quarterback position. Those factors will lead to the Nittany Lions to another victory and leave the Buckeyes to Capital One Bowl.

#12 USC over Arizona State

#13 Pittsburgh over Syracuse

#14 Utah over New Mexico

#15 Houston over Tulsa

#17 Miami over Virginia

#18 Arizona over Washington State

#19 Oklahoma State over Iowa State

#20 California over Oregon State

#21 Wisconsin over Indiana

#22 Notre Dame over Navy

Nebraska over #24 Oklahoma

Week 9 College Football Picks

West Virginia over South Florida

Florida over Georgia: Flordia wins this game but I really do think Georgia will give them an extremely tough game but the SEC officials will make a call to help the Gators out.

Iowa over Indiana

TCU over UNLV

Oklahoma State over Texas: I just don’t think Texas is that good of a team this year, and Oklahoma State finds a way to shut down the McCoy-Shipley connection.

USC over Oregon: I really wanted to pick Oregon but I just don’t see USC and Texas both losing this weekend.

Boise State over San Jose State

LSU over Tulane

Penn State over Northwestern

Ohio State over New Mexico State

Miami over Wake Forest

Cincinnati over Syracuse

Georgia Tech over Vanderbilt

Utah over Wyoming

Houston over Southern Miss

South Carolina over Tennessee: I’m picking the Gamecocks but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lane Kiffin pull the upset this week, his team is playing hard and it’s bound to pay off at some point this season.

Notre Dame over Washington State: For some reason this game is being played in San Antonio but the Irish win anyway.

California over Arizona State

Ole Miss over Auburn

My apologies for missing the Va. Tech – UNC game, busy week.

Week 8 College Football Picks

There aren’t many standout games this week so there isn’t much commentary with these picks but with how I performed last week maybe just picking games will change my luck:

#1 Florida over Mississippi State

#2 Alabama over Tennessee

#3 Texas over Missouri

#4 Boise State over Hawaii

#5 Cincinnati over Louisville

#6 Iowa over Michigan State

#7 USC over Oregon State

#16 BYU over #8 TCU: In the marquee game of the week I think BYU pulls it off playing at home.

#9 LSU over Auburn

#10 Miami over Clemson

#11 Oregon over Washington

#12 Georgia Tech over Virginia

#13 Penn State over Michigan

#15 Oklahoma State over Baylor

#17 Houston over S. Methodist

#18 Utah over Air Force

#19 Ohio State over Minnesota

South Florida over #20 Pittsburgh

#22 Arizona over UCLA

#23 West Virginia over Connecticut

#24 South Carolina over Vanderbilt

Oklahoma over #25 Kansas

Top 25 College Football Picks

Let’s see how I fare when it comes to picking college football games for this week:

Wednesday Game

Tulsa over Boise State

Thursday Game

South Florida over Cincinnati: South Florida is a good team that will finally get a lot of recognition after Thursday night, if they were at home I’d say Cincinnati pulls it out but on the road on Thursday night it just reeks of an upset.

Saturday Games

Iowa over Wisconsin: The Vegas oddsmakers have the Hawkeyes as at least a 2 ½ point underdog going into Madison, the Hawkeyes defense will step up and stop John Clay and force Scott Tolzien into bad decisions all day, Hawks with the win.

Florida over Arkansas: This game could possibly be closer than the 24 point line Vegas is giving the Gators, but Florida should pull it off.

Alabama over South Carolina: Alabama is just too good for even one of the best Spurrier teams in recent memory to pull the upset.

Texas over Oklahoma: The Red River Shoot Out should be a good one, Texas had to be looking ahead to this game last week when they played Colorado and they’ll hit on all cylinders this weekend and provide an entertaining game with the Sooners.
Virginia Tech over Georgia Tech: Virginia Tech will be able to contain the triple option attack of Georgia Tech and continue to open eyes as they win on the road.

Notre Dame over USC: The Irish actually have a legitimate shot at winning this game this weekend in South Bend. They have as good of an offense as ever and they’ll be going up against one of Pete Carroll’s weaker USC teams. Charlie Weis will get his first signature win for the Irish and start to validate that insane contract that he signed when he “almost beat USC.”

Ohio State over Purdue

Miami over Central Florida

TCU over Colorado St.

Penn State over Minnesota

Nebraska over Texas Tech

Oklahoma State over Missouri

Kansas over Colorado

BYU over San Diego State

Houston over Tulane

Utah over UNLV