Week 1 Picks

Every week I will pick all the ACC games against the spread, as well as the biggest national games of the weekend.

There will be three categories. “Free Money” are the games I feel the most confident about. “Solid bets” are next, and then “Toss-ups” are the ones that could go either way. I’ll keep track of how I am doing with a chart that I’ll update each week, so you readers can make fun of me for (probably) being sub .500 and correctly picking more “Toss-ups” than “Free Money” bets.

Here goes this week’s picks. There are only two “big” national games that I feel a need to pick this week. Those are Uconn Michigan and TCU Oregon St. This week there are only 4 ACC games that have spreads, as far as I know. I am sure you can bet on GT – S.C. St. and FSU Samford somewhere, but I don’t know where.

Free Money:

Clemson – only has to cover 22.5 at home against North Texas

LSU – only has to cover 4.5 against UNC’s decimated roster

Solid Bets:

Boise St. – favored by 2.5 over VT. I think they win by 10.

Michigan – favored by 2.5 over Uconn. I believe in Rich Rod in year 3.

Toss-Ups:

Navy – has to cover 7.5 against an improved Maryland team. They will do it, but barely.

TCU – favoring TCU by 13.5 at home against Oregon St. is a good spread. I think TCU covers, but this will be very close. As a side note, a decisive loss for Oregon St. here would be a disaster for Boise St. They only play two real games, VT and Oregon St., both in September. They need both to be very solid wins if they are gonna get serious consideration for the national title. This will be a bad start. I think Boise goes undefeated this year, but still gets left out of the big one.