College Football Results Against The Spread Week 13

This has been a rough college football season. Not just for me, but for many ranked teams. Do those go hand in hand? Maybe. Parity would seem to be alive and well in the college football realm unless you are Alabama or one of their opponents.

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I was on the road all week, so I am a bit behind watching all of the great games of rivalry week. I think I did pretty well, but I don’t believe that I had the huge week that I needed.

We may as well jump right into it! The winners against the spread are in BOLD. My result will follow.

Just in case you would like to follow along, and so you catch some of my obscure references:
Tuesday-Thursday
Friday
Early Saturday
Saturday Afternoon
Saturday Night

Ohio(-11.5) at Akron: MISS! This was an ugly game in ugly weather. I had no chance. Thanks Mother Nature!

Ball State at Miami(OH)(-6.5): MISS! The Redhawks pulled off the miracle by starting 0-6 and still making a bowl. They needed a big second half to do it though. Ball State dominated the first half.

Central Michigan at Eastern Michigan: HIT! I could have sworn I put more points on this. At any rate, the Eagles are bowl bound after their best season since Charlie Batch was (literally) under center.

LSU(-5.5) at Texas A&M: HIT! No Fournette? No problem! Derrius Guice gouged the Aggies for 285 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

Northern Illinois(-4.5) at Kent State: HIT! Did I really place a bet based solely on the surname of one team’s quarterback? Yes. When you are on a losing skid, you resort to unconventional methods.

North Carolina State at North Carolina: HIT! I never would have guessed that the Wolfpack would have won this outright. You can’t say they didn’t earn it though.

Houston(-3.5) at Memphis: MISS! I let Houston’s dismantling of an average Louisville team cloud my pick. I knew better!

Buffalo at Bowling Green(-13.5): MISS! If I were betting these games for real, I would stay far away from the MAC.

Arkansas(-8.5) at Missouri: MISS! I want to thank Arkansas for blowing a 24-7 lead. Nice one, boys! The Hogs didn’t score in the second half.

Washington(-6.5) at Washington State: HIT! This type of beatdown on the road against your biggest rival has to be impressive to the committee. Although this year, it has been hard to tell where their heads are at half the time.

Boise State(-8.5) at Air Force: HIT! I hinted that this was a distinct possibility, but I guess if I were that confident in it I would have put more points on it.

TCU at Texas(-3.5): HIT! I should have put more on this one. And so ends the worst three year stretch in Texas football history. Think about how long Texas football has been around. Charlie Strong led them to their worst three consecutive years ever. However, Strong does not deserve all of the blame. He built a good team there. We will see it within the next year or two.

Nebraska at Iowa(-2.5): MISS! Well, the Nebraska fans that want to blame Tommy Armstrong for everything can’t possibly to that here. The Nebraska defense got fooled and run over the entire game.

Louisiana Tech(-13.5) at Southern Mississippi: MISS! Uhhhh…. what? What in the world was this? If you would have told me that Southern Miss would cover Tech’s spread, I would have had you committed. Way to show up, Bulldogs. Ah, the evils of clinching a berth in the conference championship game before the last game of the season.

Toledo at Western Michigan(-9.5): HIT! Toledo is lucky this wasn’t worse. They scored 21 fourth quarter points to make it somewhat respectable.

Texas Tech vs. Baylor(-5.5): MISS! I should have known better. What upsets me more is that I was dumb enough to put four points on it. I need to quit making picks at 3am…..

Cincinnati at Tulsa(-23.5): MISS! Tulsa’s defensive issues reared its ugly head again.

Arizona State(-2.5) at Arizona: MISS! There are losses. There are tough defeats. Then there are what Arizona did to their arch rival here. This was domination by the Wildcats. Well, as dominant as they can be.

Georgia Tech at Georgia(-4.5): HIT! Buzz buzz!

Kentucky at Louisville(-26.5): HIT! I was wrong when I said that this wouldn’t be much of a game. It was one of the best of a great weekend of football!

Kansas at Kansas State(-27.5): HIT! Easy money. Of course, if I had put five points on this instead of four, the Wildcats would have won by 42 points. It’s just the way this year has gone.

Rutgers at Maryland(-14.5): MISS! I usually stay close to the vest during rivalry week. Of course, the year I go off the map, conventional picking would have done me pretty well.

Michigan at Ohio State(-6.5): HIT! This one is going to sting for a while in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines dominated this game for the first 50 minutes.

Purdue at Indiana(-20.5): MISS! I should have known better here as well. Hell, I’ve picked Indiana games all season long. I should know better than anyone just how volatile they are from week to week, making this big of a spread very risky even under good circumstances.

Illinois at Northwestern(-16.5): HIT! You can bet that Illinois is taking note of all the teams that rubbed their noses in it this year. Soon they will be good enough to exact revenge.

Central Florida at South Florida(-9.5): HIT! If you have read any of my stuff throughout the year, you know how great of a job I think Scott Frost did in his first year at UCF. That said, South Florida is one of the most exciting teams in the country. If you paid attention to the Bulls at the end of last year like I did, you likely saw this coming as well.

Virginia at Virginia Tech(-18.5): MISS! This was an absolute domination of a rival, something we rarely see. Virginia is going to be smarting from this for some time, and the Hokies are riding high. High enough to possibly send college football into chaos on Saturday.

Arkansas State(-5.5) at Louisiana-Lafayette: MISS! There is no possible explanation for this, except for the fact that I put five points on it. There is absolutely no reason why the Red Wolves should have lost this game. Justice Hansen threw for nearly 400 yards!

Syracuse at Pittsburgh(-24.5): MISS! I’m not going to say that neither team has a very good offense. That isn’t entirely true. However, did anyone see this coming? 137 combined points! That’s the stuff the Big 12(10) is made of. There were 47 points scored in the fourth quarter alone! Look out for the Orange next year. Zack Mahoney looks like a pretty good quarterback. He threw five touchdowns, all to Amba Etta-Tawo.

Boston College at Wake Forest(-3.5): MISS! Well, I would by lying if I said that Wake didn’t have this in them. They got dump-trucked by Army at home earlier this year in what should have been an easy win for them as well. However, this loss was still worse. And one of the bad bowls is going to be very upset with Wake because now they have to take Boston College instead of one of those 5-7 teams that travel well.

Duke at MIami(FL)(-15.5): HIT! There is nothing wrong with being cautious sometimes. Especially when some teams make you sweat at the end.

Florida International at Old Dominion(-13.5): HIT! This was almost too close for comfort! Of course, any win is comfortable when you have struggled like I have this year.

San Jose State(-3.5) at Fresno State: HIT! ……and the Bulldogs still lost!

Mississippi State at Mississippi(-8.5): HIT! What is better than beating your rival? How about beating your rival by 35 points on their own field? In a game in which you were more than a touchdown dog? That isn’t the first time this has happened in the Egg Bowl. There is a reason I only put one on this.

Auburn at Alabama(-18.5): HIT! Auburn did everything they could to try and blow this for me….

Notre Dame at USC(-17.5): HIT! Wow…that is three halves that have gone my way so far this afternoon. I hope this good fortune continues!

Navy(-7.5) at SMU: MISS! Yeah, I guess there is no way to positively spin this one for me, so I will do it for Navy. The Middies scored their most points (75) since 2010 when they hung 76 on East Carolina. This was also the first time Navy has scored 60 or more in back to back games since 1917. It’s not often that you see something that hasn’t happened in a century. We have seen it twice in a month with the Cubs winning the World Series!

West Virginia(-7.5) at Iowa State: MISS! I can’t believe that I actually talked myself into taking Iowa State. Their blowout win over Texas Tech last week cost me twice in this week’s picks….

Michigan State at Penn State(-13.5): HIT! Does 33 count as a lot?

Minnesota at Wisconsin(-14.5): HIT! Minnesota QB Mitch Leidner was Wisconsin’s most valuable player. Leidner was really good in the first half, but fell apart in the fourth quarter when the Badgers scored 21 unanswered to steal this from the Gophers.

South Alabama at Idaho(-5.5): HIT! You know that you’re a football nerd like I am when you are looking forward to seeing teams such as Idaho and Eastern Michigan in bowl games since they haven’t been there in so long.

Troy(-27.5) at Texas State: HIT! As much as I don’t want to say it, Texas State is likely the worst division 1 team this year. Sorry guys. I didn’t wish this for you.

Appalachian State(-27.5) at New Mexico State: HIT! I hope the Mountaineers play a Power five school in a bowl game. I want to see if what Miami did to them was a fluke.

Tulane(-1.5) at Connecticut: HIT! Can UConn play Texas State? Please? I want to satisfy my curiosity.

Oregon(-3.5) at Oregon State: MISS! Okay, honestly, Mark Helfrich deserved to be fired after this. Oregon gave this game away. They had it well in hand, but they literally gave it away.

Nevada at UNLV(-8.5): HIT! Another rivalry game in which the underdog destroyed the favorite at home. If Nevada could have found any consistency this year, they would be bowling.

North Texas(-2.5) at UTEP: MISS! EXPLETIVE DELETED. I’m not surprised that Aaron Jones ran for over 300 yards. I’ve been praising his ability for most of the last three years. I am surprised that the Green (they can’t possibly be called mean after this toothless showing) stayed in Denton. This was never close.

Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee State(-13.5): HIT! It’s a rare thing when you picked a team to cover by two touchdowns and they cover by three despite the other team scoring 56 points. Shockingly, the 133 combined points weren’t even the most of the week.

Western Kentucky(-23.5) at Marshall: HIT! The Hilltoppers did win by more than double this line. More easy money here!

Charlotte at UTSA(-10.5): HIT! The Roadrunners are going bowling!

UCLA(-3.5) at California: MISS! I could have sworn that I picked Cal. I should have. What an uninspiring performance by the Bruins…..again. This Cal defense is statistically one of the worst in the country, and UCLA did nothing against them. They were shut out in three of the four quarters!

Utah at Colorado(-9.5): MISS! I failed to give Utah’s defense enough credit. Colorado is going to be a serious thorn in someone’s side. It could start tonight.

South Carolina at Clemson(-25.5): MISS! You know, its kind of hard to make strides when your defense is this bad.

Tennessee(-7.5) at Vanderbilt: MISS! With all of these coaching changes going on, how does Butch Jones still have a job? Tennessee was one of the most hyped teams last year and this year, but somehow managed to fall well short of expectations and get steamrolled in the second half by Vandy. This was a game Tennessee had won.

East Carolina at Temple(-20.5): HIT! Okay, so Temple was one point shy of four touchdowns (with extra points). Sue me. You still won!

Rice at Stanford(-35.5): MISS! My initial feeling was right. Stanford did let off the gas after a 21 point third quarter.

Florida at Florida State(-7.5): MISS! I gave the Gators way too much credit for winning a watered down SEC East. They are going to get destroyed tomorrow.

Colorado State at San Diego State(-11.5): MISS! Well, that was an uninspiring performance. The Aztecs had to be looking ahead to a rematch in Laramie. The Rams ended San Diego State’s ten game winning streak, and they handed the Aztecs their worst loss since 2006.

Wyoming(-2.5) at New Mexico: MISS! Speaking of which, the Cowboys were quite obviously looking ahead. Teryion Gipson is a very good back, but running for 217 yards on this team is a cause for concern. Especially when you consider that they have to deal with Donnel Pumphrey again this week.

Utah State at BYU(-17.5): MISS! Well, a half was bound to get me sooner or later.

Massachusetts at Hawaii: MISS! The five point curse is real, folks.

My six game losing streak to end the week put me at 31-30. I had a huge chance to make up ground and made up one game. That puts me at 325-375 on the season, or 46.4%. There aren’t 50 bowl games (yet), but I still have the conference championship games. I need to be nearly perfect at a time of the season where it is nearly impossible to be.

How did my points system do? I think I did very well if you take off the five point games. I missed all of them. It should be illegal to be that bad.

Well, let’s go over it anyway. The season totals are in parentheses:

1. 4-3 (55-62) -7
2. 11-7 (125-118) +14
3. 12-9 (88-119) -93
4. 4-4 (43-43) 0
5. 0-7 (14-34) -100

That puts me back at -186. That is not my low point of the season, unfortunately, but it is close. I ended up losing 27 points this week because of the five point curse. How is it possible to miss 34 of 48 games that should be locks? How?

Next: ESPN College Pick Em Picks Week 14

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