College Football Results Against The Spread Week 14 2018

It’s hard to believe that another college football season has come to a close already! The playoffs are set. The bowls are set. Now I have to go back through the carnage of last week and see what my record is going into the bowl season.

Despite what ESPN may tell you, the committee got the playoff teams right. A two loss Georgia team doesn’t have a leg to stand on. You can’t judge their season based on one game. The same way you can’t judge Ohio State because they finally woke up over the last two weeks.

That said, I am okay with an eight game playoff on one condition: No auto bids. If you put Washington in over Michigan it cheapens the process. Michigan’s losses were to top six teams. Washington lost to Auburn. What would an eight team playoff look like? Pretty good, actually!

Alabama vs. Central Florida
Clemson vs. Michigan
Notre Dame vs. Ohio State
Oklahoma vs. Georgia

That is an argument for another day. The committee did what they were designed to do. We have to be happy with that.

Here we will recap my picks against the spread. The winner against the spread will be in BOLD. My result will follow. Let’s get to it!

In case you want to follow along:
Championship Week picks against the spread

Since I wont have a ESPN College Pick Em write up this week, this would seem to be the way to get closure for that as well. Let’s begin with that before we get to the spread carnage. I think I had a monumentally bad week, but more on that later.

My 35 point week put me at an even 500 points on the season, but that isn’t nearly enough in the Fantasy CPR readers group. We had five entries top 50 points again with uscbill65 claiming this week’s top slot with 53 points.

Our leader, mdaallen, picked up 52 points which won him the group with 577 points. He was in the top 0.6 percentile among College Pick Em users, to great job! A 52 point week from Kev Shep! vaulted him into the second spot. keepingthelittlehumansalive rode a 49 point week into third place. Here are the final group standings for the year:

1. mdaallen     577
2. Kev Shep!    570
3. keepingthelittlehumansalive   565
4. pitpenguins66    563
5. earleyca    559
6. Brian Prete    558
7. Jay_da_gr8_1    551
8. BKNoleGirl           547
9. Brandon8736 543
10. mnsooners       541
11. Protege21242 539
12. 2pretty4orange! 534
12. lbockenek 534
14. ccloud05    526
15. Clay6805       525
16. uscbill65        523
17. pitt2534         511
17. Gamebreaker_boz 511
19. Protege21242 510
20. ernesto12     508
21. RR Surge      501
22. Don’t Choke OU 500
23. Rex-Revelation 496
24. keepingthelittlehumansalive 494
25. AstronomicalKoolaid 493
26. NYeoneone 490
27. inrareform 480
28. espn32962731 439
29. mdaallen     322
30. breedlove1234 318
31. Coonboy91    158
32. espn28184465 92
33. FunsizeA87   69
34. TailgatorSteve 19
35. Joshfantasy18 10

Thanks to all of you that participated this year! We will be back with more next year. I will put up the group link when I open it next year so you can join in on the competition next year if you like. The more the merrier! Congratulations again to mdaallen!

Northern Illinois vs. Buffalo(-3.5) at Detroit: MISS! The Bulls were off to a great start, but failed keep it up, not scoring in the fourth quarter. The NIU defense held tough enough for the offense to win it outright.

Utah vs. Washington(-4.5) at Santa Clara: MISS! It was the Washington defense that came up big, scoring the game’s only touchdown. The Utah D held up their end of the bargain. It was the offense that didn’t come through.

Texas vs. Oklahoma(-8.5) at Jerry World: MISS! This game was closer than the final score indicates. I never would have thought we would win this by double digits. And I never thought that the Oklahoma defense could blank Texas in the final quarter.

Louisiana at Appalachian State(-16.5): MISS! The Cajuns managed to hang around a little longer than I thought thanks to a good third quarter.

East Carolina at North Carolina State(-23.5): HIT! The Wolfpack won by more than double this line, so can I count it as two wins? I think I’m going to need it!

Akron at South Carolina(-29,.5): HIT! The Gamecocks didn’t even score 29, and it’s a good thing they didn’t. The Zips got a field goal early and nothing else. If it’s any consolation, I’m pretty sure Akron wouldn’t have been covered by the Cyclones either considering they struggled with Drake.

More from College Football Odds

Marshall at Virginia Tech(-3.5): MISS! Okay, who woke up the Hokies?

UAB at Middle Tennessee State(-1.5): MISS! You could tell which team wanted this more. UAB showed up to play this time while MTSU looked bored.

Stanford(-2.5) at California: MISS! Stanford may have played their best defensive game of the year. Cal’s D played well, but it was actually the solid play of K.J. Costello that sealed this for Stanford.

Memphis at Central Florida(-3.5): MISS! This was a huge game for Darriel Mack in his first start. Memphis was way ahead in this game, and they ended up running for more than 400 yards. UCF did figure it out in the second half though.

Alabama(-12.5) vs. Georgia at Atlanta: MISS! I tend to think that Bama wouldn’t have covered this even if Tua had played the entire game. This was easily the best game Georgia has played since last year’s title game. Sorry Georgia, you can’t just show up for one game and demand you deserve a slot in the playoff. This was your playoff game. And love or hate Alabama, this was a great story for Jalen Hurts. His character in seeing this through at Alabama brings him some much deserved glory here. This is a great story, and I’m glad to see Hurts get his chance to succeed again. We need more stories like this!

Fresno State at Boise State(EVEN): HIT! If you would have told me this was going to turn into a blizzard, I would have switched my pick. This was a big time win for Fresno, and shows just how far this team has come in the past two years.

Clemson(-27.5) vs. Pittsburgh at Charlotte: MISS! Dammit! Clemson kept their players in!

Nevada(-13.5) at UNLV: HIT! Yep, the Wolfpack didn’t even win outright! In this case, what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas. Can you imagine where UNLV would be had Armani Rogers been healthy all year?

Northwestern vs. Ohio State(-14.5) at Indianapolis: MISS! The Buckeyes ran it up. Color me surprised.

This was definitely one of my worst weeks ever. Of the 14 games this week, I only got three right. Three. That puts me in an unfortunate hole heading into bowl season. There are 40 total bowl games this year, and I need to hit 22 of them to finish the season above .500

My season mark slips to 368-370 with just 40 bowls to go. My points also suffered this week because my 4’s and 5’s were blanked. Just how many points did I lose? I’m afraid to look….

This week’s totals follow the number. The season totals are in parentheses.

1. 0-1 (55-53) = 2
2. 2-2 (146-135) = 22
3. 1-4 (103-100) = 9
4. 0-3 (41-49) = -32
5. 0-1(23-28) = -25

In just 14 games, I managed to lose 27 betting points, bringing me down to -24 on the season and just 11 to the black since I started doing this. My goals for the bowls have become more modest. I am hoping for 22 right picks to finish above .500 and I am hoping to get into the black for the betting points. I already see some places to attack in bowl games. Hopefully it’s the right ones!

We do have one more pick left of the regular season. That’s right…..it’s Army-Navy!

Navy vs. Army(-7.5) at Philadelphia(4):

This is always a close game, but the talent level is very different this year. Army clearly has the better team, and not just by a little. It’s going to be hard to win this by more than a touchdown, but you know Army wants to rub it in while they can. Give me the Knights!