NCAA College Football Picks Week One

To complement our annual NFL picks, Chris and I, or rather just I, decided to pick college games as well; just a small selection of each weeks slate though, not every single game! Our field of knowledge as far as the NFL is regarded does not extend to the college game but we'll have fun with it nonetheless. For the record, my year end projections are fairly straightforward in that I don't think I'm deviating much from the chalk:

Big East - Pittsburgh
Big Ten -  Michigan
Big 12 - Oklahoma Sooners
Pac 12 - Oregon
ACC - Florida State
SEC - Alabama

National Champions - Oklahoma
Heisman Winner - Landry Jones

Picks after the jump.



Week One

Home Team listed second in CAPS
vs = Neutral Site game
(*) = Line Differential
[*] = National Ranking

UNLV (+35) at [11] WISCONSIN
[14] TCU (-5.5) at BAYLOR
Minnesota (+20.5) at [25] USC
South Florida (+10) at NOTRE DAME
UCLA (+3) at HOUSTON
BYU (-3) at OLE MISS
[3] Oregon (-2) vs [4] LSU
[5] Boise State (-3.5) vs [19] Georgia
SMU (+16) at [8] TEXAS A&M
Miami (+4) at MARYLAND

Chris picks: UNLV, TCU, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Houston, BYU, Oregon, Georgia, SMU, Miami
I pick: UNLV, Baylor, USC, Notre Dame, Houston, BYU, LSU, Georgia, Texas A&M, Miami

Games that already happened were picked beforehand or with no prior knowledge. As far as Wisconsin goes, I thought they were a little lucky to get that Rose Bowl berth last year and after that pathetic effort against TCU, I have to question whether they have the mettle to take a conference title. Speaking of TCU they're much hyped too.

Baylor has a really great QB and at home I favor them to win outright. I think this will be a good year for Notre Dame and the result in this opener against a good but not great USF team should lay down a marker for the season. Even though half the team is from Texas, I can't see Oregon walking into Cowboys Stadium and feeling at home as much as LSU will. Chris disagrees, but he is a relentless homer. They might get bullied, although the likelihood of that would increase if this game took place later in the season.

The same goes for that Boise State - Georgia game but in this case Georgia really is at home despite the farcical claim that it's a neutral site game. Seriously, who from Idaho is going to present themselves in Atlanta? If Mark Richt wants to keep his job this is a game he has to win. No excuses, you'll not only bring shame upon yourselves if you lsoe, but the entire SEC conference which prides itself on its mythic dominance in inter-conference play.

Texas A&M's recent controversies are really nothing the players will give a hoot about and they should be able to take this one handily. While Miami's problems are more concerning, Maryland has not been such a stable environment lately either. The Hurricanes should have enough talent on the field and in the dugout to sneak one out here.