It's the final weekend of October and Halloween is right around the corner. There's just one month remaining before the conference championship games, and the race for the College Football Playoff is still going strong. Week eight's slate featured a couple of contests with some pretty big playoff implications. Those games went about as expected with the exception being one unfortunate collapse in West Lafayette.
The 11W staff was fairly split on the two-touchdown spread, but the Boilermakers had absolutely no problem pulling off the stunner in front of the home crowd. Elsewhere in the Big Ten, most felt the Spartans would keep it close against their in-state foe. Michigan's defense showed up in a big way, however, and gave Jim Harbaugh a rare victory over a rival.
Just about everyone nailed the Oklahoma/TCU game as the Sooner easily covered the 7.5-point spread. On the other hand, pretty much everyone failed to get a solid read on the Penn State/Indiana game. The Nittany Lions were a 14-point road favorite, but the Hoosiers kept that one close. The final tally in Bloomington was 33-28 and Chris was the only forecaster to nail that one.
The Cincinnati game also gave us some problems. Luke Fickell's pursuit of an unbeaten season came to an end last week at Temple. The Bearcats found themselves as 3.5-point underdogs in Philadelphia, but just about everyone put their faith in Fickell. Props to Kevin as he was the only one to pick Temple to cover. The Owls won by a score of 24-17.
Ohio State's red zone woes and defensive ineptitude were the stories of the week. We've spent the last several days reflecting on the melancholy, and there's a lot to improve upon if they want to keep the playoff hopes alive. The Buckeyes will look to fix some of these issues before Nebraska comes to town on Nov. 3.
The upcoming slate isn't all that spectacular, but there are a few noteworthy contests set to go down in Jacksonville and State College.
- Reminder: All of our submissions are against the spread. The odds will certainly fluctuate a bit throughout each week, but we'll be using sportsbook.ag for all betting lines.
| CHRIS | RAMZY | HOPE | HARRISH | JONES | WEBB | ELLIS | WERTHEIM | REGIMBAL | ANDERSON | VANCE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAST WEEK: | 3-7 | 5-5 | 5-5 | 3-7 | 3-7 | 2-8 | 4-6 | 5-5 | 4-6 | 4-6 | 5-5 |
| OVERALL: | 37-43 | 36-44 | 42-38 | 36-44 | 33-47 | 38-42 | 46-34 | 39-41 | 33-47 | 39-41 | 41-39 |
| ACCURACY: | 46% | 45% | 53% | 45% | 41% | 48% | 58% | 49% | 41% | 49% | 51% |
| #2 Clemson (-17) @ Florida State | CLEM | CLEM | CLEM | CLEM | CLEM | CLEM | CLEM | FSU | CLEM | CLEM | CLEM |
| #20 Wisconsin (-6.5) @ Northwestern | NW | WISC | NW | WISC | WISC | WISC | WISC | WISC | WISC | NW | WISC |
| Michigan State (-2.5) vs. Purdue | PURD | MICHST | PURD | MICHST | PURD | MICHST | PURD | PURD | MICHST | PURD | PURD |
| #7 GEORGIA (-7) VS. #9 FLORIDA | UGA | UGA | UGA | UGA | UGA | FLOR | UGA | UGA | UGA | FLOR | FLOR |
| #17 Penn State (-6) vs. #18 Iowa | IOWA | IOWA | PSU | PSU | IOWA | IOWA | PSU | PSU | PSU | PSU | IOWA |
| Missouri (-6.5) vs. #12 Kentucky | KENT | MIZZ | KENT | KENT | KENT | KENT | KENT | KENT | KENT | KENT | KENT |
| #24 Stanford (-3) vs. #14 Washington State | WAZZ | STAN | WAZZ | WAZZ | WAZZ | STAN | STAN | STAN | WAZZ | WAZZ | WAZZ |
| Mississippi State (-2) vs. #16 Texas A&M | TAMU | TAMU | TAMU | TAMU | TAMU | TAMU | MISST | TAMU | MISST | MISST | TAMU |
| South Carolina (-7.5) vs. Tennessee | SCAR | SCAR | TENN | SCAR | SCAR | SCAR | SCAR | SCAR | SCAR | TENN | SCAR |
| #6 Texas (-3) @ Oklahoma State | OKST | TEXAS | TEXAS | TEXAS | TEXAS | TEXAS | OKST | TEXAS | TEXAS | TEXAS | OKST |
The Bulldogs are favored by a touchdown over the Gators. This contest will go down in Jacksonville as it does every single year. From a national perspective, this is the biggest contest of the weekend, and most of our staff is riding with Georgia. Both teams were off last week and the last time we saw the Bulldogs they were getting clobbered by the fighting Joe Burrows.
Penn State hosting Iowa is the week's other premium matchup, and we're fairly split on this one. The Nittany Lions are favored by six points at home against a surging Hawkeye team. Penn State has a top-15 offense while Iowa ranks No. 3 in the country in total defense. Something is gonna have to give in Happy Valley.
Elsewhere in the Big Ten you'll see Wisconsin traveling to Evanston. The Wildcats are 6.5-point home underdogs, and who knows which Northwestern team shows up on Saturday. Michigan State hosts a Purdue squad that is coming off one of the season's most impressive wins. Perhaps it's a bit of recency bias but most of the staff is siding with the Boilermakers to keep it within 2.5 points.
I have no idea if Stanford or Washington State are any good. Honesty I don't know if any PAC12 teams are good so it would be frustrating to see one of them get stomped if they were to earn a playoff berth. The Cardinal is a three-point home favorite against Mike Leach and his weird (but awesome) ways.
Texas is only a three-point favorite against unranked Oklahoma State. Stillwater has done some weird things to the opposition, so maybe this one has some upset potential? Most of the staff has the Longhorns covering on the road.
Who's your upset special for week nine? #GetRich
