No traveling this week. Attendance at Thanksgiving weekend games is frowned upon in my household, so I will be staying put. I have knocked out a few, but it is a small number. Instead I will be on the couch, enjoying rivalry week and admiring the November 2024 SI Wall calendar in my man cave. One observation while selecting this month’s issues was that the Army – Navy Game was huge back in the day. It is likely to be a good game this year, but it still won’t garner the press and SI covers it did in the past.
The Picks
Week 13 Results
Yes, I went 1 -3 again, but those results were deceiving. I had a sweat most of the weekend, as my picks were in it until the end in most cases.
- Friday night, San Jose State jumped out to a halftime lead, but the more it rained, the softer their defense became. It was a tough way to start the weekend.
- UMass came out warm (as opposed to hot) and managed to score a couple of touchdowns in the first half. It was enough for me to get the win.
- I said Pitt would cover because they got their starting QB back for this game. He did not even last the first quarter and the Panthers got lit up.
- Texas A&M started very slow and were quickly reverted to one of my side TVs. However, they clawed their way back and it looked like I might actually win this one. But the minute they got to the third OT with two point conversions, the 2.5 point spread had me cooked.
As for the other remainder of games, there were some great ones with a few duds. They should have gone to a large scale playoff system years ago. Every weekend, there are games that matter.
- The Hoosiers looked good early against Ohio State, but the longer the game went, the more it seemed they weren’t quite ready for the big time. However, thanks to the carnage in the SEC, Indiana may get a chance in the playoffs to leverage their first top five matchup experience.
- No one apparently wants to win the Big 12, as both BYU and Colorado lost. Half the conference has a chance to make the conference championship game and there are over 250 conference tie scenarios for this weekend.
- A very close game against the Minnesota Gophers has done nothing to change my mind that the Nittany Lions are going to struggle in the college playoffs.
- The big loser this weekend had to be the SEC. With Ole Miss, Alabama, and Texas A&M losing again, one would hope that Nick Saban will stop whining about other schools’ strength of schedules. Hey SEC teams, you want in a twelve team playoff? Try to not lose three games.
Week 14 Picks
My picks are coming later this week, probably based on some sort of gimmicky method like all visitors getting more than fourteen points are the only teams I pick. Or maybe only teams with red in their uniforms. Who knows? It can’t give me worse results.
That’s all I got for now.
Tree