The first couple of weeks are always the toughest as we haven’t seen many teams on film and in action. Expect a lot of fluctuation in your early season successes/failures, but don’t fret, your results should improve as we go along and learn a little bit more about these teams.

Iowa St +5 over Iowa

This is a big time rivalry game and I like to take the points here with what I consider as the slightly better team. Iowa opened up with a tight win on neutral field vs Northern Illinois. The Hawkeyes were down for most of this game and came back in the 4th quarter to squeak out a victory. What I got from this game was that the Iowa defense won’t be as good as in year’s past. They were allowing N.Illinois to move the ball at times and looked like they have a bunch of holes on defense. Iowa’s run game was good, but it will go up against one of the best set of LB’s in the country with Iowa St. The Iowa St. offense also played well in a win at home vs a good Tulsa team. They ran the ball effectively and QB Jantz made some nice throws when given time. This game will be very tight and will go back and forth. Having the +5 points should be good enough.

Note: Iowa St has done poorly in the past when playing as the visiting team. However, I don’t rate this Iowa team like the Iowa of old.

Oregon St +7 over Wisconsin

I like the Beavers to potentially upset Wisconsin. The Badgers had a little bit of trouble winning last week. They will rely on their power run game and QB O’Brien will take some time adjusting to his new team and offense. The problem I see with Wisconsin is their defense. They did not look good at all in their last contest, and traveling to the West Coast to play an underrated Oregon St team might be trouble for the Badgers. I like this one to be a close one as well, but with the home team getting a TD here, that tips me in their favour.

Louisiana Tech -3.5 over Houston

The line on this game has lost value already. Houston had opened up as a favourite and now after that stunning loss to Texas St, they have become underdogs at home. Louisiana Tech is a darkhorse this year. They have the pieces to upset a lot of teams and were a trendy pick last week against Texas A&M, but the game was postponed due to the threat of Hurricane Irene. I like Louisiana Tech to be a lot better than Houston. Houston losing their star QB and Head Coach was too much for this team and it will take them a while to get back to their winning ways.

Illinois/Arizona St U49

I look for many Illini games to go under the total frequently this year. They bring a fierce defense to the table that has to keep this team in games until the offense figures itself out. Illinois struggled to produce points against an average W. Michigan defense and it won’t be any easier on the road at Arizona St. Arizona St should be able to slow down the Illini, but they will have trouble scoring as well. I look for this to be a tight, low-scoring game here, and 49 points should be too much.

Ole Miss -7 over UTEP

Both teams last week were better than expected. UTEP kept close with Oklahoma for the most part, and Ole Miss blasted away on Central Arkansas. I was really impressed with new Ole Miss HC Hugh Freeze and new JUCO transfer QB, Bo Wallace. I really think this Ole Miss offense will be able to score on a lot of teams and they should be able to shut down the one-dimensional UTEP offense here.

Well, good luck everyone. As I said at the outset, the start of the college season is sometimes difficult, but hang in in there and we will hone our picks as the season plays itself out.

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