Friday, September 22, 2006
Week 4 Picks/World Combat League
I only went 6-4 in my picks last week, but it was good enough to win my company's office pool and the cool $35 that came with it. Still not up to the level of accuracy I'd like to see, but this did get me back up over .500 for the year (15-14-1), which is more than I can say for the Astros, who have not been over .500 since June 22.
Before I get to my Week 4 picks, I wanted to say something about the World Combat League event happening tonight in Austin. I have been looking forward to this for almost two months, since I bought my brother Nate and I a pair of tickets to WCL for his birthday way back in late July. Chuck Norris, yes THAT Chuck Norris, is the Owner/Founder/CEO/Promoter for WCL.
To promote WCL, Chuck Norris showed up at the Texas/North Texas game. The moment they showed Chuck Norris on the Godzillatron I was fully expecting the lethal combination of these two forces to instantly kill everyone in the stadium with the simulated force of a roundhouse kick. In addition, I expected the mere presence of Chuck's facial expression on Godzillatron alone to scare the earth off it's rotational axis, thus killing everyone on earth with the exception of Chuck and Chuck's hot girlfriend, who Chuck swallowed whole 5 minutes prior to showing up on Godzillatron. Chuck swallowed his girlfriend whole so that he could protect her in his stomach from the force of the earth being thrown off it's axis, and then regurgitate her after killing everyone on earth. Together, they could repopulate the earth with a race of Chuck Norris. (Yes, Chuck Norris is his own race, he's not white, he's not black, he's not hispanic... He's simply Chuck Norris). Fortunately, due to the fact that Chuck wanted all 50 people who bought tickets to World Combat League to actually show up, he decided to have mercy on us and did not kill everyone in the stadium that day.
I digress... Onto my ten college football picks against the spread for week 4.
Iowa St/TEXAS (-20) TEXAS - The Horns will take a 3-7 point lead into the half before wearing out Iowa St over the course of the 2nd half and winning by 3 TD's. I'll stick with my preseason score prediction of 38-17.
Louisiana Tech/TEXAS A&M (-23.5) LOUISIANA TECH - I made the mistake of picking A&M to cover a similar spread against Army last week. I won't make that mistake again this year.
Penn St/OHIO ST (-17) OHIO ST - In the score tiebreaker, I'm taking Ohio St 34-14 in this one.
usc (-16)/ARIZONA USC - Arizona has looked awful so far this year, already losing to LSU 45-3. Maybe Mike Bell really was that good and we shouldn't be surprised that he is Denver's starting RB right now.
wisconsin/MICHIGAN MICHIGAN - After last week's beatdown of Notre Dame (my favorite game of the year to watch so far), I truly believe Michigan is the real deal, and it would not surprise me if Michigan has a better record than Ohio St when they meet at the end of the year to effectively decide the Big 10 championship.
notre dame (-2.5)/MICHIGAN ST NOTRE DAME - I was surprised to hear Michigan St has actually won 7 of the last 9 meetings between these two, and who could forget the OT thriller last year in South Bend, won by Michigan St 44-41. If the spread was 3.5 I'd take Michigan St here, but I think Notre Dame wins by a FG and covers by half a point.
Arizona St/CAL (-7.5) ARIZONA ST - Not that I didn't already have enough reason to hate Cal after the 2004 BCS fiasco and my aforementioned stance on Jeff Tedford, but they embarrassed me for picking them to win against Tennessee on opening week. Look for a similar effort on the road this week by Tedford's underachievers.
Colorado/GEORGIA (-27) GEORGIA - Before making this pick, I had to double-check to make sure -27 wasn't just the first-half line.
Louisville (-8.5)/KANSAS ST LOUISVILLE - Since Tuesday, the line on this game has jumped from 8.5 to 14. Needless to say, I'm not the only one that thinks Louisville will win by a lot more than 8.5 points. After seeing what they did to Miami, if you're looking for a legit team in the Big lEast, it's Louisville, not the more trendy pick of West Virginia.
Alabama/ARKANSAS (-1) ARKANSAS - Made this pick based strictly on home field advantage.
I'll be back soon... that is if I survive being in the same arena as Chuck Norris for 3 hours tonight.
Before I get to my Week 4 picks, I wanted to say something about the World Combat League event happening tonight in Austin. I have been looking forward to this for almost two months, since I bought my brother Nate and I a pair of tickets to WCL for his birthday way back in late July. Chuck Norris, yes THAT Chuck Norris, is the Owner/Founder/CEO/Promoter for WCL.
To promote WCL, Chuck Norris showed up at the Texas/North Texas game. The moment they showed Chuck Norris on the Godzillatron I was fully expecting the lethal combination of these two forces to instantly kill everyone in the stadium with the simulated force of a roundhouse kick. In addition, I expected the mere presence of Chuck's facial expression on Godzillatron alone to scare the earth off it's rotational axis, thus killing everyone on earth with the exception of Chuck and Chuck's hot girlfriend, who Chuck swallowed whole 5 minutes prior to showing up on Godzillatron. Chuck swallowed his girlfriend whole so that he could protect her in his stomach from the force of the earth being thrown off it's axis, and then regurgitate her after killing everyone on earth. Together, they could repopulate the earth with a race of Chuck Norris. (Yes, Chuck Norris is his own race, he's not white, he's not black, he's not hispanic... He's simply Chuck Norris). Fortunately, due to the fact that Chuck wanted all 50 people who bought tickets to World Combat League to actually show up, he decided to have mercy on us and did not kill everyone in the stadium that day.
I digress... Onto my ten college football picks against the spread for week 4.
Iowa St/TEXAS (-20) TEXAS - The Horns will take a 3-7 point lead into the half before wearing out Iowa St over the course of the 2nd half and winning by 3 TD's. I'll stick with my preseason score prediction of 38-17.
Louisiana Tech/TEXAS A&M (-23.5) LOUISIANA TECH - I made the mistake of picking A&M to cover a similar spread against Army last week. I won't make that mistake again this year.
Penn St/OHIO ST (-17) OHIO ST - In the score tiebreaker, I'm taking Ohio St 34-14 in this one.
usc (-16)/ARIZONA USC - Arizona has looked awful so far this year, already losing to LSU 45-3. Maybe Mike Bell really was that good and we shouldn't be surprised that he is Denver's starting RB right now.
wisconsin/MICHIGAN MICHIGAN - After last week's beatdown of Notre Dame (my favorite game of the year to watch so far), I truly believe Michigan is the real deal, and it would not surprise me if Michigan has a better record than Ohio St when they meet at the end of the year to effectively decide the Big 10 championship.
notre dame (-2.5)/MICHIGAN ST NOTRE DAME - I was surprised to hear Michigan St has actually won 7 of the last 9 meetings between these two, and who could forget the OT thriller last year in South Bend, won by Michigan St 44-41. If the spread was 3.5 I'd take Michigan St here, but I think Notre Dame wins by a FG and covers by half a point.
Arizona St/CAL (-7.5) ARIZONA ST - Not that I didn't already have enough reason to hate Cal after the 2004 BCS fiasco and my aforementioned stance on Jeff Tedford, but they embarrassed me for picking them to win against Tennessee on opening week. Look for a similar effort on the road this week by Tedford's underachievers.
Colorado/GEORGIA (-27) GEORGIA - Before making this pick, I had to double-check to make sure -27 wasn't just the first-half line.
Louisville (-8.5)/KANSAS ST LOUISVILLE - Since Tuesday, the line on this game has jumped from 8.5 to 14. Needless to say, I'm not the only one that thinks Louisville will win by a lot more than 8.5 points. After seeing what they did to Miami, if you're looking for a legit team in the Big lEast, it's Louisville, not the more trendy pick of West Virginia.
Alabama/ARKANSAS (-1) ARKANSAS - Made this pick based strictly on home field advantage.
I'll be back soon... that is if I survive being in the same arena as Chuck Norris for 3 hours tonight.
