WEEKLY PICKS

Village Idiot here. First of all, hello everybody.
Just to introduce myself, let me say that I’m an old buddy of Big Randy’s. I have been picking college and pro games this year and been having a pretty good run of success. Last week, I went 9-5.
My list of winners in the colleges last week consisted of Penn State, Texas Tech, Texas, B.Y.U. and Arizona. I had picked the resurgent Arizona club to beat the UCLA Bruins straight up, so it was a no-brainer to take the Arizona and 9 points. But I won’t lie to you; I didn’t see a 52-7 romp coming! Wow.
My college losers were U.S.C., Arkansas and F.S.U. I thought the Trojans would romp at home, given all the talk about margins of victory and how they affect the BCS rankings. And after an upset the week before, I expected a letdown game for the Gamecocks on the road at Arkansas. I guess I’m going to have to start showing Steve Spurrier some love, at least now that he’s back in the college ranks.
You may notice I made my money last week picking favorites to beat up on the also-rans. Some think betting the underdogs is where it is at. I think that is often the case in the pros and in the colleges early in the year when nothing is as certain. But later in the college football year, I think the kids on losing programs start to lose interest in football. That’s when I try to clean up by picking favorites. You might keep that in mind when you see me picking the big wallops in the colleges this week.
In the pros, I posted a 4-2 record. I picked the Giants and Panthers to cover their spreads, while I had the Vikings winning a pick ‘em contest at home against the Lions. Kansas City beat the Raiders by four, but didn’t cover the 4 and 1/2 point spread I was giving.
In my weekly over/under bet, I took the Seahawks and Cardinals to post a total over 44. I figured the Cards would have trouble keeping Seattle out of the 30’s, while the Seahawks defense is nothing to write home about, either. A 33-19 Seahawks win vindicated my thought process. Over/under bets are generally hard calls, but Randy wants me to give him at least one such bet per week, so I figure I can find at least one value bet among the totals every week.
And finally, there was the Monday night game. I went back and forth on this one, because the trends were pointing in two different directions. This is usually the type of bet I stay away from, because of the intense emotions involved in the affair. Watching the game, it certainly had a playoff aura about it. Since all Monday night games must be bet on, I went ahead and placed a bet. Citing the Colts easy schedule, the fact Indie is due for a loss and the age-old axiom of betting on a home dog on Monday night, I went with the two-time defending champs. Oops! As a famous sports better once said, there’s one every week you want back.
But if we can go 9-5 every week, we can all make a lot of money at this. I’m not going to complain too much. I have 11 college picks and 6 pro wagers this week. So without further ado...on to this week’s picks.