2010 College Football

[Duff85]

College Football time!

Slate of games Friday to kick it all off.

Shades was bang on with his picks last year and I fluked a decent return myself. Let's get some more winners this year.

[Duff85]

I got my eye on one for Friday afternoon (AEST). USC travel to Hawaii for what will be the start of USC's year on probation. Basically they will be playing the year for no reward at the end (sounds like the Melbourne Storm much?).

That said even with a new coach and some new players coming in, USC is still stacked, and they are playing against a UH team who has fielded far better lineups than the one they will send out on Friday and been blown out by USC in the past.

The best Hawaii talent regularly pass on joining the Warriors to link up with PAC 10 teams (of which USC has been one of the main beneficiaries). While I think this will be a rougher year than past USC seasons, I doubt it starts badly. I think they head into Hawaii and get the Kiff-era off to a nice start.

The consensus line is hovering around 21 at the moment, i'll take USC on any book that has them laying under three touchdowns and there are a number of them out there.

[luckyshades]

God, I can't even wait for kickoff.

And there are some HUGE games this opening weekend - none of which are bigger than Boise State @ Virginia Tech.

For Boise to have a legitimate shot at playing in the National Championship game they absolutely HAVE to win every game, and this is their only real test.

I'll have a lot more thoughts in the next few days (I'm in Vegas at the moment and waiting on the lines to settle down a bit with the first games kicking off on Thursday US time).

[chenyan]

feel my nipples. I'm so excited by this..

Sticky this thread for constant win.

Haven't looked into any matches yet, but I'll be pulling for Boise State this year.

[luckyshades]

ZOMG under 24 hours to go !!

Here are some thoughts on tomorrows games that are available for betting.

NB - In the early rounds some schools schedule "cupcake" games against lower division schools, so not all games are available to bet on as you would see lines of 50 or 60 points.

Schools do this because there is no preseason games, so they schedule a warm up over a school they will convincingly beat.

Marshall +28.5 @ Ohio State

I think Ohio State will be good this year. Very good. Infact, I think they are good enough to win the National Championship (which is great news for a Badger fan like me as it means Wisconsin might earn a trip to the RoseBowl)!!Terrelle Pryor is an exceptional talent and they return a LOT of starters from last year's side which convincingly won the Rose Bowl.

But over 4 TDs in the first game of the year, against a team who defends very well is too much imo.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ohio State jump out to a lead and take it easy late in the game, when they have wrapped up the win. Some coaches would want their teams to make a statement, but Jim Tressell @ Ohio State is a fairly conservative play-caller and I don't think they run the score up too much here.

Marshall were also one of the best defensive teams in Conference USA last year.

Also, Marshall like to control possession by running the ball - which eats time off the clock, which means less opportunities for Ohio State to score. Last year they were also very efficient with the ball and didn't commit a lot of turnovers.

With all the hype about the Buckeyes and their #2 ranking, there is also a decent chance this line gets close to 30 by kickoff.

I'll take the points here and hope that Marshall can get the 10-14 points needed for a cover.

Score prediction Marshall 13 Ohio State 38.

[KH4LIL]

Pretty sure im gonna try and stick to college football this year, I distinctly remember making a pretty penny betting college sports then dumping it on the NFL and NBA

[whitey9999]

Marshall +28.5 @ Ohio State

Thought it was good too until Ohio had a epic start and probably lucky for Marshall to get away their one td off the block fg.

[luckyshades]

Yeah, Ohio scoring twice in the first minute wasn't really part of the plan.

Duff, not sure if you saw the USC v Hawaii game, but I'd bet the over in every USC game this year. They look fantastic with the ball, but they can't tackle anyone !!!

Pretty sure in today's only game I'll be betting Toledo +17 at home to Arizona, but their QB situation is a bit concerning. Their is severe thunderstorms though, so I'm thinking the coach will probably keep it pretty simple for the new QB.

[luckyshades]

Pretty happy I stayed away .. Toledo haven't looked like scoring an offensive point.

Anyways, tomorrow is the real kick off of the season, with a bunch of games being played all day.

I'm heading out to the Badgers season opener here in Las Vegas against the UNLV Rebels (can't even tell you how many Badger fans are in town, everywhere you walk you see groups of 20 or 30 Wisconsin fans all decked out in their Badger shirts / hats etc), so I'll put in some tips now.

Illinois @ Missouri -12.5

I like the Tigers with QB Blaine Gabbert set to have a good season. The Tigers return 16 starters on both sides of the ball, and with a very tough Big 12 schedule, they need to pick up non conference wins like this. The Fighting Illini are just not very good, and they have one of the worst coaches in the nation with Ron Zook. Illinois have a new QB and have to replace several starters on both their offensive and defensive lines.

Colorado -11 v Colorado State (neutral venue)

Colorado State have had to replace a large % of starters from last year - and that team was no good anyway.

Despite this being a rivalry game, I think Colorado should have way too much for CSU.

Other games I like are:

Vanderbilt +3 at home to Northwestern (NW have a new QB, and Vandy defence is tough)

Clemson -27 at home to North Texas (North Texas are lol bad)

Wisconsin -20 @ UNLV (Go Badgers !!!)

Record so far is 0-1

[Duff85]

0-1 to start the year.

These are for the overnight games:
Connecticut +3 @ Michigan - Should be a huge crowd. Rich Rod's Wolverines have been an absolute disaster and this is a huge game for UConn who lost 5 games last year by an average margin of 3 points. That bodes well. Most books into 2.5, find 3 and hit it.

Purdue +10.5 @ Notre Dame
Brian Kelly (former Cincinatti coach) takes over the Irish this year in an attempt to revive a once-proud program. Notre Dame will be blooding a new QB who spent most of last season unavailable due to a season ender. Purdue looks to be a team that will surprise people this season. I'm on the Boilers with the points.

Heaps of games on in the morning that look good, but i'm waiting for late line movements etc.