Bowling Green win total but missed on Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\nJACKSON: I had a few college futures and win totals circled, but the best numbers are long gone. You and I aren\u2019t sharps, as our longtime readers know, and folks who study this stuff all year long tend to gobble up and move the best numbers. Did more than 6.5 people outside of Ohio know that Eddie George is now the coach at Bowling Green? That\u2019s a fair line, but the BGSU win total under 6.5 for George\u2019s first season is no longer widely available.<\/p>\n
No, Toledo isn\u2019t going to make the College Football Playoff \u2014 but the Rockets might flirt with doing so. No, South Carolina is not going to win the SEC just because there\u2019s a bunch of (valid) excitement about quarterback LaNorris Sellers. No, James Franklin and Drew Allar are not going to win the national title with Penn State. History says no and I say no, too.<\/p>\n
Maybe Ohio State will repeat because with that kind of budget, should anything else be expected? If you\u2019re really itching, I\u2019d look at numbers on Utah and Louisville to make the playoff, and I\u2019d put a couple bucks on a couple SEC quarterbacks, Garrett Nussmeier and DJ Lagway, to win the Heisman.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t promise a winning season, though I promise to try. I promise we\u2019ll get a couple MAC-adjacent winners along the way and have some fun.<\/p>\n
GREENBERG: As evidenced by my college record last year, I\u2019m not great at picking these games. So I\u2019ll do a theme this week and only pick Ohio colleges.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got Ohio State -1.5, though I think Texas and Arch Manning will put a scare into them. I\u2019m enjoying the spin machine from the Buckeyes over their Dave Portnoy fiasco, but I think I\u2019ll like watching their future All-Pros play even more.<\/p>\n
I love Cincinnati +7 against Nebraska in Kansas City. The Bearcats\u2019 offense should be good this year.<\/p>\n
I initially liked Akron +7.5 over the Wyoming Cowboys in your backyard \u2014 which I\u2019m sure could fit the expected crowd \u2014 but it\u2019s down two points since I first looked at it on Monday. I\u2019ll take over 2 1\/2 hot dogs for you.<\/p>\n
I also liked the Ohio University-Rutgers over, but it\u2019s jumped 3 points in two days, so I\u2019ll steer clear. The Bobcats are going into New Jersey with a veteran QB in Parker Navarro, so if you want to take the 15.5 points they\u2019re getting, you\u2019ve got a good shot.<\/p>\n
Last, I\u2019ll take Toledo +8.5 at Kentucky. The Rockets have a ton of starters returning, and I think they could win in Lexington.<\/p>\n
JACKSON: Just three for me this weekend. I also can\u2019t give a play on Akron-Wyoming because when I saw the spread at 7, it made me wonder how bad Wyoming is perceived to be. Akron has won 11 games since the end of 2018. Eleven! Total! The Zips are already bowl-banned for this season. I\u2019m going to stay away from the spread here and focus on the concession stand.<\/p>\n
Friday, I like Colorado-Georgia Tech under 51.5. It\u2019s dropped from the 55 range, and that scares me a little, but I see a completely remade Colorado offense getting a real test in its first game. I also think that Colorado defensive coordinator Robert Livingston used to be a well-kept secret, and he\u2019s not really a secret anymore. I see a 23-20 type of game here as both teams try to sort through standard early-season issues.<\/p>\n
Saturday, I\u2019ll take Ohio State at less than a field goal. No real analysis here other than this is a bit of an all-star game. I think probably Arch Manning, given time, will live up to at least some of the hype surrounding him. In Week 1 on the road, I\u2019ll take the team that has the next Randy Moss and a bunch of studs at almost every position, even after losing a bunch of studs from last year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Sunday, I\u2019ll take Virginia Tech +7.5 vs. South Carolina on a neutral site. All of these teams are so new in the portal era and need time, and I simply like more than a touchdown against a South Carolina defense that lost a ton.<\/p>\n
(Photo of Ryan Day: Jason Mowry \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You know it\u2019s football season when people start talking about their bets, as if you care. But Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[117,391,4707,256,54,7,4716,49,48,69,57,5433,1078,4734,3863],"class_list":{"0":"post-322556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-chicago-bears","10":"tag-cincinnati-bearcats","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cleveland-browns","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-football","17":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","18":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","19":"tag-sports-betting","20":"tag-texas-longhorns","21":"tag-toledo-rockets","22":"tag-virginia-tech-hokies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115102628585283225","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}