Thursday, September 3, 2009

it's Thursday: cool weather and NCAA lines ...

Frankly, it makes me feel all tingly inside.

College football does indeed start tonight for real — the best game on the Thursday slate is probably the Oregon-Boise St. matchup, for which the locals are preparing to do weird things to all of our brains. People with epilepsy had best be very careful out there.
(One other programming note: tonight is also the night the Lincoln Golden Bears have to return to football, only two days after they said goodbye to their head coach. Should be an emotional night, and having Cleburne County — a perennial power in the region — won't help a great deal, either. I'm definitely pulling for those guys tonight, though — and coach Howard will be, also.)

This season's odds come courtesy of usatoday.com. Also worth noting: Florida's game (supposedly they were -73 vs. Charleston Southern) has come down off the board. Go figure. UPDATE: Dr. Saturday has an excellent post about some potentially appetizing lines this weekend. Definitely check that out.

Thursday
South Carolina (+4) at North Carolina St.
Troy (-6) at Bowling Green
Utah St. (+23) at Utah
Oregon (+5.5) at Boise St.

Friday
Tulsa (-14) at Tulane

Saturday
Minnesota (-6) at Syracuse
Kentucky (-13) at Miami (Oh)
Navy (+20.5) at Ohio St.
Western Kentucky (+28) at Tennessee
Western Michigan (+11) at Michigan
Baylor (+2.5) at Wake Forest
Georgia (+5.5) at Oklahoma St.
Nevada (+12) at Notre Dame
Missouri (+6) at Illinois
La. Tech (+12.5) at Auburn
(Note: Way, way too high. Anybody who gives away nearly two touchdowns in this one is crazy.)
BYU (+21) at Oklahoma
Northern Illinois (+15.5) at Wisconsin
(Note: If you like upsets ... well ...)
Va. Tech (+5.5) vs. Alabama (Atlanta)
LSU (-15.5) at Washington
(Note: This game should scare me. Weird start time, good vibes around Washington, all kinds of upset potential. But it occurred to me I might be over-thinking a little.)

Sunday
Mississippi (-16) at Memphis
(Note: I never advocate wagering large sums of money on the actions of people in their late teens and early 20s. But I definitely do not advocate doing so when those same children are coached by Houston Nutt. The man is insane and his teams play accordingly. Stay away, stay away, stay away.)
Colorado St. (+11.5) at Colorado
Cincinnati (+6) at Rutgers

Monday
Miami (+3.5) at Florida St.
(Note: This may be the most watchable game between these two in several years. In fact, they should promote it that way.)

2 comments:

UmcMatt said...

I have a question.. Is there a difference in VT being +5 rather than Alabama being -5?

Is it just two different ways of stating the same thing?

Unknown said...

Matt,
There is not. You shouldn't be concerned with lines anyway.
(Just kidding. Kind of.)