Week 1 CFB Picks

Week 1 picks CFB

We are finally in week 1! We have games lined up from Thursday through Monday night. It brings with it the sweet, sweet, smell of upsets, sloppy games by teams who will end up in the top 10, and pure dominance by teams we will forget exist by week 6. This week is one of the best, purely because we finally get a full fix of college football after months of withdrawal, getting our fix on the occasional drama and rewatching Tavon Austin’s highlight tape for the hundredth time. I was also able to get my fix (honestly too much sometimes) reworking my computer ranking system over the offseason, scratching my head on how and why I kept seeing Oklahoma in my end of season top 5 (it was naming errors). Now, we can get our fix of pure, unfiltered, clean old-fashioned hate (well, not until Nov 28). 

As we storm into week one we get to see some expected and unexpectedly good games each day. Friday’s slate of games is one of the more lop-sided schedules, with few games I see ending within a one score difference. But, at least for now, I’ll be giving my two cents on each and every game for the week. Likely I’ll keep it to just my score prediction, maybe a comment or two here and there. With the exception of my games of the week. I’ll get into a deeper breakdown like I did for the ISU vs KSU game, that would literally take up all of my time, and this being a labor of love, I just can’t (until I sell my soul and the brand to some mass media company and I get to do this as a fulltime job).

Thursday we have quite the interesting line of games, according to ESPN there are three games with a spread less than 7 with a total of 17 games (all games with a FBS 1-A team). The deep dive for Thursday will be Ohio vs Rutgers. Two teams who don’t get a lot of (good) attention, who deserve more. Each of the ESPN one score spreads will be represented by college football fans’ favorite special character: *

Here’s my rant:

Thursday:

* (25) Boise St 24 - South Florida (USF) 10

Rutgers 27 - Ohio 21

Lafayette 3 - Bowling Green 31

East Carolina (ECU) 20 - North Carolina St (NCST) 31

Jacksonville St 13 - UCF 35

Delaware St 7 - Delaware 28

Saint Francis 6 - Louisiana Monroe (ULM) 27

*Wyoming 27 - Akron 21

Central Arkansas 10 - Missouri 38

Elon 17 - Duke 31

UT Martin 21 - Oklahoma St 24

Buffalo 10 - Minnesota 35

Stephen F. Austin 20 - Houston 30

Alabama St 17 - UAB 31

*Nebraska 28 - Cincinnati 31

Miami (OH) 10 - Wisconsin 28

Stony Brook 13 - San Diego St 38

Friday: 

Tarleton State 7 at Army 31

Kennesaw State 13 at Wake Forest 35

*Appalachian State 21 vs. Charlotte 3

Bethune-Cookman 21 at FIU 24

Western Michigan 20 at Michigan State 34

Wagner 3 at Kansas 45

Western Illinois 10 at (12) Illinois 38

*Auburn 27 at Baylor 10

*Georgia Tech 31 at Colorado 21

UNLV 27 at Sam Houston 10

Central Michigan 13 at San Jose State 27

Saturday:

Syracuse 24 vs. (24) Tennessee 31

Mississippi State 21 at Southern Miss 7

VMI 14 at Navy 28

*(1) Texas 27 at (3) Ohio State 31

Duquesne 23 at Pitt 34

*Northwestern 17 at Tulane 34

Ball State 14 at Purdue 27

Merrimack 24 at Kent State 34

FAU 13 at Maryland 37

Toledo 24 at Kentucky 21

Fordham 10 at Boston College 27

Robert Morris 10 at West Virginia 34

Central Connecticut State 7 at UConn 42

Old Dominion 10 at (20) Indiana 38

Eastern Kentucky 13 at Louisville 31

Bucknell 10 at Air Force 28

Marshall 21 at (5) Georgia 45

Nevada 3 at (2) Penn State 38

South Dakota 23 at (22) Iowa State 21

*Temple 10 at UMass 13

(8) Alabama 27 at Florida State 17

Maine 24 at Liberty 31

Montana State 23 at (7) Oregon 30

Alabama A&M 13 at Arkansas 33

Chattanooga 13 at Memphis 31

Illinois State 21 at (18) Oklahoma 34

UAlbany 6 at Iowa 27

Weber State 13 at James Madison 24

Coastal Carolina 17 at Virginia 35

Charleston Southern 7 at Vanderbilt 31

UTSA 14 at (19) Texas A&M 28

Southeast Missouri State 21 at Arkansas State 20

North Dakota 24 at (17) Kansas State 21

Nicholls 28 at Troy 34

Morgan State 13 at South Alabama 30

LIU 10 at (15) Florida 49

Austin Peay 13 at Middle Tennessee 31

North Alabama 10 at Western Kentucky 35

Missouri State 10 at USC 38

*UTEP 17 at Utah State 24

Arkansas-Pine Bluff 7 at (23) Texas Tech 31

*(9) LSU 20 at (4) Clemson 28

New Mexico 7 at (14) Michigan 30

Southeastern Louisiana 10 at Louisiana Tech 21

Georgia State 7 at (21) Ole Miss 35

Portland State 10 at BYU 24

Lamar 3 at North Texas 21

Abilene Christian 3 at Tulsa 24

Eastern Michigan 10 at Texas State 24

Rice 7 at Louisiana 21

East Texas A&M 10 at (16) SMU 38

Bryant 14 at New Mexico State 42

*Georgia Southern 17 at Fresno State 10

Northern Arizona 20 at (11) Arizona State 31

Idaho 24 at Washington State 31

Hawaii 10 at Arizona 28

*Cal 24 at Oregon State 28

Colorado State 13 at Washington 28

*Utah 31 at UCLA 24

Sunday:

Virginia Tech 17 at (13) South Carolina 27

*(6) Notre Dame 35 at (10) Miami (FL) 17

Monday:

*TCU 31 at North Carolina 34