SMART BET Week 3 College Football

After we started the day last Saturday 2-2 we had a great chance to end the day with a profit, but UAB failed miserably in the 2nd half, leaving me down 4 units for the season. There is still a lot a research to be done for the week ahead, but a couple games I am getting on early and I think you should too.

Boise St (-24) at Wyoming: My forte does not come in the form of playing road favorites, as documented through my time here at thepassrush, but this is a must play for me. Boise St pulled out the dramatic outright win over VT in week 1 and as I have stated several times this is BSU’s best chance at winning the National Title and there was no better way to start the season than with a solid win over a nationally ranked and recognized program. However, VT forgot that their season wasn’t over and needed to show up in week 2 and suffered the worst defeat in school history. The important question is where does that leave BSU? Without VT’s loss, BSU still needed and needs to dominate the rest of their schedule and if you think that BSU’s Coach doesn’t know the line for this game at Wyoming you are nuts. For BSU to have any chance at the National Title it is now more important than ever for them to absolutely blow teams out. Even one weak game against a weak opponent means they will not be playing in the Title game. Therefore, I fully expect BSU to win by 40+ in the game against Wyoming.

The Play: BSU (-24) for 1 unit.

Ball State (+17) vs Purdue: First off I just don’t understand how Purdue can be favored by 17 over anyone. Decent rivarly game here and Ball State will be ready to play here on Saturday. Statistically, Ball State has played just as well as Purdue so far this season. Western Illinois out played and out gained Purdue last week, but TOs cost them the outright win. Ball State returns 19 starters from a year ago and I believe this team will be improving each week. Obviously there will be some really bad weeks, like last week’s outright loss to Liberty, but overall this team is decent and they will be ready this week verse Purdue. Therefore, I will take a small shot with Ball State.

The Play Ball State (+17) for 1 unit.

The Play: San Diego State (+14) vs Missouri for 1 unit. Early statistics have this game as a much play. I know that we only have two weeks of stats and SDSU has not played the same level of competition, but their O and D have been very very good. Missouri has been ok, but I am just not sold that they can win by more than 2 touchdowns.

The Play: Arizona (+2) vs Iowa for 1 unit. Hope you jumped on this pick early as most places now have it as a pick’em. Great home dog here, revenge factor from losing at Iowa a year ago, match-up problems with the wide receivers for Iowa. I just think Iowa will be explotied in this one. Az wins pretty easily.

The Play: Arizona St (+14) vs Wisconsin for 1 unit Very under D for ASt. They are tough and should do a decent job of slowing the tough running game of Wisconsin down. I know ASt has been historically bad away from home, but the finally have the talent to actually play a very solid all around game here for Wisconsin.

The Play: Miss St (+8) vs LSU for 1 unit

The Play: USC/Minn OVER 53.5 for 1 unit

The Play: Wis/AzSt OVER 46.5 for 1 unit

The Play: Iowa State vs Kansas State (-4): Iowa State is coming off a thumping at the hands of Iowa and they have consistently played poor on the road over the last two years. KSt will be ready for this one and should come with a big game and easy blowout.

 Northern Illinois v Illinois (-7) for 1 unit. NIU is in the same boat as Iowa State and I think both suffer a similar humiliating loss. Illinois could be the most underrated team in the Big Ten. If they come focused they win big.

Updates and write ups to follow.