It’s finally here. The final week of the regular season for most teams as they travel just down the road to their biggest rival. The match-ups have bigger stakes this year than most. Five rivalry games with both teams ranked, the biggest of which is the Iron Bowl. Living Alabama, I’m not sure if everyone will even make it to Saturday without setting the entire state on fire, but if we do, it will be one hell of a Saturday.
Let’s look at last week’s games first.
I went with Baylor just to avoid looking stupid, but…I looked stupid anyway. But I didn’t look near as bad as Baylor did. National Championship, Heisman, Big 12 Championship – all gone. It was a fun ride Baylor, thanks for playing. 0-1
I thought Johnny Football would play better than he did, but A&M looked terrible, and I think the Heisman will have lost all credibility if he gets invited back. Is he a good QB? Yes. Is he a great QB? No, and he never has been. He had one great game last year, and everyone thought he was a God among QB’s. Mike Evans deserves the award more than he does. 0-2
Missouri hung on over Ole Miss, and hopefully they can do the same against A&M. It would be great to see them against Alabama or Auburn. They should be undefeated right now. 1-2
UCLA just can’t seem to win the big one. It happened with Oregon, and when they had a chance to move on to the Pac 12 title game with a win over ASU, they blew it again. 2-2
I had no doubt Wisconsin would beat Minnesota and that the Gophers’ time in the Top 25 would be short lived. 3-2
For the second week Cincinnati was an underdog, and for the second week, they thumped the team they were an underdog to. Come on Vegas. 4-2
Week 1: 4-2
Week 2: 2-4
Week 3: 4-2
Week 4: 4-2
Week 5: 4-2
Week 6: 4-2
Week 7: 2-4
Week 8: 4-2
Week 9: 4-2
Week 10: 4-2
Week 11: 4-2
Week 12: 3-3
Week 13: 4-2
Total: 47-31
I have to get these done early because I’m going out of town tonight, so without further ado, here it is. My rivalry picks:
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Week Fourteen
#1 Alabama (-10.5) #4 Auburn
I can’t believe this line has gotten bigger in the last two days from when it opened. I can’t believe it’s double digits either way. If Alabama was playing at home, it would be understandable, but with this game down in Jordan-Hare, every Alabama fan (whether they admit it or not) is sweating profusely worrying about this game. I think Alabama pulls it out, but with shades of the 2009 Iron Bowl. Auburn will most likely come out with one of their strongest first halves ever, but Alabama’s second half fight will win this game. That is, unless Auburn gets another Godsend in the form of a tipped hail mary.
#10 South Carolina (-4.5) #6 Clemson
I’m a little surprised this isn’t closer to a pick’em between these two teams. I’m just not sure if South Carolina can pull this one out or not. I think both teams are overrated for where they are ranked, but I’m going to have to go with Clemson here. If South Carolina does indeed lose this game, it is going to make the SEC championship a snooze fest, regardless of who they face, a la 2010.
#5 Missouri Tigers (-4.5) #21 Texas A&M
I think the Tigers are going to get to Atlanta this year. Who would have thought after last season that Missouri would reach the title game before A&M based on the way these two teams have played collectively over the last two years. Luckily Missouri has the advantage of playing in the SEC East though.
#8 Stanford (-14) #25 Notre Dame
Not much to say here. Notre Dame is only back in the top 25 because there was no one else to fill that vacancy. That’s pretty much all I’m going to say about that.
#23 USC (-3.5) #22 UCLA
I’m going with the Trojans on this one. I was looking forward to a UCLA win last week over Arizona State so that the Trojans could get to the Pac-12 title game. Either way, USC has completely turned things around under Coach O, and I’m looking for a Trojan win to finish the regular season strong.
Texas (-4.5) Texas Tech
I was going to pick Michigan over Ohio State, but I figured this would be a safer pick. It would have sounded cooler on the radio to go with Michigan though. Either way, Kliff Kingsbury is doing a great job at Tech, and I think should be one of the candidates for coach of the year. Especially if they beat Texas.