Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Week 12 College Football Picks
It's been awhile since I have published any college football picks, so let's get back on that bicycle, shall we? As always, all of my picks are guaranteed correct or your money back.
While it's always a good idea to shop for lines, for the purposes of this column, all of these lines are from Bovada and are accurate as of Tuesday evening, November 24th.
Mississippi State @ Mississippi, over 67.5
Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral is just special. If you don't know him yet, get to know him. He's hit on over 90% of his passes (!!) in each of the last two games, where he has totaled 925 yards.
Additionally, five of the Rebels' seven games have had totals of 75 or more. Mississippi State's totals have ... not been that high, but their own quarterback, Will Rogers, has turned the corner, with yardage and rating improvements game over game the last three games, culminating with 336 passing yards last week in a close loss to Georgia.
Plus, you remember who Mississippi State's coach is, right?
(It's Mike Leach. The answer is Mike Leach.)
Louisville @ Boston College (-1)
This line is a real head-scratcher to me. Boston College had a bad game against Virginia Tech, where they lost the turnover/turnover on downs battle 6-0 and were blown out. Other than that, they have lost to #12 North Carolina by 4, #2 Notre Dame by 14, and to #3 Clemson (granted, without Trevor Lawrence) by 6.
What I'm saying, Boston College is good, firmly in the top half of the ACC. Louisville has been unlucky at certain points, but they are 2-6 in the conference, and those wins came against moribund Florida State and Syracuse. Is there a key injury I'm missing? BC should be heavily favored.
Stanford (+1.5) @ Cal
This one is pretty straightforward to me as well. Both Stanford and Cal are 0-2. Both of Stanford's losses are to teams that are still undefeated. Both of Cal's losses are to teams that haven't won, except over Cal. Statistically, it appears Cal perhaps should've won last week in Corvallis, but I'm still not seeing them as an appropriate favorite here. Take the Cardinal.
SPECIAL BONUS PICK ON A SPORT I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN ABOUT IN NEARLY 20 YEARS OF THIS COLUMN:
2020-21 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, overall men's champion: Alexis Pinturault (+220)
You'll have to go to Intertops for this one, it's the only sportsbook I see offering it.
Pinturault has been runner-up (to two different champions) the last two seasons, and last year, he won the most events, but his lackluster results in events he didn't win led to his second-place finish in the overall table in 2019-20.
This year, he's a year older (29) and wiser, and I think he reaches the top of the ... ahem ... mountain.