Weekly Picks

Bob's Picks for Nov. 7, 2009: Point Spreads always are based on Danny Sheridan's Wednesday spreads in USA TODAY.

Bob's picks last week Against-the-Spread (ATS): 1-2, Season: 18-19

All 2009 Games

Last Week ATS:
Favorites covered 29 (54.7%), failed to cover 24, 2 Evens, one No Line

Season ATS:
Favorites covered 183 (48.4%), failed to cover 195

Right Concept, Wrong Teams

Don't blame me for my losing Halloween picks of black-and-orange-clad Oregon State and Oklahoma State. I was right with the Halloween concept, just the wrong teams. I would have like to have picked Princeton, which beat Cornell for only the Tigers' second win of the season. Princeton is now 8-0 since World War II on Halloween.

If only coach Lane Kiffin had told "Sundaymorningquarterbacks" about the Tennessee Volunteers' first-ever donning of black jerseys to go with their orange pants. Of course, the jersey change for Halloween night came as a surprise to the team, so it was impossible to have known. If only, I guarantee we'd have jumped on the Vols in their 31-13 win over South Carolina.

Here are my picks for the week of November 7:

Saturday (3:30 p.m. EST): Ohio State (+4) at PENN STATE

Penn State is back home for the first time in three weeks, and the enormous crowd will deck itself all in white for another Beaver Stadium "white-out." Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryor, without a lot of help on offense at least this season, and he'll face the toughest defense he'll see this season. Pick: Penn State -4

Saturday (3:30 p.m. EST): Louisiana State (+8) at ALABAMA
It may be surprising, but LSU's Jordan Jefferson arrives in Tuscaloosa as the higher rated quarterback than Alabama's Greg McElroy, who has recent problems in the red zone. Bama's defense is as good as it comes, however, and the Crimson Tide is on a mission, off a bye week and wanting to turn their recent 2-7 record against the Tigers. The Tide will have to scrap for every point and likely need a turnover to get an extra TD to cover eight points. Pick: Alabama -8

Paul's Picks for November 7

Paul's picks last week ATS: 2-2, Season 20-16

Doing This for a Living?

There are so many ways to come to a conclusion about any given game when factoring in a spread, whether one crunches numbers or goes with a hunch to just name two, that it is funny that we are talking about a bunch of kids here. When I was that age I could rarely be counted on to do anything with consistency. Sophomore year I do remember having my first beer each day at 10AM while watching reruns of Speed Racer. You would have had to have been crazy to gamble hard-earned money on something that I was involved in that year. Or take the 2009 Purdue Boilermakers, who have upset Ohio State and narrowly lost to both Oregon and Notre Dame. In those games they looked at times to be one of the better teams in the country. But they are 3-6 on the year and lost 37-0 last week to a solid-but-not-spectacular Wisconsin team. So when factoring in weather and injury reports and past history and whatever else you use to make your picks, it still comes down to which games a team like Purdue shows up for and which games they do not.

Here are my picks for the week of November 7:

Saturday (Noon EDT): Northwestern (+16.5) at IOWA

While I guess you can make an argument that the Hawkeyes are due for an easy win, this cardiac-inducing squad is more likely to continue to sweat out the victories. There is so much at stake for a team that is too reliant on making plays in the 4th Q that something has to give. Northwestern was playing Penn State even until QB Mike Kafka went down with an injury. He is in the starting lineup Saturday for a Wildcats team that beat Iowa in Iowa City last year and in 2006. Pick: Northwestern +16.5

Saturday (3:30 p.m. EDT): Oregon (-6.5) at STANFORD

Sure Stanford is undefeated at home this year and yes you can make a strong case that Oregon is still playing their whipping of USC over and over again in their minds, but the Ducks are just too strong for a game Cardinal team. Making matters worse for the home team was the knee injury suffered in practice Tuesday by LB Clinton Snyder, the team's leading tackler, who is lost for the season. Pick: Oregon -6.5

Saturday (3:30 p.m. EDT): Duke (+10) at NORTH CAROLINA

Why not ride the Blue Devils, who are 2-0 on the road in the ACC this season? They have such a huge advantage in the QB department between their own Thaddeus Lewis (188-296/2315y, 15 TDs, 4 INTs), who is red hot, and UNC's T.J. Yates (126-211/1159y, 9 TDs, 9 INTs), who lacks consistency, that this spread is out of whack. Pick: Duke +10

Saturday (7:30 p.m. EDT): Houston at TULSA (even)

Houston is doing its best to make a case for a BCS bowl. Is that motivation or pressure? Being that they still have work to do to secure the Conference USA West Division, I opt for the motivation factor. QB Case Keenum should add to his impressive season stats page against a Tulsa defense that allowed SMU frosh QB Kyle Padron to throw for 354y last week. Tulsa has played four weak teams this year (Tulane, New Mexico, San Houston State and Rice) and swept them and four teams with a pulse (Oklahoma, Boise State, UTEP and SMU) and lost all four. Pick: Houston Even