Tonight's Pick

I went .500 Saturday, which, of course, is not good enough. I am leaning to Louisiana Tech tonight against North Texas but not by enough to pull the trigger. I will take Houston +18.8 at BYU. I love BYU this year but the spread is an overreaction to BYU's 2-0 start being that they have blown out two programs, Texas and UConn, that are playing horrible football. Houston's loss to UTSA is not shameful as that program is excellent and the Cougars of Houston went toe-to-toe with the Cougars of BYU last year. They will lose tonight but by a lot closer than 18.5. I also like the over 58 in this game.

View From Bennett Avenue

The Big East had to be happy with Cincinnati's rout of North Carolina State last night. Sure it was one a-bit-under-the-radar game, but it was the first ACC-Big East battle since Pitt and Syracuse switched conferences. When you are feeling low, it is sometimes the little things that spark a comeback.
Tonight's BYU-Central Florida match-up is also under the radar, but it should be a good game. BYU is now desperate for a win, while the Knights are desperate for any kind of coverage. UCF won 11 games last year, including a victory over Georgia in the bowl game, and still generated barely a sigh. This game will feature the defenses and I think BYU wins a close one. They had better or their once promising season will spiral out of control.

View From Bennett Avenue

Raise your hands if you thought we were done with all talk about schools switching conferences--at least until next year. But then a newspaper article outs BYU's desire to make like Notre Dame (well, athletically anyway) and become independent in football while having their other sports return to the WAC. The Mountain West then pounced on Fresno State and Nevada to replace BYU and a Utah program that jumped ship earlier this summer.
While Fresno and Nevada are fine programs, the dreams of glory that the MWC enjoyed after luring Boise State to join with the two Utah programs and TCU in what would be an excellent football conference have been officially dashed. They have lost ground and now have to hope that TCU stays as they will look attractive to a Big 12 shy a couple of members.
As far as BYU is concerned, they have always been an independent spiritually. Losing rival Utah to the Pac 10 ended their main connection to the MWC and so being independent makes sense as long as they can pull off the scheduling. Notre Dame knows that they have a long list of teams lined up to play them. BYU? I am not so sure as a trip there does not help with recruiting nor help most schools reach alumni. The Cougars will play you hard and yet a win against them rarely counts for as much as it should.
The WAC is obviously the big loser here. Good luck to them.