Don't Bet On It!: College Football Predictions in the National Games of Interest

by T Kyle King on Oct 20, 2011 11:45 AM EDT in College Football Predictions

By going 3-1 in my most recent set of national prognostications, I improved my record for the season in non-SEC picks to 17-11. Yeah, that’s right, 17-11. Now you know why I tell you . . . Don’t Bet On It!

This week’s national games of interest all will be played on Saturday, October 22, because I just flat missed that Arkansas State-Florida International Sun Belt barn-burner on Tuesday night:

USC Trojans at Notre Dame Fighting Irish: I admit it; I briefly considered making this the national game of disinterest, but, seeing as how the Men of Troy are 5-1 and the Golden Domers are 4-2, I thought that would be a bit of a stretch. I’m not sold on Southern California, nor will I ever be sold on any team coached by Lane Kiffin, and the purple-faced Brian Kelly (who, for all the absurd outrage directed at Todd Grantham and not at James Franklin, had the season’s most startling display of sideline outrage) has put some degree of fight back in the Irish. I’m taking Notre Dame to win at home, but, no, I don’t think that will wake up any echoes, so relax, South Bend.

North Carolina Tar Heels at Clemson Tigers: Those of us who have been waiting for the Fort Hill Felines to fold after their fast start thought last Saturday was the Jungaleers’ day of reckoning, but Dabo Swinney’s crew came roaring back to remain unbeaten. That makes it tough to disbelieve in this team, particularly when it’s playing in Death Valley. When the Orange and Purple renew their longstanding rivalry with the country’s oldest state-chartered university---oh, wait, they don’t renew that rivalry until 2013; this is just North Carolina---Clemson will win.

Washington Huskies at Stanford Cardinal: I want to believe in the Huskies, who have scored at least 30 points in each of their first six games, winning five of them. I want to disbelieve in the Cardinal, who have yet to defeat a team with a winning record. On the Farm, though, I’m taking Stanford to defeat a Washington outfit that didn’t exactly impress against the only other ranked team it faced.

Wisconsin Badgers at Michigan St. Spartans: Did you remember that, last year, Wiscy got the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl bid, even though the Badgers were tied for the league championship with a Michigan State team that beat the Badgers by a double-digit margin? Sparty sure does. I look for the perpetually smirking Bret Bielema to look as glum as Mark Dantonio after the Spartans win at home over cupcake-fattened Wisconsin.

As always, my skills as a forecaster are not to be trusted, so I strongly encourage you to enjoy my predictions for whatever entertainment value they happen to possess, but otherwise to place no stock in them whatsoever. In other words, whatever you do . . . Don’t Bet On It!

Coming Soon: National game of disinterest.

Go ‘Dawgs!

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Hmmm...

I was worried you’d pick the Trojan v. Irish game as the National Game of Disinterest. As a Trojan fan, I’m still miffed by the hiring of Kiffin. Since I am first and foremost a UGA fan, I naturally hang out at this blog the most. Unfortunately, there’s very, very, very little USC love around here…and that was before the hiring of Kiffin…It’s tough.

It’s a big game, and I’m glad you didn’t mock it by selecting it as the NGOD this week. Thanks. Heck, looking at the records, one could argue that from a national perspective, TWLOCP is just as meaningless. (I am not arguing that TWLOCP is meaningless, only that the ND v. USC game, nationally, is just as interesting.) If UGA can be ranked at 5-2 beating weak opponents, surely USC can, too.

That said, USC isn’t very good. I’ve seen most of their games this year, and they don’t have “it” on either side of the ball. Barkley has never impressed me, and, more importantly, their defense is mediocre at best. That said, I’m not sure ND is that good either, and I fully expect a USC victory.

Fight on!

As for Wisconsin/Stanford, I want them to go undefeated…and play each other in the Rose Bowl while Oklahoma/OSU plays Bama/LSU in the mNC. What’s a better way to get a Plus One than to have the two biggest BCS supporters shutout of the championship game?! Beautiful. Go Badgers! Go Trees! (I’m aware you are a BCS fan and do not want a playoff, so you are probably rooting for the opposite.)

"Don't go ninja'n nobody that don't need ninja'n!" ~ Kung Fu Hillbilly.

by Jman781 on Oct 20, 2011 1:18 PM EDT reply actions

I was actually a casual USC fan until the Kiffin hire.

The Trojans were fun to watch from 2002 through 2007 or so. Hiring Kiffin, though, that was a dealbreaker. USC shouldn’t expect any sympathy or respect as long as he’s on the sidelines.

What’s the football equivalent of “born on third base and acts like he hit a triple”? Lane Kiffin, except that the analogy needs to be extended to include something like slipping and falling on the way home and then crying when he’s tagged out on the ground.

by Spears on Oct 20, 2011 2:26 PM EDT up reply actions

I fully understand why people don't like Kiffin.

I get it.

But sometimes I feel USC is knocked simply because he’s their HC. That’s like saying Arkansas isn’t a good team this year because Petrino is jerk (and other words I won’t put on this blog), for the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Kiffin’s a baffoon and a tool. It’s true, but that doesn’t mean the team is terrible and worthy of the most uninteresting (word?) game of the week, especially when games like Northern Illinois v. Buffalo are on the slate.

If Kyle only considers Power Conference teams for the NGOD, then how about Wake Forest at Duke?

"Don't go ninja'n nobody that don't need ninja'n!" ~ Kung Fu Hillbilly.

by Jman781 on Oct 20, 2011 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions