As 2009 draws to a close, we find ourselves smack in the middle of the bowls. You shouldn’t be bowled-out with football picks, either, as the bowls slowly build to the crescendo that is the Texas/Alabama showdown.
The college football regular season has come to an end and all conference champions have been crowned so we look to the college bowls for our Weekly College Football System of the Week.
This week’s Cajun Sports College Football System of the Week takes a look at the biggest game on the college card; well it’s the only game on the college card for Saturday December 12th. Army and Navy Square off in Philadelphia for their annual battle which will be carried on CBS with kickoff set for 2:30PM Eastern Time.
The landscape in NCAAF looks the same as it did a week ago, as the table’s are getting set for the big Thursday feast across the country, so is the NCAAF Bowl Championship table set.
All 6 unbeaten teams remain unbeaten, but the 1 loss teams have melted down 2 just 2, as Pitt and Georgia Tech are now alone with a single loss.
Last week’s Cajun Sports NCAA Football System of the Week qualified the Iowa Hawkeyes minus the points over the Minnesota Gophers and they won and covered for us with a final score of 12 to 0. With last week’s win our system improved to 12-0 ATS.
It’s Thanksgiving week, which means the middle of the NFL campaign while winding down the college football regular season. Late season college football means heated races for conference titles and bowl berths, plus rivalries that span decades, all of which can influence college football predictions. These games can have far more importance for players than September/October clashes.
Stanford exceeding expectations:
No one expected Stanford to be in the hunt for a Pac 10 title in mid-November but that’s exactly where the Cardinal find themselves after pounding USC this past Saturday. Stanford ran all over Southern Cal, amassing over 325 yards rushing on 50 carries. This Stanford ground game is absolutely electric as they rank 10th in the country in rushing as they are averaging more than 222 yards a game on the ground. Stanford was able to control the clock and keep USC’s athletes off the field as they had the ball for more than 36 minutes.
The season is winding down, and with it the teams that remain unbeaten, count 6, but the 1 loss teams have suffered a lot of causalties, and have now dwindled to just 2, with Pittsburgh, and Georgia Tech the lone survivors at 1 loss.
The National Championship picture is beginning to become more and more evident, so let’s take a look at what lies ahead.
This week we focused our research efforts on teams that are coming off straight up losses as large favorites in their last game and what happens to them the following week. Here is what we uncovered for this week’s college football action.
System: Play AGAINST a team (not a favorite of 16+ points or underdog of 28+ points) off a SU loss as a favorite of 19+ points against a +.375% foe in its last game.
Pop quiz: Out the 19 worst rush defenses in the nation, only one comes from a BCS conference. Who is it?
We could be really annoying and make you grind through the rest of the story before giving you the answer. No one wants that, so …
Here we are a week before the great pumpkin makes its anual appearance, and our ever shrinking list of unbeatens has dropped to just 7. It offers hope for 1 loss teams, as this list shrinks, the opportunity to play in the title game becomes more and more of a reality with each passing week.
Texas gets signature win in ugly fashion:
Heading into the Red River Shootout against Oklahoma, most experts didn’t know just how good this Texas team is because they really hadn’t been tested up until this past Saturday. It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination but Texas pulled out a 16-13 win over the Sooners in a tough, hard fought game. Texas knocked out Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford early in the first half but still let the Sooners’ QBs throw for 327 yards.
There has been enough football under our belt in this conference to weigh out my power ratings. I use these as overlays against the spread. Much like many novice cappers do with the Sargin ratings in USA Today against the Las Vegas Line. It is not broken down by division but is an overall ranking based on offense, defense, special teams, turnover ratios, and a few other intangibles.
Nebraska is the team to beat in the Big 12 North:
Nebraska squared off against an undefeated Missouri team on Thursday night and came away victorious. The weather conditions were extremely poor with the rain causing both teams to make mistakes. Nebraska trailed 9-0 at halftime and 12-0 at the end of the third quarter.
Each week Ben Burns and David Payne scour the non-BCS conferences looking for a hidden gem.
Life is tough in the MWC and WAC. Lose one game, and you go from a potential BCS bowl to the Humanitarian Bowl. That’s a mammoth pay cut, and a lot of pressure on the coaches from the non-BCS conferences.
Here we are barely midway through October, and the list of unbeaten teams in NCAAF has shrunk to 9, and with Cincinnati visiting S. Florida this week, there will be at least one more missing from the list come next week, and several teams don’t have easy games, so I will not be surprised if the list grows even shorter.
Let’s take a look at this week’s games featuring the unbeatens.
