Vindy's Picks Week 12-2010

BCS, BBB JOIN FORCES

ARLINGTON, Virginia (Reuters)....Tired of watching your favorite team run the table, then get snubbed for a national title shot based on strength-of-schedule, yada-yada as determined by some machine-generated ranking and end up in the Podunk Second-Class Citizen Bowl??! Well due to a merger between the controversial Better Business Bureau and the Bowl Championship Series, fans; alumni and bettors alike can pool their “resources” and improve weekly standings by simply offering up “contributions” to the powers-that-be (to ease operating costs, of course). Campaigns are currently underway in Ft. Worth and Boise, as well Baton Rouge and South Bend to gather enough funding to better their respective teams post-season positioning. Already among the media-created monikers for the scandal are...”Guilders for Grades”, “Rankings for Rubles”, “Standings for Six-Pence!” and “Bowling for Benjamins!”

Even with a Friday night dubya to kick it off, the tired tea leaves still couldn’t make any headway, going just 11-11 (93-105-2, .469) for Week Eleven.

If you trigger extra searches while going through airport security this holiday season, you can either receive a full-body pat-down by some TSA bruiser named Hildegarde or accept exposure to...

THE WEBER KID’S 2010 WEEK 12 FORECAST
(Free with the purchase of any Carnival cruise!)

FRI. NOV. 19
#3 BOISE STATE over Fresno State giving 30 ½: Like there’s any doubt? Broncos caught a huge break when Toads scraped by San Diego State and the Utes never came outta’ the locker room in bad loss to the Leprechauns. Boise will hope one of the two teams above them in the BCS standings slips up and will rain down the usual firestorm in the meantime. Bulldogs on a short week following 1-point defeat to Reno...Blue Shag University 54 FSU 13

SAT. NOV. 20
#1 Oregon: IDLE (next @ Stanford)

#2 Auburn: IDLE (next @ Alabama 11/26)

#4 TCU: IDLE (next @ New Mexico State)

Mississippi over #5 LSU taking 16 ½: If there’s such a thing as winning ugly in a 51-0 blowout, Bengals managed to do so vs. UL-Monroe, with the defense and special teams doing the heavy lifting and the offense doing little more than mopping up. Tigers can lock in their first winning spread season since 2004 with a cover and seek revenge for last year’s 25-23 loss in Oxford...LSU 26 Ole Miscellaneous 12

#6 Wisconsin over MICHIGAN giving 5: LOCK OF DA’ WEEK. Nowhere to go for Wisky except down after slapping a four-score on the Hoosiers, but Badgers have beaten Ohio State and Iowa. Wolverines D finally made an appearance last week, holding Purdue to 16, but Wisky’s backs will run for days. Big Blew lost home games to MSU by 17 and by 10 to the Hawkeyes...Cheese Dip 34 Michigan 10

#7 Stanford over CAL giving 7 ½: Cards were in a defensive struggle, winning just 17-14 vs. the Sun Devils, despite 420 yards of offense, but we don’t think Bares can get up defensively themselves again, even in “The Big Game” after smothering the Mallards but losing 15-13 following a missed chip-shot FG that woulda’ put them ahead. Cal’s lost both previous games to ranked opponents this year by total of 3 points. Trees are just 3-2 ATS on the road... Stanford 27 Berkeley 14

#21 IOWA over #8 Ohio State taking 3: We flip-flopped on this choice a couple times. Not usually a good sign. Hawkeyes gave up a 10-point lead in the final stanza to lose at Northwestern. State ripped off 35 unanswered points after spotting the Nitwit Lions an 11-point halftime edge. Iowa lost at da’ Shoe in OT in 2009, off a similar loss to NW, for just one of its two SU losses. Buckeyes are unreliable as road faves. Can Hawkeyes rush defense stand-up to Boom Herron?... OSU 17 Iowa 16

#9 Nebraska over #18 TEXAS A&M giving 2 ½: Taylor Martinez played thru the pain, leading Big Dread to a sleepy 20-3 win over Kansas. Aggies recovered from 16-point deficit, and yielded a half-K of land along the way before beating Baylor. Huskers, who have back-to-back unimpressive wins, slowed down a bit this time last season too, but it’s a small number to cover and Aggies RB Gray won’t find nearly as much room to run here...Corn Cobs 27 A&M 20

Georgia State @ #10 ALABAMA: No line.

Purdue over #11 MICHIGAN STATE taking 20: Boilers, Michigan’s second-lowest-scoring opponent, is 3-3 ATS in conference play, including nearly-inexplicable SU victory over Northwestern. Rested Sparty probably won’t catch Wisconsin for the automatic Big Tenuous BCS bid and has been a go-against in November games in 8 of the last 9 years....MSU 27 Purdue 13

#12 Oklahoma State over KANSAS giving 24: Okie State’s stop-squad has held four of last five opponents to an average of less than 19 ppg (51 to Nebraska notwithstanding). The pain continues for KU, but hey...it’s hoops season in Lawrence!...OKSU 47 Jayhawks 20

#13 Arkansas over #22 MISSISSIPPI STATE giving 3 ½: Soeeeey Pigs whacked UTEP by merely outscoring their own mistakes on defense and special teams. Bulldoggies have won 5 of 6 games in Starkville (3-2 ATS), losing only by 3 to possible national title finalist Auburn. Hogs bashed SEC East champ South Carolina by three touchdowns. MSU is 8th in the SEC in pass defense at 227 yards/game... Arkansas 34 Mississippi State 27

#14 Virginia Tech over #24 MIAMI giving 2 ½: ‘Canes have won four of their last five games outright this year, with odd loss at Virginia. Can’t go against streaking Hokies with Miami having been clocked by the other pair of ranked teams they’ve faced (Ohio State and Florida State) and going with back-up QB this week...VT 17 Pelicans 7

IOWA STATE over #15 Missouri taking 11: We contemplated an upset call here until learning Dust Devils will go with back-up quarterback. But given Tigers’ 0-3 spread slide and inconsistency of both teams (Mizzou escaped San Diego State; ‘Clones took Nebraska to OT then got smoked by poor Buffaloes squad). State needs a victory to play in December...Missouri 19 ISU 12

#16 Oklahoma over BAYLOR giving 7 ½: Sooners won 33-7 in 2009, but that was a couple weeks following the Bears loss of Griffin for the season. Baylor could be feeling snake-bitten following loss to the Aggies after taking an early 16-point lead. OK is 0-2 ATS in true road games on the year, 1-3 away from Norman and 5-5 against the line overall. We asked “Peggy” from that Discover Card commercial if she liked the Sooners or the Bears. She replied, “Yeeeessss??”...Sooners 29 Baylor 17

#17 SOUTH CAROLINA over Troy giving 23: Troy not quite the Sun Belt elite of yore, though just a single game from the conference lead. That one-game difference however is the result of 17-point home loss to Florida International, who sits atop the Fun Belt. To their credit, Trojans did lose just 41-38 in September at then-unranked Oklahoma State. Troy just 2-7 ATS overall. Gamehens are celebrating their first-ever SEC title match berth and have rival Clemson looming. Will SC exhale?...Poultry 45 Troy 19

New Mexico State over #19 UNR taking 37 ½: Wolfpack barely dodged a bullet vs. Fresno and has Boise on-deck. Aggies posted their first spread loss in 5 games last week, losing by 21 to Weeziana Tech. NMSU 3-2 ATS getting points away from home and have been decent 10-6-1 in that role the past three seasons. This one could end up 49-3 or maybe something to...Reno 41 NMSU 20

OREGON STATE over #20 Southern Cal taking 3: Trojans continue to play hard despite having nada to play for because of the post-season ban. USC has won four of its last five games. Scoring just 24 total points over last two after averaging almost 30 ppg over previous seven, the loss of James Rodgers is really starting to show for the Beavers, who fell into last week’s “WTF???!!!” category with an outright loss to Wazzou, who was getting 23 points! State still needs to take two of its final thee matches to reach bowl-eligibility...and have Stanford and Oregon left on the schedule!...OSU 20 USC 19

#23 Arizona: IDLE (next @ Oregon 11/26)

#25 Utah over SAN DIEGO STATE giving 3: The wheels have not yet come completely off the Utah wagon despite 1-2 SU/0-3 ATS sputter. Aztecs are certainly improved under Brady Hoke and maybe little more than a berth in the Las Vegas Bowl awaits Utah, but surely there’s still a talent gap and SDSU may have left all they had on the gridiron in Ft. Worth...Utes 27 Aztecs 23

BETWEEN THE HASHMARKS

BTW, the BBB has chalked up the current scandal accusing the organization of taking cash in exchange for bolstering grades for businesses to a “clerical error”. Vindy is no stranger to clerical mistakes and has, himself, committed more than his own share of typos, but let’s face it...a simple case of happy fingers and the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana (formerly UL-Lafayette) garner a Top 25 slot while the Bengals of LSU find themselves in the cold with their lips pressed up against the window...on the outside lookin’ in! Maybe the collaboration will lead to the acronym “BBBCS”!

Almost a Twilight Zone moment: Vindicator went 11-11 in Week 11, which started with a Friday-nighter just one day later than 11-11! Would’ve only been eerier had Boise played Thursday night during next season!

The “Cam” in Cam Newton was lookin’ like somethin’ short for Camelot. Now it’s the diminutive of camouflage!

Nitwit Lions might as well have inserted freshman QB Rob Bolden if they wanted someone to hurl interceptions for touchdowns in second-half of the Ohio State game (or sent in the Weber Kid if they simply wanted somebody to just hurl!)

En route to a game last January at Clemson, the North Carolina basketball team bus was hit by another vehicle. No injuries were reported. Thank goodness for side-deploying airballs!

The NCAA unveiled plans for its First Four, expanding the tourney to 68 teams. The four lowest seeds square-off to eventually face #1 seeds and the four last at-large qualifiers face each other and end up in originally-seeded spots. Great...a couple more of those Northeast Potato Grove State vs. University of Puerto Rico-A&M tilts to start things off! Somebody queue-up Sweet Georgia Brown!

Black Shirt: The terrific Tee goes to Super Steve Spurrier for finally game-planning the Gamecocks past Florida in the Swamp and making Vin look like a genius with his Upset Pick of Da’ Week call!

“Locked in a Box?”: Reno couldn’t get it done vs. Fresno, leaving the record at 4-7 (.364).

Shoppe Talk: No surprise here....Ohio State at 3-7 and the Red Raiders at 0-4 (3-17-1 last 21 appearances). The Badgers join in on an 0-4 skid , along with UNR at 1-4.

Vindy’s Week 12 Best Bets: Last Week: 2-2-1 Season: 21-29-1 (.420)
East Carolina -9 ½ over RICE, Eastern Michigan +7 over BUFFALO, NC State +2 ½ over NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTHERN MISS -4 over Houston

Struggling badly with college football, Vindy notes he did hit his inaugural college hoops wager, getting a nice parlay win behind UMass and Cal-Santa Barbara (BTW, keep an eye on Pepperdine! Ya heard it here first!).