This week was another theoretical money sink. The staff combined to go 16-26. It should be noted that the Ole Miss-Missouri game was a push, so it was not included in the record. Tom and VU ‘04 were the only winners with both of them going 4-3. The rest of us were all 2-5. The bad week drug me down to 30-29, which finds me in a tie for the lead with VU ‘04. Import sits in third at 24-33. Tom is alone in 4th at 24-35. Just like at the top, there is a tie for last between Shawn and CDA at 23-36.

With 8 games but only having a winning pick, it was an interesting week. In the worst-case scenario for our picks and personal enjoyment, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State both failed to win, much less cover their spreads as the favorites. Only Tom and VU ‘04 were not completely wiped by those two results as they picked UNLV. VU ‘04 and I both thought SC would keep it closer than 24.5 with Georgia, though I am not sure either of us would have taken them as the outright winners they proved to be. Texas A&M got their game against Alabama to 19 points with 9 minutes left but could not find the point and a half I needed to go from lone loser to lone winner. Arkansas keeping the game against to Kentucky to 4 points made Tom the only one to win on that game. CDA’s faith in the Florida Gators was rightly punished, but he got us all back by being the only one to take Texas to stay within 10 of Oklahoma.

Week 9 is a full slate of SEC-SEC games, and our buddy James Franklin’s Nittany Lions make an appearance as the OOC game of the week. Two people actually think Vanderbilt keeps it to 3 scores against Missouri (oh, I guess we are playing an OOC game. Sorry!) while none of us think Tennessee will keep it within 34.5 of Alabama. Nobody has more than 6 of the 8 games in common, so we could see a big shakeup in the standings again.

The Rules

1. All SEC games against FBS competition will be picked. FCS games are excluded since lines are often not available until very late in the week or even the morning of the game.
2. One other game, typically a matchup of Top 25 teams, will be part of the picks.
3. The picks will be made AGAINST THE SPREAD. Too many games are easy to pick heads up. Also, this will serve as a PSA for why you should not get into sports gambling if Tennessee (or wherever you reside) makes it legal.
4. The lines will be taken from ESPN Oddshark (because ESPN was not updating by Monday morning) sometime Monday, so they may not match what is listed at the time this article is published.

The Standings

The Picks

GAME	DotP	Shawn	Tom	VU04	CDA	Import
Missouri (-21.5) @ Vanderbilt
Auburn (-18.5) @ Arkansas
Florida (-6) @ South Carolina
LSU (-19) @ Mississippi State
Kentucky (+25) @ Georgia
Texas A&M (-6.5) @ Ole Miss
Tennessee (+34.5) @ Alabama
Michigan (+9) @ Penn State