The staff as a whole had a decent enough week, going 24-24. The incredible part is that only one person finished under 0.500. Import led the way at 6-2. VU ‘04 and CDA followed at 5-3. Shawn and DotP were 4-4. Tom drug us all down by going 0-8. There have only been 2 0-fers since Week 0 (when the 2-game schedule caught VU ‘04 and DotP, which is funny seeing the standings now). Both of the 0-fers have been posted by Tom. Overall, somebody else finally took the lead as VU ‘04 has taken a 1-game lead. Import might be trying to sneak into the battle for the lead.

Clearly, we handled that 8-game slate pretty well. The problem was that most of us had given up on Vanderbilt, and none of us saw the injury to Tua Tagovailoa allowing Tennessee to keep the game with 34.5. The power of khakis did just enough to catch everyone except Import who expected our dear friend James Franklin to win by more than 9 against Jim Harbaugh. The rest of the games were a mixed bag.

Every SEC team playing this week will face another SEC team, but Vanderbilt, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi are all have an open date. Only South Carolina-Tennessee is listed as less than a TD, but it is only the game picked unanimously. Mississippi State-Texas A&M and Auburn-LSU were at 10.5 points in favor of the home teams and split the staff in half with the same 3 taking the home team in each game (and vice versa, duh). Missouri-Kentucky is another TD and FG spread, but only one staffer thinks Kentucky keeps it close. Presumably, we all believe Missouri will have an inspired bounce-back performance. Oh, and even with Tua replaced by Mac Jones, who did not look very good against THEM, only one person thinks Arkansas keeps it closer than 32 against Alabama. In the OOC game, 4 people think the Golden Domers beat (as 1-point underdogs) Michigan.

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
Mississippi State (+10.5) @ Texas A&M
Auburn (+10.5) @ LSU
South Carolina (-4) @ Tennessee
Arkansas (+32) @ Alabama
Missouri (-10) @ Kentucky
Notre Dame (+1) @ Michigan