The streak has died. After 3 straight weeks of 0.500 picks as a staff, this week was a bloodbath. None of us won as much or more than we lost. To be fair, it was a small 5-game slate due to a mixture of the schedule and my dumb self forgetting to add the OOC game of the week. Still, Tom going 0-5 while Shawn, CDA and Import all went 1-4 is brutal. VU ‘04 and myself managed to eek out 2 wins for 2-3 on the week. As a whole, that tallies up to 7-23. Gross. Bad Gambling Advice from EVERYONE.

There were some painful ones last week. Ole Miss scored with 5 seconds left to turn a push for all of us into a loss for all of us except VU ‘04. Incredibly, Ole Miss appeared to be content to run out the clock, but had consecutive 28-yard passing plays to go from their own 44 to the end zone in 10 seconds. Ouch. We all got bit by Texas A&M giving Arkansas the Georgia State treatment. Not preparing for them is the only explanation I have for aTm not completing destroying the terrible Piggies. Instead, the Razorbacks led three different times (about 15 minutes of game time total) including 3 minutes into the 4th quarter. The Aggies, unlike the Vols with Georgia State, were able to find a way to win though. Meanwhile, I was the only one to have faith in the Gamecocks hosting the Wildcats, as they won by 17 as a 4-point favorite.

Oh, and NIU used a 2-point conversion while down 8 after the TD to draw within 6. Lines later in the week would have gotten you a push on that number. Instead, we all lost. Yeah, that is just about as painful as actually having a one-score game with NIU. I cannot imagine having actual money on a game that finishes that way.

This week 6 games are on tap. The schedule consists of 3 SEC-SEC matchups (Vanderbile-Ole Miss, Auburn-Florida, and Georgia-Tennessee), 2 SEC teams playing OOC games (Utah State-LSU and Troy-Missouri), and the Top 25 non-conference match-up of Michigan State at Ohio State. We are all in on the Dores, but Vanderbilt has not been the right pick ATS in a game so far this season. Auburn and Ohio State are the other unanimous picks. When all of the staff takes the same team in a game, we have been right 1 out of the 4 times this season. With the Utah State-LSU and Georgia-Tennessee games being split 4 and 2, I was curious how the numbers look in those games. For games where 2 staffers dissent from the pack, the dissenters are 10-6. More amusingly, when only one staffer takes a team, that team is 6-4. If you needed any more confirmation that Vegas knows how to get people to lose a lot, there it is.

Note: I had failed to include the results from Northwestern-Stanford in Week 1. I noticed the error in the spreadsheet and have adjusted the standings to represent the correction.

The Rules

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.

One other game, typically a matchup of Top 25 teams, will be part of the picks.

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.

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
Vanderbilt (+7) @ Ole Miss
Auburn (-3) @ Florida
Utah State (+28) @ LSU
Troy (+25) @ Missouri
Georgia (-24.5) @ Tennessee
Michigan State (+20) @ Ohio State