For the second week in a row, the staff went 21-21. I had the best week again, going 5-2. Shawn and Import went 4-3. Yes, Import did not go sub 0.500 this week! Huzzah! CDA and VU04 both fell a little short at 3-4. Tom’s bad gambling decisions earned him an apropos 2-5 record.

The small slate made each game more important than normal. Auburn and Georgia completely obliterated their cupcakes to cover the 35 and 33 points that they were laying respectively. The only misses on those games came via Tom and VU ‘04 not trusting Auburn, which is fair because Gus Malzahn. Mississippi State struggled with QB1 Tommy Stevens very limited and leaving a game for the second straight week, and they lost outright, despite being almost a TD favorite. Shawn, Tom, and Import had too much faith in the Maroon Bulldogs. Tom got the gift of the year when Ryan Hilinski found Kyle Markway for an 11-yard, garbage-time TD to get the Game Penises within the 26 point spread, which no one else thought would happen.

Arkansas proved everyone except gambler extraordinaire VandyImport wrong by beating Colorado State by 21 as the 10-point favorite. Florida may have ripped the hearts out of Big Blue Nation, but the 9-point underdog Wildcats were still the right call by Shawn, VU ‘04, and me. The real loser in that game was me though, as I was stuck listening to the Florida radio feed. They definitely wear skirts and use pom-poms because the broadcast crew is just 2 old-man cheerleaders. As expected (and hoped), the non-conference game was wild. Houston and Washington State had a late scoring flurry that saw the game go from a 4-point Wazzu lead with 10 minutes left all the way up to 14 for the west coast Cougars. Houston would find the end zone with 2:21 left to get under the 8.5 points you got when taking them. This cover made Shawn, Import, and me happy.

Vanderbilt is back in action, and the number of cupcakes goes to 1.5. The half is for Arkansas playing San Jose State and is more about how bad Arkansas has been than saying anything nice about SJS. Auburn-Texas A&M, Tennessee-Florida, Kentucky-Mississippi State, and South Carolina-Missouri are all playing conference games that should be reasonably competitive with spreads of 2 scores or less. Ole Miss and Georgia host ranked foes Cal and Notre Dame, though Georgia is a 13.5-point favorite. The non-conference game is Michigan-Wisconsin where we get to see if the scare put into the Wolverines by Army means Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor will have a field day.

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
Southern Miss (+30) @ Alabama
LSU (-24) @ Vanderbilt
Tennessee (+14) @ Florida
California (+1) @ Ole Miss
Auburn (+4) @ Texas A&M
Kentucky (+7) @ Mississippi State
South Carolina (+9.5) @ Missouri
San Jose State (+21) @ Arkansas
Notre Dame (+13.5) @ Georgia
Michigan (+3.5) @ Wisconsin