The shortened schedule turned into our best week based on winning percentage. VU ‘04 led the way with a perfect 5-0 pick set. Everyone else went 3-2. Going 20-10 as a group is pretty damned good, especially considering all of the wild variability from COVID. Games not cancelled are still being impacted with players unavailable or having limited practice.

Vanderbilt, as 17.5 point underdogs, only lost by 3 to make us all winners, but I think I was th only one who dared to predict it would be THAT close. Of course, I predicted a lower scoring game as opposed to the semi-shootout that happened. Arkansas let down Import, Tom, Stan, and myself by letting Florida run away with that game. Ole Miss let South Carolina stay close for a while but did create a sufficiently large margin of victory to cover. Tulane won handily in an evenly split bout with Army. Miami trailed Virginia Tech until the bitter end but won by 1 as 2-point underdogs to leave Import out in the cold.

Going forward, the slate looks full except for the postponement of Ole Miss at Texas A&M. With 9 games on the docket, three of them have been picked unanimously. Two have a lone dissenter. The final four are split 4 to 2. Thus, no games are evenly split.

Tulane played at Tulsa last night. It proved to be a result that the timing of when the line used was decided mattered. The spread was Tulane +5.5 later in the week whereas we played it at Tulane +6.5. Since Tulane lost by 6, they were the right choice. Also, it was a situation where an OT TD was not followed by a PAT that would have made the final margin 7 and also changed the right pick. Sorry, Tom.

The Rules

1. Normally, the picks are for all SEC games with one dealer’s choice where I get to choose another game to make us pick. This year, it is going to be all SEC games, one dealer’s choice, and the Campbell Fighting Camels game! Why? Because I said so.
2. 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 with more states making it legal.
3. The lines will be taken from Oddshark’s consensus spread some time Monday, so they may not match what is listed at the time this article is published.

The Standings

The Picks

GAME	DotP	Stan	Tom	VU04	CDA	Import
Florida (-31.5) @ Vanderbilt
LSU (-1.5) @ Arkansas
Kentucky (+30) @ Alabama
Tennessee (+10) @ Auburn
Missouri (-5.5) @ South Carolina
Mississippi State (+25) @ Georgia
Georgia Tech (+18.5) @ Miami
Tulane (+6.5) @ Tulsa
Indiana (+20.5) @ Ohio State