Big 10 Pick 'em

Thanks to Gopher Nation/The Daily Gopher for putting the Pick 'Em contest together.

Here are my picks for all of the Big Ten Games this week:

Indiana over Western Kentucky
OSU over Youngstown St.
Penn St. over Coastal Carolina
Wisconsin over Akron
Iowa over Maine
Minnesota over NIU

File all these games in the "Pimping out the MAC/1-AA" category. If there's an upset in any one of these game, it's most likely going to be NIU over Minnesota, mainly due to NIU having the greatest degree of competency (that is to say: little) among all the sacrificial lambs.

Northwestern over Syracuse

Well, at least this game is against a BCS opponent. Northwestern has a chance to redeem themselves from their hilarious loss to Duke last year with an opponent of about the Blue Devils' character. Expect C.J. Bacher to throw the ball from Evanston to Chesterton.

Michigan over Utah

Now we're getting to the interesting games. For the record, I hate myself for making this pick. However, it seems like everyone is picking Utah to win this game, and in a game with the spread as close as it is (UM - 3.5 at last check), that unanimity in thought is a sign to pick the other way. I think the offense will resemble the Exxon Valdez, but the tailbacks will break 1 or 2 big plays, and the defense will get 3 takeways. That'll be enough...but barely.

MSU over Cal

See here for the preview. There's rumors that Jimmerson and Curry might be out for this game, but the 1st stringers will pull through.

Missouri over Illinois

I'm still not sold on Juice Williams. He barely had more TD tosses than interceptions last year (13/12 ratio). Mendenhall's in the NFL, and the tailback replacing him (Dufrene) has good stats, but is inexperienced (6.2 YPC, but less than 50 rushes in his career). Add to that the loss of J Leman on the defensive side, and I think Missouri wins this in decisive fashion, by a double-digit margin.