This is another of the conference championship battles where one team is looking for big time revenge against another. The Badgers had their perfect season ruined at Michigan State. They were rolling along before the Spartans took them down on a Hail Mary that night. So what does Wisconsin have in store for the Spartans on this night? The bookmakers think that Wisconsin will control this one, as they have pegged the Badgers as a better than nine point favorite. That is a lot of lumber to lay, especially in a Big 10 game. Can the Badgers do it and leave their backers feeling happy?

This looks like a game where the line almost begs you to take Michigan State. They have had a good year and they have already beaten Wisconsin once. Shouldn’t their defense be able to keep this close and cover the number? That is all true until you take a hard look at what Wisconsin has done to opponents this year when they are not on the road. This is a neutral site game and you should see a Wisconsin team that is ready and focused. They will score a lot of points on Michigan State and the Spartans don’t have the horses to keep up. That will be the difference in this game.

Wisconsin has found its groove and it has a lot to play for. It has revenge on the mind and it will have a new offensive plan in place. These things all point to the Badgers having a nice night on Saturday. Perhaps they will run the Spartans out of the stadium, but I think it is at least a safe bet to assume that the Badgers will win by a couple of touchdowns. This will be an interesting matchup, but in the end you have to believe that Wisconsin has too much on offense for Michigan State to stop for a second time.

The Georgia Bulldogs and LSU Tigers meet in the SEC Championship game. Doesn’t this one just feel anti-climatic? Don’t you just feel as if Alabama and LSU should go ahead and play for all of the marbles? The problem is that there is one small issue to settle on the field before that can happen. The Dogs and Tigers battle for the SEC’s big prize and this is a game that could have a surprising outcome. If you are making college football picks this week, you might want to take special note of this game and make your picks accordingly.

The LSU Tigers have been great this year, as they have rolled through a number of opponents. This has to be a bit of a trap, though. They think they have the thing locked up and they are looking forward to a game against Alabama in a month. How can they focus on playing a tough UGA team in this one? They better be on point, as well, because UGA has the horses to stay with LSU in this game. The Dogs are getting almost two touchdowns on the line, as well, so that might be something to take a look at if you want to play a live underdog. So why is Georgia an alright pick int his spot?

The Dogs have an underrated defense that should be able to keep LSU honest. They have stopped the run well and they have played the pass well, too. The Dogs have a lot of big time talent up front and they will not have a hard time slowing down the LSU run game. After that, things get interesting. LSU has some weapons on the outside, but they aren’t truly dangerous through the air.

On the other side of the ball, UGA has a lot of skilled talent and a bunch of good offensive linemen. They are the most balanced team that LSU will see this season. Do I believe that Georgia will win this game? Chances are they will come up short. They do have a shot at covering the number, though, and they look like a pretty fair pick this weekend.

The Bedlam Game, as it has been called for many years, will take on a new feel this year. In year’s past, this has been just another game. This year, though, it will act as the defacto Big 12 Championship game. With the conference not having a championship game this year, the teams will face off to see who gets to represent the Big 12 in a BCS game. The matchup itself is intriguing, as are the storylines that go along with it. When you make your college football picks this week, this is a game to keep your eye on. It will almost certainly be one of the most entertaining games on the slate this weekend.

So what is it about this game that we love so much? For one, you will get to see a couple of high flying offenses. Oklahoma State comes in with Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon, a QB-WR combination that helped lead the school to its best start in history. The train came off of the tracks against Iowa State, but the Cowboys are still very good. They come into this game as a field goal favorite at home, with the public giving them plenty of backing. They play well in Stillwater, but do they play well enough to beat an Oklahoma team that has owned this series over the years?

That is the big question. Oklahoma has struggled on the road over the last few years, but they took care of business against Oklahoma State on the road last season. The strange Big 12 scheduling has them going back to Stillwater to play yet again. This is a different situation, though. The Cowboys are better and the Sooners are worse. Oklahoma is also banged up, as it is missing All-American WR Ryan Broyles. The offense has struggled to put up big numbers without Broyles, so that could continue here.

Expect the Cowboys to come out hot and take it to the Sooners. Oklahoma has dominated this series, but Oklahoma State will be the big winner on Saturday. They will take advantage of the Sooners and run away with this one.

The Seminoles came into this season as one of the most hyped teams out there. They were respected by oddsmakers and they were voted into the top-5 by voters. My, how things have changed. Florida State now owns losses to Oklahoma, Clemson, Wake Forest, and Virginia. It dropped two of those games at home. It is out of the running by a long shot for the ACC title game. It has simply been a frustrating team for people who would lay money and for people who thought this would be FSU’s year to dominate the ACC again. Now, one week after losing at home to UVA, the Noles have to go on the road to face Florida.

So Florida might not be great this year, but they are still tough at home. The Swamp is still a difficult place to play, especially at night. When the Noles come calling, it will certainly be loud. If you are making your free college football picks for Saturday, you cannot discount this factor in your analysis. It will matter and it will play a huge factor in how the game plays out. Another thing to consider is the Florida defense. UF has played solid defense this season and has the personnel to shut down Florida State. This will help to keep the game close.

The line is strange in this game. The Noles are favored, but only by a point. The public is backing the Florida State team after Florida struggled with FCS-level Furman last week. But it seems likely that Florida spent the bulk of its time healing and preparing for FSU last week. While the Noles were busy losing a night game to a physical Virginia team, the Gators were resting up and getting fat on a bad opponent. Ty to look beyond what is obvious and you will see a Florida team that needs this win in a bad way. You will see an FSU team that hasn’t gotten up for a big game yet this season. The Gators may win this game outright on Saturday night.

The Clemson Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks hate each other. This is one of the nastiest rivalries that no one knows about, and the hate even extends down onto the field. During the last decade, we have seen a lot out of this rivalry. There have been close games and blowouts. There was a massive brawl that took away the bowl hopes of both teams. Now, the Tigers and Cocks are both ranked in the top-20. Unfortunately for Clemson, though, this game comes with many more question marks than it does certainties.

The Tigers looked horrible last week in Raleigh, losing to N.C. State in a game that wasn’t close. But you need to look a little further and see if that was just a mirage. Clemson had locked up its division and had literally nothing to play for at State. The Tigers were without left tackle Phillip Price and all-world WR Sammy Watkins. They looked emotionally and mentally disinterested. This falls on the coaching staff, but one has to think that Swinney and company will have the team better prepared for Saturday. The Tigers have lost two straight to the Gamecocks and no coach has lost three in a row to them since Frank Howard did it in the 1960s.

The Tigers are catching four points here and the public has been steadily pounding South Carolina. In this series, Clemson has been the dominant power over time. They have won well in Columbia, taking three of the last four and five of the last seven. Can they pick it up and return to early season form? One big question is whether Clemson can stop the zone read of South Carolina. The Gamecocks run with the quarterback an awful lot and Clemson has had trouble with this in the past. South Carolina, on the other hand, has struggled against the two good offenses that it faced. Clemson has as many weapons as UGA and Arkansas, so it hopes to see similar success in moving the football through the air. Look for the Tigers to keep this one close as you make your college football picks this weekend.

On Saturday, a host of schools will play their annual rivalry battles. Thanksgiving brings this each year and it makes for one of the most exciting times for bettors. If you are going to make successful college football picks this weekend, then you need to know a bit about these games.

When Georgia and Georgia Tech get together, there is always a lot of bad blood. The two schools hate each other and they have played some close games over the years. This year, they battle in Atlanta, where the Yellow Jackets have been up and down this season. The Jackets ran out to a 6-0 start before dropping back to back games at UVA and against Miami. They then took down Clemson in a huge game and fell at home to Virginia Tech in a game that would have won the Coastal Division. So can they get up for a Georgia team that is coasting toward the SEC championship game?

Conventional wisdom says that Georgia Tech has a chance to win this game. They run a strange offense that is hard to prepare for in a single week. Georgia clinched its division and should be looking ahead to a matchup with either LSU, Alabama, or Arkansas next week. The Dawgs have also had some trouble stopping the run this season, so that bodes well for the Jackets. UGA comes into this game as a 6.5 point favorite and the public has backed them at that number to this point.

What is going to happen in this one? That depends upon whether GT can stop the UGA offense. Tech has been bad on defense at times during Paul Johnson’s tenure. They will look to turn that around on Saturday and will look to control Aaron Murray. This seems like a lot of points in a game that figures to be close. UGA went into Atlanta two years ago and took down Tech. I would expect GT to show some fight in this game, coming close to winning if they don’t pull off the actual upset.

The Texas Longhorns have been a strange team this year. They played well to start the year, then got destroyed by Oklahoma. Then they flew under the radar for a little bit. Now the Horns are playing much better football, led by a running game that just keeps churning up yards along the way. So what can we expect from the Longhorns when they travel to Columbia for a tough noon game on Saturday? If you are going to successfully make those college football picks, then you need to look at all of the different angles that this game presents. To be sure, there are lots of different ways to handicap this one.

The Horns can run the ball, but they have had very little success throwing. They struggle on the outside and don’t have any special playmakers there. Likewise, QB David Ash is raw and his running ability is more impressive than his throwing ability at this point. They rely heavily upon a number of different backs to get the job done, as they are not going to beat anyone through the air this season. When they go on the road in this environment, will the Horns have what it takes to knock off Missouri? The conventional wisdom says yes, but I’m not quite sure they are ready yet for this kind of challenge.

The Missouri Tigers are balanced on offense. They run the ball extremely well behind Henry Josey and the good legs of quarterback James Franklin. When he doesn’t turn the ball over, Franklin is capable of moving this Missouri team up and down the field. More importantly, this is a team that can really stop the run on defense. They struggle to stop the pass, but the Longhorns don’t have the weapons to expose this weakness. When they stack up against the run, what is going to happen in this game? Will the Horns be able to keep it moving enough to actually win this game? If you are making college football picks, then you might want to lean on the Tigers in this game.

What a week it has been for the Penn State Nittany Lions. No one has to tell you what happened this week in State College. If you have been paying attention at all, then you already know all of the ugly details associated with Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, and the Nittany Lion nation. Now, Joe is out and the Lions must go on without him. They must play a game against a Nebraska team that has to be wondering what in the world to expect. This is a strange game where we just can’t be sure what kind of effort the Penn State team is going to give.

In this spot, they come in as 3.5 point underdogs. Without their coach and with bruised psyches, can they bounce back and keep winning? Can they play good enough defense to make up for their clear offensive deficiencies? This is a clear issue that must be addressed. The bigger issue for you to consider as you make your college football picks is how the team will respond emotionally. This could go one of two ways. It could possibly turn ugly for the Nittany Lions. They could mail it in and give an unfocused effort. This is what every person in Happy Valley hopes doesn’t happen.

The other scenario is one that you have to consider, too. What if Penn State, on senior day, rallies as a team and plays an inspired game of football. What if they are lifted to a higher level of effort in hopes of honoring their embattled former coach? If that happens, then you wouldn’t want to be on the side of Nebraska. Given that the Huskers have struggled so far this season anyway, there is a strong case to be made for playing the Nittany Lions in this spot. Most people will be watching this game whether they have a bet down or not. If you are looking to make a college football pick on this one, then perhaps you can root for the senior Nittany Lions to come up big.

The Kansas State Wildcats have had an incredibly difficult stretch. All of the talk of their weak schedule has flown out the window, as K-State has faced a very difficult run of games over the last month. Now, they will have another challenge, as Texas A&M comes calling in Manhattan. The Wildcats almost took down unbeaten Oklahoma State one week ago, but they fell a little bit short. After getting blown out at home by Oklahoma a few weeks ago, they will now turn their attention to the homefront. What do we make of the Wildcats and Aggies in this game as we prepare to make our free college football picks?

First, there’s this odd line. Though the Wildcats are ranked, have a better record, and are coming off of a more impressive performance, Texas A&M is a five point favorite. The line is moving up, too, with the Aggies being six point favorites at some shops. How does this make any sense? The truth is that it doesn’t make sense. In no way, shape or form does this game compute logically. This is something to keep in mind and it’s an issue if you are going to be this game. You need to be aware that betting on Kansas State might leave you walking into a major trap here.

The Aggies can stop the run and that’s going to be important. As you make your college football picks, one of your goals has to be finding the right matchups. In this game, the Aggies have the ability to take down quarterback Collin Klein and the Kansas State running game. If they can stop the run, then they would force Kansas State to beat them through the air. On what should be a windy field and with a quarterback who struggles to pass, it is hard to see Kansas State taking care of business in that way. Texas A&M might be the safe play here for people who want to make a little bit of money with their college football picks. It will take some guts, but it is the right side.

The South Carolina Gamecocks have been winning lately, but it hasn’t been pretty. The offense has struggled to say the least, but the defense has been quite good. Now, they head to Arkansas to tangle with a team that has had their number for a long time. The Razorbacks went into Columbia last season and took down a South Carolina team that eventually won its division. They beat South Carolina like a drum and they’ve been consistently better than the Gamecocks for the better part of twenty years. Can they come to play again in Fayetteville and cover a spread that current sits at around 5 points?

Arkansas has the weapons on the outside to score points against South Carolina. They have the best offense that SC has faced and they are playing at home. This should lead to a breakout performance. With the home, night crowd on their side, expect the Razorbacks to look focused in this one. The Gamecocks have also had to go on the road two weeks in a row, so you might expect them to be a bit road-weary. This is a long trip from South Carolina, so that could have an impact, as well. Arkansas should be the pick in this one, so favor them if you must play this game.