Week 8 Pick-em results. A Slightly Boring Victory. But a Big Victory Nonetheless.

Of the 22 BCS Top 25 games this week, 21 teams did what they were supposed to do. Only two upsets this week, but Oklahoma over Kansas is hardly an upset, so the only ones who didn’t win their game in a weekend of gimmes was Miami. Clemson was a .500 team coming into this game and should have been outmatched by the once again rising Hurricanes, but Clemson was able to hold out and keep me away from a perfect week once again.

I can hardly claim perfection in such a boring week of competition. It’s hard to say that any weekend in October could mean a boring week for sports. There are dozens of major stories happening each week in October, but it wasn’t necessarily the action that was missing, just the match-ups. With the exception of an underrated Oregon State team facing USC, there wasn’t a real college game this week, even though there proved to be some exciting ones (Tennessee v. Alabama & Iowa v. Michigan State). Pretty much everyone in the Top 25 won by double digits, or it was never really even a contest. Oregon State put up some late game numbers in their bout with USC, but it was pretty clear early who would win. The final score doesn’t necessarily reflect the nature of that game. It’s always tough for me not to pick upsets, and even though I picked one on paper with OU beating 25th ranked KU, that wasn’t really an upset pick. So this was my first week of not really picking any upsets, but with this uninteresting week in both College Football and the NFL, I couldn’t pick any.

With a 21-1 week, I’m now at a 130-31 count. That puts me at the highest percentage I’ve been all season at .81, so I shouldn’t really be complaining. Next week should be much more interesting, which could once again negatively effect my numbers. The two major battles of the week will be No. 3 Texas traveling to No. 15 Oklahoma State and No. 5 USC heading up to Eugene to visit the mighty No. 10 Oregon Ducks. More than likely, Oregon is going to cause a lot of problems for the Trojans. After their season opening debacle against Boise State, Oregon has caught ablaze putting up ridiculously impressive numbers. They haven’t faced a defense like USC yet however, and SC has the advantages on both the defensive and offensive line. Everyone thinks it’ll be close and it’s always really hard to win in Oregon, whether at Corvallis or Eugene, but I think the Trojans will edge out the Ducks, if only by a little; but that’s assuming USC can score the points.

College Football is BACK!!

Welcome back College Football, we missed you dearly. What a weekend! No matter what university you associate yourself with; this was a great opening weekend.

Highlights of the Week:

-Top ranked Florida thumps the Charleston Southern Buccaneers 62-3. They looked good doing exactly what everyone expected them to do, which is probably the hardest thing to do in sports.
-No. 2 Texas beats University of Louisiana Monroe 59-20, which infers that the Big 12 will be following last year’s pattern of a lot of offense and little-to-no-defense. Even with the large margin of victory, ULM Warhawks should not score 20 points against a 2nd rank Longhorn team.
-No. 23 Notre Dame defeats Nevada 35-0. Even though it was Nevada and not a top 25 team, holding anyone to a shut out is impressive, just ask the 2008 USC defense.
-Then No. 3 Oklahoma loses a stunning heartbreaker to BYU. Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford goes down with a sprained his throwing shoulder. Bradford will be out approximately 4 weeks. To add insult to injury, OU’s star Tight End, Jermaine Gresham will be out for the remainder of the season after having surgery to repair torn cartilage in his right knee. It may be a long couple of weeks for Sooner fans.
-No. 14 Boise St. vs. No. 16 Oregon: Boise domination from the get-go, 19-8 Boise St. final, Blount punch, embarrassment for PAC-10, USC national championship hopes get a little harder.
-No. 4 USC’s true freshman quarterback, Matt Barkley, surprised many by having a near perfect game in their 56-3 victory over San Jose St. There may also be some real promise in John Morton, USC’s new offensive coordinator. In comparison to Steve Sarkisian’s Trojan offense, Morton’s play calling was innovative and eclectic, allowing USC to pretty much do whatever it wanted.
-No. 6 Ohio State barely squeaked by Navy with a score of 31-27. It took an interception from Ohio State on a late 2-point conversion attempt to secure the victory, but for some reason, many experts still think the Buckeyes are going to beat USC this Saturday. Hmmm…
-Miami vs Florida St.: by far the best game of the week. It all came down to one last play, but Florida St. couldn’t quite convert after having 6 chances to get into the end zone from within the 5 yard line. 38-34 Final.

LOOKING FORWARD (Can’t Miss Games of the Week):

No 18. Notre Dame @ Michigan 3:30PM ET (on ABC): Finally Notre Dame seems to be out of their 10 year funk, but winning one game decidedly doesn’t mean that they’re going to the National Championship Game, even though that’s what the Notre Dame radio station and the Notre Dame Broadcasting Channel (otherwise known as NBC) would have you believe. Michigan had a relatively impressive win last week over Western Michigan. Maybe the Wolverines are back on a track to playing like the “winningest” team in College Football. Prediction: Notre Dame 24-13 over Michigan.

No. 3 USC @ No. 8 Ohio State 8:00PM ET (on ESPN): As the only AP Top 25 match-up of the week, this game is clearly the most intriguing game of the week. Unfortunately, it will also probably be the most disappointing. After finding their groove in the first week, this won’t even be a contest for USC. Ohio State has been deemed a national championship contender for the last 8 years and each year has been proven to not even be in the same stratosphere. This year won’t be any different. Terrelle Pryor will put up a good fight and is worth 6 points, but they don’t have the horses to keep up with the Trojans. Prediction: USC 37, Ohio State 10.

Idaho State @ No. 13 Oklahoma 7:00PM ET: Maybe not a “can’t miss” game, but certainly one you might want to keep your eye on. Idaho State got crushed by Arizona State last week, 50-3. While this game may be near unwatchable football-wise, what will be interesting to see is how OU deals with the loss of two of their best players. This may be a great chance for them to rebound and get their feet settled. Their defense still has some issues though. Prediction: OU 41-10.