Which five college football games seem to be the best bets and picks against the spread going into Championship Week
Championship Week Fearless Predictions, Game Previews
– Schedule, times, lines, examples
– CFN Fearless Predictions & Game Previews
– Choice and Predictions of CFN Experts: College
– Expert Choice and Predictions from Week 15: NFL
Results so far ATS: 80-62
Click on each game for the game preview and fearless prediction.
5. Oklahoma vs Iowa State
LINE: Oklahoma -5
ATS CHOICE: Oklahoma
– Bet on this, BetMGM latest line
Take this with a grain of salt, because this is 63% hard analysis of the belief that Oklahoma is going to win this, and 35% You Never Ever Mess With History, and 2% Pac-12 Championship.
USC should and should have and should have and could have won and covered that Pac-12 home championship against Oregon, and juuuuuust when I went to pick the ducks in the belief that this year’s program had to come up with something special, I ignored feelings and gut and went with USC.
Never deal with your gut and feeling, but yes, you have been warned that part of this choice has nothing to do with logic and reason.
And that goes for the assumption that history matters here – as if the 18 to 23-year-old boys on the field are concerned about what happened yesterday, much less in the past decade, and much less in the 1890s.
Iowa State has never won an outright conference championship in more than 100 yards of college football.
Oklahoma is going for its gajillionth outright conference title – it has won ten of the last 14 Big 12 championships.
Never, never, never with a streak. It breaks, you tip your cap and you go about your day.
Enough craziness …
Oklahoma did not have RB Rhamondre Stevenson in the first meeting. He’s a fresh-legged hammer to combine in a spin against a great Iowa state defense that allowed 114 yards the first time.
Oklahoma also has de Ronnie Perkins in the first meeting. He has only played in four of the team’s nine games and he is still the team’s third in sacks and tackles for loss.
This is also a relatively young Sooner team in several places. QB Spencer Rattler has been better and calmer as the season has progressed, four of the top five pass catchers are underclassmen, and the offense appears to be past the first part of the year’s sales troubles.
This is a great Iowa State team – it would be really great for the fan base if it won – but it’s Oklahoma in a Big 12 Championship.