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What ten college football games appear to be the best bets and the best picks against the spread going into Week 12? Here you go. Enjoy.
Week 12 Fearless Predictions, Game Previews
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac-12 | SEC
AAC | C-USA | Ind | MAC | MW | Sun Belt
– CFN Fearless Predictions & Game Previews
– Week 12 Expert Picks & Predictions
– Week 12 Final Thoughts, Betting Advice
– 10 Best Point Total Predictions
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10 Best ATS Picks So Far: 58-55
Click on each game for the game preview and fearless prediction.
Enough safe and sane. It’s time to go against conventional wisdom, blow past everything we know to be dear and true, and make picks based on hardened theories that have worked well before and will now be applied in real time.
What does that all mean?
Welcome to Reckless and Irresponsible Week. They’re the picks you probably shouldn’t make, and in your heart of hearts, can’t make. But at the end of the day, these are will likely be the right ways to go. You’ll see in a moment.
And the ten games that appear to be a wee bit favorable are …
LINE: Ohio State -53
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
ATS PICK: Rutgers
– Bet on this, BetMGM latest line
We’re going to kick this whole thing off with two hopelessly irresponsible picks – because conflicting predictions and conclusions are exactly what you’re looking for in a Ten Best Picks Against the Spread piece.
The official, more mature prediction in the Ohio State vs. Rutgers Game Preview is different. Of course Ohio State could win this by 54, or 84, or 104 if it wants to. But for anyone familiar with the tried-and-true method with the predictions over the years in this piece – and it worked when New Mexico State visited Alabama, and when UConn went to UCF, among other games – if someone wants to give 50 points or more, you take them, and you don’t ask questions.
Rutgers is going to get up on Saturday morning up 53-0 against Ohio State.
Too many things can go wrong for the Buckeyes not to get there. They have bigger fish to fry, so they might get up 48-0 at halftime, sit everyone, and stall the rest of the game. Rutgers could get a fluky touchdown. Ohio State could be unfocused for a quarter. There could be a lightning strike, a plague of locusts … it’s HARD to win a game by more than 53 points.
Ohio State could totally and completely wipe out the Scarlet Knights and win 55-3.
With all of that in mind, Irresponsible Pick No. 2 …
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LINE: Northwestern -41.5
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
ATS PICK: UMass
– Bet on this, BetMGM latest line
There’s one massive difference between this game and the Ohio State-Rutgers game. Northwestern might not be nice, because this is the only time all year the O is going have a little fun.
Northwestern has scored a grand total of 63 points since hanging 30 on UNLV in mid-September, and now you’re asking it to win a game by 42?
UMass has allowed 56 points or more over the last four games to teams like Liberty and UConn, and lost to FIU 44-0. Again, take this with a HUGE grain of salt, because this is more about the Minutemen getting off the bus up 41-0 than what the real pick and prediction is for this week,
If this helps, UMass started out the season losing to Rutgers 48-21.
Part Three of this theme, but not quite as much …
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LINE: Clemson -34.5
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
ATS PICK: Wake Forest
– Bet on this, BetMGM latest line
Pick against Clemson right now at your own peril, and Wake Forest is coming off a 36-17 loss to Virginia Tech, but there’s just enough offense on the field to at least make this a wee bit closer than the big number.
It’s hardly a plus that top Demon Deacon WR Sage Surratt is done for the year, and Clemson is hanging up 55 on the board without breaking a sweat, but it can win this in a total wipeout and not get to the 35.
The Tigers might have won each of their last four games by well over 35 points each, but the Demon Deacons are just good enough to score a few late points. Clemson will win in an ugly blowout on Senior Day, but in the final Irresponsible Pick of the Week, the team with the nation’s 13th-best offense is already up 34.5-0.
Oh what the heck, let’s just stay Irresponsible and keep the theme going …
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LINE: Ball State -2
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
ATS PICK: Ball State
– Bet on this, BetMGM latest line
What’s the most reckless way to make a pick? Spite.
Never, ever, ever, ever, chase, and that’s sort of what this pick is.
Who else had Buffalo -5.5 against Kent State?
It took an all-timer of a collapse – Kent State was 0-for-its-last-60 when down 21 points or more – in the fourth quarter to ruin that.
Throw in Toledo’s inexplicable home clunker to Northern Illinois, and Western Michigan coming through on the road in overtime against Ohio, and MACtion owes us.
So the final MAC game of the week is on here, only because we’re due for some puck luck.
Ball State has lost two straight, but Central Michigan isn’t strong on the road – 1-4 with the lone win coming against a bad Bowling Green team. The Chippewas are great overall against the run, but they’re 0-3 when allowing more than 125 rushing yards. NC State and Indiana are the only two teams to hold the Cardinals to under 150.
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LINE: Florida -6.5
Live Stream: fuboTV (click to watch for free)
ATS PICK: Florida
– Bet on this, BetMGM latest line
It worked just fine putting Florida here last week against Vanderbilt – covering the 26.5 with ease in a 56-0 rout – so let’s not mess with it.
Kelly Bryant is back at quarterback for Mizzou, but he’s less than 100%. There’s some fear that the cold of Columbia could be an issue for the Gainesville guys, but the defense should be just fine against a Tiger O that’s having massive problems scoring. It put up 21 points over the last three games against Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Georgia.
This feels a bit like a trap, but Mizzou has yet to beat at team this year that will go bowling, and the one good team it played – Georgia – just pitched a shutout. If Florida really is the No. 11 team in college football, it wins this in a walk.
NEXT: The Top Five Picks of the Week Against the Spread
