September 2, 2010

Big Ten Bloggers Pick’em: Week 1

The Daily Gopher hosts and annual competition testing the prognostication skills of the Big Ten bloggers and this year is no different. Unfortunately, I was so bad at it in years past over at the Nittany Line that LB-U founder and lord of the manor, Mike would not let me do it myself this season for Linebacker-U. Soooo, we formed a committee of three and the majority rules. With that I give you this week's picks for the Big Ten games





DateVisitor @ HostTime, TVGalenTimMikeLB-U
Thu 9/2Towson @ Indiana7:30 p.m. Big Ten Network
Thu 9/2Marshall @ Ohio State7:30 p.m. Big Ten Network
Thu 9/2Minnesota @ Middle Tennessee7:30 p.m. ESPNU
Sat 9/4Western Michigan @ Michigan State12:00 p.m. ESPN2
Sat 9/4Youngstown State @ Penn State12:00 p.m. Big Ten Network
Sat 9/4Eastern Illinois @ Iowa12:05 p.m. Big Ten Network
Sat 9/4Missouri @ Illinois12:30 p.m. Fox Sports Net
Sat 9/4Connecticut @ Michigan3:30 p.m. ABC/ESPN2
Sat 9/4Purdue @ Notre Dame3:30 p.m. NBC
Sat 9/4Northwestern @ Vanderbilt7:30 p.m. ESPN3.com
Sat 9/4Wisconsin @ UNLV11:00 p.m. Versus
We'll keep track of each of our picks along with the collective totals, so that the best may ridicule and mock tip his hat to the rest. We'll also have some thoughts from each of our 'experts' so you may get an idea of what we were thinking.

Mike
My two cents: Indiana, Penn State, Ohio State and Iowa will win for obvious reasons. Middle Tennessee State should win the Sun Belt Conference this year, and have been known to beat BCS conference teams. MTSU returns most of their offense, while Minnesota returns only two on defense. Michigan State is a tempting candidate to be upset, but not likely. Missouri will contend for the final Big 12 North title this year, while Illinois is just hoping for a bowl game. UConn is another tempting pick, but I went with Michigan. If the Wolves' defense can play anything remotely resembling real football, UM will win this one. Notre Dame is going to be underrated this year, regardless of what all the haters out there think. Coach Brian Kelly isn't Charlie Weis, who didn't know how to be a college head coach. Kelly gets mediocre teams to do great things. Purdue will go bowling, but it won't start in South Bend. If Vandy's head coach didn't leave this off-season, I'd give the commodores a chance. But I really like Northwestern in 2010, and will get a nice win over the SEC. Wisconsin may have a little trouble with UNLV, but no way the Badgers blow this one, not with that offensive line.

Tim

All the WIN FIGHT TRY in the world won't save Timmy Brewster's Gophers from losing to an upstart MTSU squad on the road, especially with none of their returning defensive starters playing. I also made the mistake last year of picking Illinois over Mizzou but won't be fooled again this year (no, I wasn't watching CSI when I typed this). Purdue will give ND a run for its money but ultimately fall in a tight shootout in South Bend. I anticipate Michigan beating UConn in a similar fashion.

Galen

I'll skip the obvious picks because most of the games this week are. Missouri is just too good for Illinois, and I think Notre Dame is going to be better this year now that they actually have a coach (so sad). Wisconsin will grind UNLV to a pulp and who the hell is Towson? I just like Minnesota for some reason tonight, and I'm picking UConn for the simple reason that my Michigan fan friend thinks the Wolverines will overlook them and he's the one that picked Appalachian St. correctly so who am I to argue.
Check back in next week for week two's picks and the results for this week.

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4 comments:

  1. Hey, I never said such a thing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, don't try and look all innocent! You rule with an iron fist!!

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  3. Yeah, but you were the only one to pick Minnesota tonight... bully for you, sir!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fixed the damn helmet, I have no idea what was going on there, had to reload them.

    ReplyDelete

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