The Storm

By Roman Rickwood, Sports Enthusiast

Who needs a crystal ball when you have Roman to predict the future! If you planned on putting money on any of these games last week, next time wait for Roman to put out his most spot-on predictions and who knows, you might win some cash (maybe). — Editor Jessica Denyer

We always talk about the calm before the storm, but today we are going to talk about the storm. This past weekend in college football the storm arrived with a slate of many rivalry games and ranked matchups. First game up was the famed rivalry between Michigan and Michigan State. This year was a little bit different however as both teams were coming into this game undefeated and playing many of the same teams. To me this was the closest and most evenly matched game. I predicted a low-scoring defensive slug fest, and I was wrong. The betting line for this game had Michigan favored at -4.5 points, meaning that in order for this to cash, Michigan would have to win the game by 5 or more points. Michigan lost by 6 points. This year the game was played in East Lansing, which made it a Spartan home game. MSU had an incredible season this year under their new coach Mel Tucker. He brought new excitement and energy to the program. This was a signature win for him. Michigan was the best team MSU played all year. I liked Michigan State money line! I believed that MSU would play their game and have the benefit of a loud and excited home crowd to cheer them on. It worked. They actually came BACK and won: 37-33.

Next game up was the famed Georgia-Florida game played annually in Jacksonville at TIAA Bank Stadium. While this game normally decides the SEC east, this year it was a little bit different. With Florida sitting at 4-3 and Georgia sitting at 7-0, this game did not have as many connotations as it has had in years past. However, this was still a rivalry game at a neutral site between two teams that absolutely hate each other. Georgia was favored by 15 points at -14.5. I personally thought this number was low, which is why I took Georgia with the points. I also took the over 50.5 points as I believed that Georgia would have something to prove to the Gators this year, and I believed they would be out for blood after the loss they suffered last year at the hands of the Gators. In the end, Georgia won by way over 15, and the two teams did not combine for over 50 points. Final Score: 34-7.

Finally, to close out last Saturday’s big games and rivalries, we had Penn State at Ohio State. This game, much like the Georgia-Florida game, may not have had the same connotations as it has had in the past, but once again this was a rivalry game on Halloweekend. Penn State came into this game with two losses, essentially eliminating themselves from National Title contention. Ohio State came into this game with one loss and desperately trying to play their way into National Title contention. Vegas had the Ohio State Buckeyes favored at -18.5, and Vegas got it wrong. The game was relatively high scoring with an Ohio State offense pretty fiery and a Penn State Offense that had something to prove after only scoring 18 points in last week’s loss to Illinois. The Final Score: 33-24, Ohio State.

Last Saturday was the best weekend of college football that has been played so far this year, with so many marquee matchups. Regardless of if your team was playing in a big game last weekend, it was exciting college football to watch. Kudos to the networks for putting these games back to back to back.