What conferences have teams that are getting their backers the money this football season? Let’s take a look at the spread records in interconference games thus far.

It is important to avoid overreacting to the small sample sizes. For instance, the Mountain West’s 3-1 mark is nice until you consider that BYU, Utah, and Colorado State all played in games that could have gone the other way in the final minute. Anything from 4-0 to 1-3 was highly possible there. But there is some data we just can’t ignore. On the positive side is the strong effort by the Pac Ten, where all five covers have been authoritative, including four by two TD’s or more.

Waaaayyyyyy on the negative side is the WAC. Fresno State was the only team to cover the number, back-dooring Tennessee on a long INT return for a TD late in the game. The rest of the teams all got slaughtered. In fact the conference as a whole has been outscored 334-59, albeit against tough teams. But even though the WAC schedule has been challenging, the pointspread is supposed to be the great equalizer. That has not been the case for the WAC, as the six spread losses have been by a total of 131½ points to the number. That is the kind of early performance that is well worth noting.

A lot of people are going to be reminded of something this weekend as they twiddle their thumbs and stifle a yawn in the blazing sun. Being at an NFL game can be dreadful. The game itself is fine, plenty of athleticism, each 60-minutes of play is 6.25% of the season and therefore critically important. But the TV timeouts simply kill any rhythm there is to attending a game. Of course this is not a problem with the Direct TV NFL package, just whirl around, which is why the NFL is the closest thing to a “studio sport”. It takes the prime time games for us serial remote controllers to realize exactly how many commercials are in a game. One benefit however, when the Sunday night commercials are on you aren’t listening to Theismann.

Although they’re not exactly looking for direction from this corner, we’ve got some advice for the striped shirts. Several times each weekend, you’ll hear a referee call a penalty to the crowd, “Personal Foul, Defense #25….” This announcement is immediately followed by either wild screams (if the penalty is on the visitors) or rabid booing (if the home team is seen as the offender). The crowd noise drowns out the matching call against the offensive team and everyone scratches their head when a 15-yard sentence isn’t carried out. Our suggestion, always introduce offsetting fouls with the announcement “We have offsetting penalties against both teams….” This will better inform the crowd and viewing audience and save the officials a lot of trouble. You’re welcome.

This is an interesting time of the year in the NFL. We’ve had six months of overanalysis on personnel moves, coaching moves, free agency, and the draft. The Redskins, Chiefs, and Bills are among teams that supposedly ramped up their defenses in the offseason via free agency. We’ll see. You really never know how teams are going to come together this time of year in the NFL. Take the Bengals, for instance. They lost Takeo Spikes to free agency and the starters in their defensive backfield totaled only 5 interceptions last year. But they picked up Kevin Hardy and John Thornton to bolster their front seven and new head coach Marvin Lewis is one of the finest defensive minds in football.

Wouldn’t you think that the SEC schools would all take up a collection to compel Vandy to hire a black coach? Why not? Vandy has the lowest redneck quotient in the conference; therefore it is the one place the boosters would allow it. In any event, the SEC school that hires the first black coach will have an enormous recruiting advantage, in case you haven’t noted the demographic mix of the players in the conference recently.

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Following the 2000 season Greg Schiano left the Miami Hurricane staff and the Garden State native took over at Rutgers, calling it “the best job in the country”. Yes, he really said that. A couple weeks later Butch Davis left Miami for the Cleveland Browns and Schiano would have been co-frontrunner with Larry Coker for the ‘canes job. Schiano could be 24-1 instead of 3-20 heading into the season but for the vagaries of timing.

It is a steep hill to climb, and with only five offensive starters back from a team that averaged 14 points and 214 yards last fall, and this weekend could be very unpleasant as the Scarlet Knights visit Michigan State. MSU coach John L. Smith is legendary for running up the score when he has a chance, and folks in the Mountain Time Zone still talk about a couple of numbers his charges hung when he was at Utah State. He wasn’t afraid to get what he could at Louisville either. Now he faces a team in Rutgers that could really bring out the latent talent in his Spartans. Rutgers is a much worse team than Western Michigan, a team that Michigan State had trouble putting away on Saturday. MSU’s superior athleticism could easily lead to a special teams or defensive TD, making this line shorter than it appears. Every wise guy in the world went against Rutgers in their slim cover over Buffalo in their opener. We think they’re right about the Rutgers prospects and Michigan State has a coach that won’t hesitate to make it ugly if he gets a chance to today. Consider laying the lumber with the Spartans.

I know you hate the guy, and no athlete has ever made more for doing less, but if ESPN’s Trev Alberts were ugly, he’d be a superstar. Think about it. He says what he means. He rips teams, rips people, and at times he knows his stuff, witness his preseason call of Auburn as the most overrated team in the country. He’s just too pretty and takes himself too seriously for his own good. If he was bald, had a scar on his face, and tossed around a bit of self-depreciating humor he’d become an icon because people could relate to him. People can’t relate to a good-looking guy who made millions for doing nothing who now sits and talks for a living.

Fans of Cardinals, Orangemen, Yellow Jackets, Zips, and Owls, have to agree. It’d be great to have a dog as your mascot. Our favorite current one is the Citadel’s. Check him out at
http://www.citadel.edu/pao/newsreleases/sy03-04/mascot_puppy.html

Let’s take a look an NFL selection for the weekend. Big positive vibe for Steve Mariucci's home opener at Ford Field today. The Lions don't have the talent to compete with upper echelon teams, but Arizona isn't one of those. Big home field edge with the new regime that wasn't always there under Marty. Harrington will improve in his second year with the coach who developed Jeff Garcia. Cards are excited about Jeff Blake but he's far from a proven winner and his starting WR's are Bryan Gilmore and Larry Foster. If your asking "who?" you're not alone, they combined for 15 receptions last season. Lions have weaknesses but today they take on a team against who they enjoy a lot of matchup advantages. Obviously you have to hold your nose to lay points with the Lions, but they should come up big this Sunday.

Good luck this weekend. And be careful.

About the Author: Kevin O’Neill is the director of content for www.ConsumerBet.com. If you’d like to get this newsletter directly via email you can do so by signing up at http://www.consumerbet.com/email.html. Thanks for taking the time to read us.

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