NCAA Sunday

Colorado (-12) Colorado State - The Rams welcome a new coaching staff to this rivalry, in which they've covered the number in 5 of the last 7. But Colorado builds on a young team from last season, with a year of experience under the Hawkins' belt (QB not coach). The Buffs get 14 starters back from a team that was 4-1 ATS as a favorite last year. That team was very up and down, beating Oklahoma and Texas Tech in Lubbock, but losing to Iowa State and getting hammered by K-State. That team had all the signs of a young team that's ready to make the next step, and warming up against a team that was 3-9 last year is just what the doctor ordered.

NCAA Week 1...Continued

Adding...

Northwestern (-11 1/2) Syracuse - Syracuse was a pretty good football team until Greg Robinson showed up. And anybody that has ever rooted for the Kansas City Chiefs or Texas Longhorns probably could have told you that was coming. The Orange are 7-28 since his arrival and open on the road against a Northwestern Wildcat squad that returns 19 starters. On offense, Northwestern will spread the field and generally do things that Robinson can't figure out. On defense, they return their front 4 to battle an offensive line that gave up 54 sacks last year, which was next to last ahead of only Notre Dame (speaking of coaches that kill programs). Northwestern will score points in this game, and Syracuse is unlikely to keep pace with an offense that scored over 20 points only twice all of last season.

Leans...

Kentucky +3 1/2
California -5
Bowling Green +13 1/2

College Football: Week 1

As always, light schedule for week 1.

Missouri (-9) Illinois - My favorite number on the board. Mizzou returns a whole bunch off a team that beat everybody but Oklahoma and squares off against a Big Ten squad that got killed in a BCS game they didn't deserve to be in and lost 10 starters. Juice Williams is a competent quarterback, but he's mostly a ground guy and he'll be working without Rashard Mendenhall and going against a defense that returns 10 starters from a unit that improved as the year went along and was pretty formidable by season's end. Ultimately, Mizzou just has too much fire power. This is a good team with very high goals that will be ready to roll quickly. Gary Pinkel is 3-0 against Illinois and Missouri has won 9 of the last 12 in the series.

Virginia Tech (-9 1/2) East Carolina - Virginia Tech has 7 starters to replace on offense, but they've finally settled on one quarterback, they get their top 2 runners back, and they return 4 starters off a pretty good offensive line. The Hokies started slow last year with a sluggish win over this ECU team followed by a pounding at the hands of eventual national champion LSU. But after that they got the ship righted and only lost two more times, once to a late Boston College rally that included an onside kick and once in the Orange Bowl to what was probably the best college football team of all time. Beamer will be able to reload the defense a bit, and an experienced power running game should be enough to win this one going away.

Western Michigan (+14 1/2) Nebraska - Does anybody really think Nebraska is going to go from terrible to two TD favorites against a decent team that quickly? Me neither. The Broncos return all 11 starters on defense and get Tim Hiller (QB, 3000+ yards) back from injury. Meanwhile, 13 starters are back for Nebraska but a good chunk of them wouldn't play at half the Big 12 schools. Joe Ganz and Marlon Lucky combine as a formidable force but gone is all-everything wideout Maurice Purify. The Cornhuskers are likely good enough to win this game, but I don't think it's by 3 scores.