NFL Week #3 Picks

Last week we were + $72.50 for the week.

Week #1 = + $77.50
Week #2 = + $72.50

Total = $150.00 after 2 weeks.

Remember, we are using a $1,000 betting pot to start out with so we are up 15% after 2 weeks (winnings go to charity). Slow and steady wins the race……

This week we are picking 2 NCAA games and 4 NFL games. Here we go.

Not a knock against higher ranked VT (depending on the poll) but Miami is on a roll and momentum will propel them.
$50 -Miami Hurricanes -3.0 (EVEN)

Nebraska is baacckk…..
$75 - Nebraska Corn Huskers -27.0 (-110)

I think Eric Mangini is starting to regret taking that job.
$50 - Baltimore Ravens -13.0 (-110)

Alright don’t laugh…… It’s gonna happen sometime
$25 - Detroit Lions MONEY LINE (+250)

Singletary’s 49ers are playing with confidence. Gore outrushes Peterson. A long day for Favre…
$50 - San Francisco 49ers MONEY LINE (+250)

John Abraham in Tom Brady’s face all day. Same result as last week
$25 - Atlanta MONEY LINE (+180)

Pittsburgh doesn’t lose 2 games in a row... At least not this one. Grandma Fairchild could be playing safety, they run away with it late.
$30 – Pittsburgh -4.0 (-110)

Robert Fairchild is a professional sports gaming professional. He legally wages on professional and collegiate sporting events for a living. Robert is NOT suggesting that you quit your day job and try to wager on sports for a living. He is contributing his thoughts and experience to assist you in a recreational activity that you as an informed adult may choose to take part in.

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Have a Fantasy Football or Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship.

Breaking that unwritten poll rankings rule

With the first major upset of the season behind us, some have called for a team unranked in the preseason polls to take Southern Cal's place in the top 5. It's gotten me thinking about the rankings and wondering if those lucky enough to have a say really do their due diligence in picking the best 25 teams in the nation. How much does a team's reputation play into their spot in the rankings? Don't worry. I won't start any campaigns to do away with the BCS or pitch a fix to the system. If that's what you want you need only type 'BCS' into Google and you'll have reading material until the next presidential election. I'll go a step further and not mention those three little letters in that order again in this article. You're welcome.

Not to get into the specifics of who should be ranked where, but it's eerie how much the AP Poll and Coaches' Poll look alike every week. Moving 20th ranked Miami up to #5, as Kirk Herbstreit said he planned on doing on his ballot, would break the unwritten rule that limits the number of spots a team can jump in the week following a win. I guess nobody likes to rock the boat by moving an unlikely team into the top 10, or top 5, even if they've played well enough to warrant the spot.

Anybody who's seen Miami's first two games would have a hard time counting them out against any team in the country. Most would have a hard time submitting that the Hurricanes have looked better than Alabama, Texas or Florida, but might be more willing to admit a more equal relation when compared with Penn State, Mississippi, Cal, LSU, Ohio State and Boise State. Should a team that is obviously as talented, or more so, than teams ahead of them be relegated to wait until those teams lose a game?

One of the most famous instances in which a team has risen or fallen significantly in a single week was following Michigan's loss to Appalachian State in their 2007 opener. They were ranked 5th in both preseason polls (with 2 first place votes in the Coaches' Poll) and fell out of the rankings completely following the loss. Does anybody think that Appalachian State was really a better team than Michigan following the loss? The 2007 Missouri Tigers were the consensus #25 team in Week 5 (Sept. 23) of the '07 season. The same week, the AP Poll ranked Appalachian State higher than Michigan. Who do you think had a better chance of beating the Tigers that year? Michigan or Appalachian State?

To keep things recent, who's the better team? USC or Washington? Most would agree that USC is still the better team despite the upset. But the Huskies downed the Trojans on a last second field goal so they've got to be the better team, right?

You won't see the Trojans fall below the Huskies in the polls at any point this season barring some catastrophic meltdown. Back in 2007, at no time did the coaches put Appalachian State in the rankings. And that's how it should be, because Appalachian State was not one of the top teams in the nation even though they beat fifth ranked Michigan. Clearly, Michigan was not the fifth best team in the nation when they played Appalachian State, so Appalachian State did not deserve to be credited for downing the fifth best team. Make sense?

How does this relate to Miami's ascent to the top 10? Few thought Miami was worthy of being ranked following a string of disappointing seasons. They climbed up to about #20 in both polls following a victory over Florida State. In the win, the Hurricanes looked better than the #20 team in the nation. They were favored over #14 Georgia Tech heading into Friday's game despite the lower ranking, probably voted on by many of those that picked Miami to win. Why would you place a team at #20 when you were going to predict them to take down the #14 team in the nation a few days later? Shouldn't they be ranked higher than 14 if that's where you placed the other team?

The AP Poll was just released and the writers placed the Hurricanes at #9 (Coaches' #13). I know teams have risen higher than 11 spots in a week, but in most cases they beat a top 5 team. Miami, on the other hand, beat the 14th ranked team and the 18th ranked team.

'How could you move a team from #20 to #9 in a week!?!?' more conservative voters may ask. Critics of the decision may also argue that the Hurricanes beat an overrated Georgia Tech team and a volatile Florida State team. You put them at #9 because Miami has played like the #9 team in the nation. Simple, right? - Danny Hobrock

Danny Hobrock is a sports journalist who primarily covers college football and professional baseball. He is a contributor for several sports related blogs and is the former editor of a political and current events website.

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Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship!

Jacksonville State Looks to UF for Answers, Inspiration

And who better to look to? The Florida Gators are the in crowd. They've won two championships in three years and are led by an angelic quarterback who makes the rest of us look like puppy eating sinners. How did they get to this point? Jacksonville State is looking all the way back to 1984 to find out.
The St. Petersburg Times, in their September 14, 1989 edition, recalled that

"the university's football program channeled money and gifts to players, spied on opponents' practices and maintained slush funds."

As a result, the NCAA banned Florida from appearing on national television and banned them from the postseason. They were also docked scholarships. In total, the Gators were deemed guilty of 107 major NCAA violations.

Jacksonville State has followed suit, albeit not entirely. Just as Florida was banned from appearing in the postseason in the mid-eighties, Jacksonville State has been banned from the postseason in 2009. Unlike the Gators of the mid-eighties, though, Jacksonville State has not committed any NCAA infractions. Instead, their punishment stems from the program's failure to meet the standards set by the NCAA's Academic Progress Report for three consecutive seasons. A national television ban was deemed unnecessary.

Still, JSU may be infatuated with the bad boy tactics that have led some of our nation's top programs to glory, fortune and dominance.

The list is overwhelming.

Several Miami Hurricanes of the early nineties are said to have been paid by a local rapper for scoring touchdowns and making big hits. A couple of Seminoles wide receivers received improper discounts at a clothing store in 1997. There was also the 1994 Foot Locker scandal at FSU and Penn State running back Curtis Enis' $1,100 shopping spree courtesy of an agent. More recently, USC came under scrutiny after the Reggie Bush scandal of 2005 was reported, Alabama was busted for the textbook scandal of 2007 and Florida State's online music history class scandal committed between 2006 and 2007 cost the program 14 wins.

There have been plenty of on the field/in the tunnel brawls amongst the nation's top schools--1971 USC/Notre Dame, 1983 USC/Clemson, 1988 Miami/Notre Dame, 1993 Miami/Colorado, 1997 Ole` Miss/Mississippi State, 1998 Florida/Florida State, 2004 Clemson/South Carolina--not to mention plenty of arrests.

In 2008, Gators backup quarterback Cameron Newton was arrested after he stole a laptop from a fellow student and threw it out of a window after being questioned by police. Newton was the fourth Gator arrested in 2008.

The next step for JSU is to find a bad boy to call their own.

Check! Quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, who transferred to JSU after being kicked off of the LSU football team for constantly violating team rules, has been suspended for violating his new team's rules and will sit out the season opener against Georgia Tech before returning to face Florida State the following week.

When it comes down to it, though, every school has slipped up at some point in their program's history. Even the smaller football programs we never hear about have had issues (Dartmouth and Holy Cross brawled on the same day of the infamous Miami/FIU brawl). Too little attention is given to programs trying to clean up their act, play by the rules and/or set higher standards for their athletes; rather, like suburban housewives reading Us Weekly,we find ourselves enthralled by the latest scandal. - Danny Hobrock

Danny Hobrock is a sports journalist who primarily covers college football and professional baseball. He is a contributor for several sports related blogs and is the former editor of a political and current events website.