December football prediction central!

Here's a quick look at the NFL games this week. (BTW, we did a quick projection over the last three weeks, and with the Giants' upset of the Cowboys, we foresee the six teams currently sitting in playoff spots in each conference STILL being the six teams in the playoffs come January! Had NYG lost, the Redskins were going to pass them...)

New Orleans @ Arizona - we like the Cardinals to cover the 2.5 point spread easily.
SF @ Atlanta - the Falcons will cover almost any spread here.
Cleveland @ Buffalo - even with the tumult around Rex Ryan, never bet the Browns.  
Pittsburgh @ Cincinnati - we see this as even; Vegas favors the Steelers.
Detroit @ NYG - we think the Lions AT LEAST cover, probably win.
Oakland @ San Diego - we like the Raiders, though the Chargers are favored.
Tennessee @ KC - the Chiefs cover easily.
Indy @ Minnesota - Vikings cover against a bad offense.
>The other games are pretty close on our FOLLOWING FOOTBALL sheets to the official odds. We went 50/50 last week...a TON better than the near-shutout the previous week!

As for the college ranks, let's start with the FCS semifinals - we trust both home teams (North Dakota St and Eastern Washington) over two amazing opponents (James Madison, a scoring machine, and Youngstown St, the grittiest team in the bracket) by 6-7 points each. If you can see either game, do it. 

Finally, not only will we pick all 41 bowl games, we are going to share them in ORDER of our CONFIDENCE levels! Some games we think are almost pick'em, some should be complete routs. We'll start with the routs - these are the games (in descending order) that we think should be easy wins by the first team listed:

Mississippi St over Miami-OH Dec 26th ........ Tulsa over Central Michigan Dec 19th ........ Old Dominion over Eastern Michigan Dec 23rd (Poor MAC!)........ South Florida over South Carolina Dec 29th......Temple over Wake Forest Dec 27th.........Middle Tennessee St over Hawaii Dec 24th.......Utah over Indiana Dec 28th.

Here are games that we're pretty sure we know who's going to win - it might be close, but we're confident enough to bet on the first team (in descending order) if that were legal:

BYU over Wyoming Dec 21st.........Boise State over Baylor Dec 27th.....Air Force over South Alabama Dec 30th........Washington State over Minnesota Dec 27th....... New Mexico over UT-San Antonio Dec 17th......... Colorado State over Idaho Dec 22nd (hope not, though!)......... Army over North Texas Dec 27th.

Next, these are the bowl games where we feel comfortable in our choice, but it wouldn't surprise us too much to see the underdog not only win but win big. But our fictional money's on the first team, in descending order of certainty: 

Michigan over Florida St Dec 30th....... Alabama over Washington Dec 31st (but we're giving Chris Petersen a month to prepare! UW has a puncher's chance!)..........Wisconsin over Western Michigan Dec 30 (same deal)............. Grambling St over North Carolina Central Dec 17..........Southern Miss over UL-Lafayette Dec 17th...........Oklahoma over Auburn Dec 30th.......... 

Don't know what to say about this group...more of the same as above; we'd just be even less surprised if the favorite was beaten, I guess! Still in descending order towards the closest game:

Central Florida over Arkansas St Dec 17th..........Troy over Ohio Dec 23rd............Georgia Tech over Kentucky Dec 30th.............Virginia Tech over Arkansas Dec 29th.........Pitt over Northwestern Dec 28th...........Tennessee over Nebraska Dec 30..........Stanford over North Carolina Dec 30th.

Now we're reaching the "don't really know, but I kind of like this team" range. Our slight favorite is listed first, and still in order of descending certainty:

Iowa over Florida Dec 31....... LSU over Louisville Dec 30th........Louisiana Tech over (heavily injured) Navy Dec 23rd........... Colorado over Oklahoma State Dec 29th......... Western Kentucky over Memphis Dec 19th..........USC over Penn State Dec 30th..........North Carolina State over Vanderbilt Dec 26th.

Finally, here are the seven "flip a coin" games. Mind you, we do like the favorite slightly, but only slightly. The last game is a literal tossup for us - the computer says half a point, max.

San Diego St over Houston Dec 17th.........Georgia over TCU Dec 20th........Ohio State over Clemson Dec 31st........Maryland over Boston College Dec 26th.........Texas A&M over Kansas State Dec 28th..........West Virginia over Miami-FL Dec 28th..........and maybe Appalachian St over Toledo Dec 17th. Or Toledo over App St. Or a tie. Or.....