Ohio State (-14¹/₂) MICHIGAN: The Buckeyes have dominated the Wolverines, winning eight straight coached by Jim Tressel or Urban Meyer (with the only loss coming in 2011 with an interim head coach). Ohio State has won those eight by an average of 15 points per game with the average line being minus-7¹/₂. Michigan, which went 13-4 in Big 10 play in Brady Hoke’s first 17 games, has now gone 2-4 in its last six, and Hoke’s job clearly is in question. Lastly, Michigan has faced three conference teams with defenses that rank in my top 50 (Michigan 2nd, Nebraska 46th and Iowa 22nd) and the Wolverines offense has totaled 168, 175 and 150 yards, respectively. The Buckeyes rank 16th on defense and, by the way, fourth on offense. Blowout!
MISSOURI (-4¹/₂) over Texas A&M: Tell me if this sounds familiar? I’m going to play against Texas A&M with a team at home that has my No. 17 ranked defense and my No. 16 offense. Well, this week’s team is the Missouri Tigers, after winning with another Tigers team on these pages last week. LSU has my No. 15 offense and No. 13 defense, and with those numbers very similar to Missouri’s, they handled Texas A&M winning 34-10 while finishing with a 517-299 yardage edge. The 299 yards was a season low on offense for the Aggies. The biggest difference for A&M is the defense is allowing 504 yards per game in SEC play compared to only 393 yards per game last season.
LAST WEEK (NCAA): 1-1
SEASON: 12-13-1