Week 1: CFB Locks

My first locks of the season:

Locks: 0-0

Upset Alert: 0-0

Game of the Week 0-0

Locks

South Dakota State at Oklahoma State (-10)

I get why the the line is the way it is. The Jackrabbits are no. 1 in the FCS, and Oklahoma State has struggled against smaller schools in the past. However, I don’t think the Cowboys are going to struggle here. OKST will be better than usual this year, and they return a lot of what made them so good last year. They should win by at least 10 points.

Western Kentucky at Alabama (-31.5)

Western Kentucky will be a decent team this year, but Alabama always wins these games by at least 50, and I don’t expect that to change in the transition to Kalen DeBoer. The only way this game is closer than 30 points is if the stadium blows up.

Southern Illinois at BYU (-14.5)

I follow BYU pretty closely as I live in Utah, and I know that they usually don’t struggle with these kinds of teams. This BYU team obviously won’t be as good as those Zach Wilson years, but they will be good enough to beat an FCS school (a pretty good one, but still) by more than 2 touchdowns.

Upset Alert

Eastern Michigan (+2.5) at UMass

This may not be the most flashy pick, but listen, UMass is going to SUCK this year. They will be among the worst teams in the FBS. I believe EMU will be a dark horse MAC contender, and they will perhaps get on some people’s radars with an upset win this week.

Game of the Week

8 Notre Dame at Texas A&M

It is kind of surprising to me that TAMU is favored in this one. Mike Elko has two good years as a head coach, albeit, it was impressive that he was able to be good with Duke. However, success at a lesser program like Duke doesn’t always translate to a bigger program like Texas A&M. Notre Dame has a better roster, a better coaching staff, and is a better program. I like Notre Dame to get the “upset.”