Big XII Easy Pick’ems – Weekend of October 13 Revisited

Brendan Maloney-US PRESSWIRE

Up until this weekend I was feeling pretty good about myself. However, the extreme depth and unpredictability of this league was on full display this Saturday, and I whiffed on every single call on point spreads – although I want my money back from the K-State game – they pushed. I would have fared better picking scores with a random number generator. In fact, I nailed about as many targets as Geno Smith. Burn…

Week (Season)
Straight Up: 3-2 (10-3)
Against the Spread: 0-5 (6-7)

#15 Texas vs. #13 Oklahoma (-3)
Prediction: Oklahoma 23, Texas 21
Outcome: Oklahoma 63, Texas 21

Did I have my finger on the pulse of how many points Texas would score? Yes. Oklahoma? Not even close. This scoring differential would have been even greater if Oklahoma didn’t put its scrubs in to finish the game as UT picked up a garbage touchdown late. Texas also got two points from a blocked PAT that was returned the other direction in the first quarter. These were about the only two things Texas did right, as Oklahoma has been on a mission recently to right the wrong done them by K-State. Look out Notre Dame – Oklahoma is shaping up to be your first loss of the season.

#5 Kansas State (-6) at Iowa State
Prediction: K-State 26, Iowa State 14
Outcome: K-State 27, Iowa State 21

The series that always ends in close games unsurprisingly ended in a close game. Yet unlike top-5 team West Virginia, top-5 team K-State didn’t need to use storm weather as an excuse for losing. Because they won. You know that 8+ minute drive Collin Klein engineered to run out the 4th quarter? West Virginia may be ranked outside the top 20 next Sunday.

Oklahoma State (-27½) at Kansas
Prediction: Oklahoma State 41, Kansas 13
Outcome: Oklahoma State 20, Kansas 14

I can’t explain what happened here. The big stat of the game was Oklahoma St. was held to under 30 points for the first time in 22 games. KU also managed to outgain the Cowboys in total yardage, win the time of possession battle, and mount a 14-point rally in the fourth quarter that almost gave them a win. Everyone wrote off KU’s chances of securing a conference win this year, and I’m not sure who it would come against, but they’ve demonstrated the potential to play their competition close.

Texas Christian University at Baylor (-7)
Prediction: Baylor 38, TCU 27
Outcome: TCU 49, Baylor 21

Really? Really TCU? One week after getting blasted by Iowa State, you go and destroy Baylor. One factor was undoubtedly the fact TCU had a full week to prepare for the game without their starting quarterback. Given the sheer number of players TCU has lost over the offseason and early this year, this team may continue improving as slated backups get more comfortable with their new roles as starters – though any more major departures or injuries would be a nail in this season’s coffin. This may also be a reflection of Baylor not being quite as good as we initially thought. After all, the 63 points they scored against West Virginia two weeks ago in a 70-63 loss lost a little luster earlier in the day…

And now, for this week’s Easy Pick’em, wherein I tell you the easiest outcome of the week to predict:

#4 West Virginia (-4) at Texas Tech
Prediction: West Virginia ∞, Texas Tech 23
Outcome: Texas Tech 49, West Virginia 14

For the last two weeks, I’ve picked West Virginia by infinity, and they’ve responded by an extremely narrow win at Texas, and a bad loss at Tech. Correlation? I’m tempted to make this my Easy Pick’em again this week, and, once again, go with West Virginia over K-State by infinity. Because that seems to cause the Mountaineers to be awful.