November 5 actually is the Feast of St. Dominator. I'm not making that up. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2921 Now, you would think with a name like St. Dominator, he'd be a pretty famous saint. St. Boneventure got a whole A-10 school named for him. St. Dominator didn't get squat. Life is fickle.
This year has been fickle too. Lots of unlikely late covers, and lots of public plays hitting.
5-5 last week brings it to 43-37-2 for the year. I'm probably lucky to be there. This year has been a slog. Slogging along:
Northwestern +16.5 at Iowa - should be an emotional day in Iowa City, as the Hawks retire the numbers of the officiating crew who worked last week's Indiana game.
Southern California -10 at Arizona State - Oregon exposed some of the weaknesses in the Trojan defense; Devils' "offense" should do a nice job of covering them up again.
Houston +1.5 at Tulsa - hats of to the Hurricane for becoming the first team ever to lose to UTEP and SMU in successive weeks; the latter came with some guy the Ponies found in a Chemistry lab playing QB, and throwing for damn near 350; ridiculous reverse line movement public plays usually spell death; this year they spell cash.
Duke +10 at North Carolina - nutty line of the week; I'm not even sure Duke isn't the better team; lord knows it has the better QB; Devils play these guys tough even when they're terrible, and UNC is one of the worst home favorites of recent vintage.
Oregon State +7.5 at California - when all you have to do is take the better team catching more than a touchdown, this "handicapping" stuff gets really easy.
Alabama-Birmingham -6.5 vs. Florida Atlantic - Rusty Smith, FAU's QB since the late 1970's, is out for the year; his back-up has completed 24 passes, none for touchdowns in an annonymous three-year stint on the bench/beach; the worse news for the Owls is that their starting defense is healthy and expected to play.
Pennsylvania State -3 (hook) vs. The Ohio State University - Bucks don't exactly light it up against average defenses; uh oh.
Connecticut +17 at Cincinnati - another crazy line; UConn is about four plays away from being undefeated; tough to give away 17 to a team that only allows 20; yeah, UConn might have nothing left in the tank after blowing two games in the final minutes and burrying a team-mate in between, but I'll take my chances.
Kent -3 at Arkon - the Battle for the Wheel; I have absolutely no idea who coaches Kent, but he's doing a hell of a job; I do know who coaches Akron, and he's about to be looking for one.
Oregon -6 at Stanford - what, was nobody watching television last Saturday night? Ducks nipped a fair USC team by four touchodwns, eking out 613 yards against a defense that allows about half of that; nobody has been anywhere near Oregon since September; The Farm is pretty good, but have shown a tendency to wear down as games have gone on; not a good recipe against this buzzsaw.