Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

It’s Arkansas’ bye week, which means there’s much less stress around here than usual. As happens each year, I spend the extra energy fantasy betting on non-Arkansas college football games and practicing the saxophone line to “Careless Whisper.” I’m still convinced that if Bobby Petrino had karaoke’d that song in April, things may have been forgiven. Watch the video and imagine him singing it. It would have had a greater effect than his ESPN interview.

Anyway, even without the Razorbacks, there is a decent slate of games going on Saturday. Some may even be exciting without betting something on them, but why try?

We didn’t lose anything last week, which is basically a win. The 4-4 mark puts us at 30-25 for the year. Here are this week’s winners:

LSU (-3) @ Texas A&M: It will be interesting to see if the fans of these schools can quit complaining about the morning kickoff long enough to play the game. In all my years of following the SEC and learning the ins and outs of how the weekly game schedules get made, I’ve never heard fan bases whining about a start time as much as these two have this week. There is so much outrage in College Station, you would think someone told the Aggies they had to have female cheerleaders.

Assuming everyone calms down and the game is played, the big storyline will be if the LSU defense can slow down Johnny Manziel as much as the Florida defense did. I think it can. Going with LSU. It’s always nerve-wracking to put the fantasy dollars on Les.

Alabama (-20) @ Tennessee: This is the SEC’s sacred cow game. It’s the game responsible for holding the rest of the conference hostage to the permanent cross-divisional opponent (i.e. the reason Arkansas has played South Carolina every year). Even though it’s going to be a blowout with a nearly three-touchdown spread, ESPN put it in prime time instead of A&M and LSU. It’s such a gigantic game, Tennessee almost, but not quite sold out its allotment of student tickets. Perhaps it’s fall break in Knoxville. If you’re a Tennessee student, how can you not want to watch the Vols lose by over three touchdowns to Alabama on the third Saturday in October?

South Carolina (+3.5) @ Florida: You know it should be a good game between these two when Steve Spurrier returns to The Swamp and he’s not the main storyline. This doesn’t look good for the Gamecocks. Marcus Lattimore may not play. The Gamecocks struggled away from Columbia all year. They’re coming off a tough game in Baton Rouge while Florida is coming off a win against Vanderbilt. The Gators have as much momentum going as anyone in the league. Roll with Florida.

Auburn (+7) @ Vanderbilt: Yes, it’s reached the point for Gene Chizik where he must be thinking, “My God I hope we beat Vanderbilt. Everything’s riding on beating Vanderbilt. I really need the highlight of my fourth season at Auburn to be defeating Vanderbilt.” The only thing Auburn can cling to? Vanderbilt hasn’t beaten an SEC school not named Kentucky or Ole Miss by more than a touchdown since a 17-6 victory over South Carolina in 2007. I’m taking Auburn and the points.

Georgia (-26) @ Kentucky: It’s hard to have any faith in Kentucky after watching it give up 813 points in the first half to Arkansas. However, Kentucky has played tough in Lexington and Georgia only scored one touchdown in its only road game of the year. Twenty-six points is a lot, so I’m taking them with the Wildcats.

Need some more? Here are some other lines I like: Clemson (-8) over Virginia Tech, Louisville (-6) over South Florida, Cincinnati (-5.5) Over Toledo.

As always, put your picks in a comment below and, remember, victories and losses can be vacated, but your bets live forever.

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Doc Harper is the editor of ArkansasExpats.com and is a regular contributor to ArkansasSports360.com. You can email him at heydocharper@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @doc_harper.