C'mon Dala and Gales. The New Orleans bowl isnt far off...

im signed up chuck

good man. Challenge Dala to get in. She wont be able to resist.

here is a cheat sheet for everyone playing from another board:

Here is why I believe this strategy is successful EVERY year.

Let's start at the beginning. For the SEC, it all starts with recruiting. This year's recruiting rankings are very typical of what you see every year There are 6 SEC teams ranked in the top 9 nationally.

Now imagine if you're Mark Richt at Georgia and you have the nation's 9th best recruiting class. That sounds great until you realize that you have the 6th best recruiting class in your own conference!!! The point is the SEC has the best athletes in the country, and more of them. That is a plain and simple fact, and if you want to win money, you need to understand this.

My second point is this. If you've ever played sports, you know that when you play against top-notch competition, it pushes you to get better and play your best. SEC teams not only play against the best, they also practice everyday against the best. That creates an atmosphere that constantly pushes these great athletes to improve.

I had several people tell me this past week that Bama has not seen a defense like Florida's all year. My response was "Yes they have. They practice against one everyday in practice."

In a similar vain, SEC teams have to play much tougher competition in much tougher venues week in and week out. When teams like Florida play teams like Ohio State in bowl games, Florida has already played 5 or 6 intense, pressure-filled games in the limelight of a national tv audience. For a team like Ohio State, they usually will only play a couple of tough games a year, and even those "tough" games usually don't match the intensity of the SEC games.

So come bowl season, non-SEC teams usually cannot match the speed, and intensity of the SEC teams. On top of that, they are usually facing a much higher caliber of athlete than they are accustomed to both in practice and in the games they have played.

A perfect example of this is when the two divisional ACC champions were matched up against two middle tier SEC teams a couple of weeks ago. Georgia and South Carolina dominated both of these games. Georgia Tech and Clemson simply could not match the speed, athleticism and intensity of the middle tier SEC schools.

So do yourself a favor this bowl season, please don't fade SEC schools. In fasct, I recommend you do this. After Alabama beats and covers against Texas in the national championship game, go back and read is thread and see how accurate it was.

I will also note that now that USC is not dominating the PAC 10 anymore, the competition level within that conference has elevated considerably the last two years. Accordingly, I doubt I'll be wagering against that conference this bowl season either.

In sum, fade teams that are matched up against SEC & PAC 10 schools this bowl season, and I'm confident you'll make yourself a little extra coin this holiday season.

Heres the records of other BCS conferences against all nonconference...then vs BCS conferences in the 2nd column.

SEC 42-6 (.875) 10-4

Big East 32-8 (.800) 9-7

Pac-10 21-10 (.677) 8-7

ACC 30-18 (.625) 9-11

Big Ten 31-11 (738) 5-9

Big 12 35-13 (.729) 4-7


the 2nd column is the telling

Uh so the SEC and pac 10 are good conferences and we should pick those teams? Now there is advice you just cant get anywhere else!

i game i kinda like, oregon should Blast osu. osu has not seen that kind of speed since the sc game and oregon blasted sc.

fishy line - osu covered last year against texas when it looked like they would get blown out

i'm sure the ducks will be jacked up to play and they are to fast for osu on both sides of the ball.

tide - these lines look like manna from heaven
i
ou -3 over osu

and

the tide , bama -4 over texas

are these too good to be true

vegas giving the public some freee $$$$

a friend in saratoga says the bama game will be like uga vs hawaii was a few yrs ago in the sugar bowl

if that happens i'll be shocked. i expect a close game. Bama played their NCG, i'll be surprised if the duplicate that effort. i expect a good effort, though.

I agree. I think anyone who thinks Alabama is going to blow Texas away is formulating that opinion based on what's happened in the last four days more so than a season's body of work.

Alabama is probably a better team and will certainly take advantage of some matchup edges they have over UT but I can't see this being a blowout, especially not of UGA v. Hawaii proportion.

NT

nt - i could see 1 edge texas has over florida

with dunlap out mcillroy was hardly touched , do you think the texas dl will be able to get to the qb and force him into mistakes

without mcillroy throwing a few picks how does texas win this game?

ut defense is #1 against the run. i don't think they've faced a ground game like Bama's. my guess they'll keep 8-9 players close to the LOS. that leaves GMc to throw the ball deep like he did early in the year.

UT's defense (the defensive line specifically) is good. They were tied for 4th in the country in sacks and 1st in intercetions. They were exposed by a big-play passing game in the A&M game but that had a lot more to do with the Aggies being particularly aggressive situationally.

UT's biggest problem in this game is going to be running the football. They have tried a number of different running backs with little success and are in a heap of trouble if they can't be balanced on offense.

NT

but do you think they will get to the qb???

derby trail tip of the day for bowls season:

SEC underdogs are on a huge roll, covering their last 19 of 22(Alabama only underdog unable to cover in 2006, Arkansas in 2007, South Carolina in 2008) and winning 17 of them SU.

take a look there are a few sec dogs this year

I dont think your info is correct

Before Alabama becomes the Steel Curtain Steelers remember they needed a blocked kick to beat TENN and were life and death against Auburn. I personally think Texas is not as good as a team that is undefeated and in the top 3 all year normally is either. Watching A&M move the ball seemingly at will despite sucking is hard to forget.