Texas Christian -11 over VIRGINIA PINNACLE
At first glance this wager seems like a grave overreaction to Virginia losing to FCS opponent William and Mary. Unfortunately for Virginia, the loss wasn’t on a last second field goal or fluke play. The Cavaliers were legitimately beaten in time of possession, total yards and first downs to a team that hadn’t beat a BCS opponent since 1998. The ACC had an embarrassing weekend all around and it certainly seems as if the Big East has a challenger for worst BCS conference this year. Now Virginia must regroup against a team that has BCS aspirations itself in Texas Christian. With BYU and Utah winning over the weekend, TCU is highly motivated to prove that the upper half of Mountain West is a legitimate threat to any BCS team. Texas Christian has a suffocating defense that only allowed 11 points a game last year and hasn’t a allowed more than 18 in the past four seasons. Virginia runs a spread offense that obviously had disastrous results last week. If you look at teams that have installed the spread offense the past few seasons, two things are abundantly clear. One – you need spread oriented players, which after Virginia quarterbacks three interceptions and combined 137 yards passing is still a mystery, and two – it takes time to see positive results. Texas Christian returns six starters on offense, including quarterback Andy Dalton and running back Joe Turner to a unit that averaged 33.6 points a game. Texas Christian prefers to run the ball and limit mistakes, which means they lean heavily on their defense to create turnovers and limit clock killing drives. If you feel confident that Virginia’s offense can turn things around in seven days against a highly motivated TCU team and play at an elite level for 60 minutes – take the Cavaliers. I’ll back a Gary Patterson coached Texas Christian team that has proven it isn’t intimidated (11-5 vs BCS teams), has the defensive pedigree and absolutely must win this game if it has any chance of crashing the BCS. Play: #347 Texas Christian -11 (Risking 2.05 units to win 2)

Notre Dame -3 +1.01 over MICHIGAN PINNACLE
All was well for both historic college football powers in Week 1. Amid all the controversy surrounding both Charlie Weis and Rich Rodriguez, both coaches managed to pull of impressive victories against non BCS teams. Notre Dame finally looked like it had NFL caliber players on the defensive side of the ball as it pitched a shutout and managed to force three turnovers against Nevada. The offense, whose calling card all summer long was that it returned nine starters looked very impressive racking up 510 total yards of offense. Michigan’s offense also looked way better than last years, as highly touted freshman Tate Forcier threw three touchdowns as Michigan rolled over WMU. The key to this game for Michigan will be to repeat its offensive performance against a markedly better Notre Dame defense. Sure, Michigan looked great against WMU but they’re still very inexperienced at key positions to be counted on to score on every drive. A well-run spread offense is supposed to neutralize the talent disadvantage, but Michigan cannot be considered a team that has mastered the spread yet. With the inability to score, Michigan’s defense will have to hold the fort against a much more talented Notre Dame offense. For the first time since Brady Quinn suited up for the Fighting Irish, Notre Dame finally has an offense that will be capable of scoring against averages defenses like Michigan. Jimmy Clausen is an NFL caliber talent that can be trusted to make smart decisions and accurate throws. When backing a road favorite, especially at Michigan Stadium, it is extremely important to have the edge at the pivot as an inexperienced quarterback can single-handedly kill a wager, as Georgia backers will attest to last week at Boone Pickens stadium. The facts are that Notre Dame’s offense is more experienced and talented than the Wolverines and the same can be said on the opposite side of the ball. I expect Notre Dame to neutralize the inexperienced and less talented Michigan offense and continue to gain steam in the top 25 rankings. Play: #339 Notre Dame –3 +1.01 (Risking 2 units)

Soccer




September 12, 2009 9:30am EST
German Bundesliga
VFL WOLFSBURG +1.10 OVER Bayer 04 Leverkusen PINNACLE
Bayer Leverkusen is in fine form at the moment as they currently share the top of the German table. However, this is more of a play at home match in favor of the hosts Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg has lost two consecutive matches; one of them came at home surprisingly enough to a very good Hamburger squad a few weeks ago. Last season Wolfsburg never lost a single match at Volkswagen Arena during the regular season and I can’t see them losing back-to-back home matches here. Although Wolfsburg is currently struggling we shouldn’t forget they are defending Bundesliga Championship and that is no fluke. This is a team that can score a lot of goals and although they haven’t done much of that this season, I expect them to get out of that funk and start producing like we know they can. The home crowd will be expecting nothing less than a victory tomorrow and Wolfsburg will respond with a much-needed victory to get them back on track. Play: VFL WOLFSBURG +1.10 (Risking 2 units)

September 12, 2009 10:00am EST
English Premier League
MANCHESTER CITY +1.93 OVER Arsenal PINNACLE
If Manchester City wants to prove they are for real this season they need to win big matches, especially at home. Enter Arsenal. This is the first real big test for the other team in Manchester and they will be extremely excited and pumped up at home against The Gunners whom they beat last season without all the big transfer signings in Manchester. Both squads have injury concerns as Tevez and Robinho may not play at all in this match for City and Arshavin will definitely not play for Arsenal. City has more than adequate cover for Tevez and Robinho, whereas Arsenal cannot replace Arshavin in my opinion. A few weeks ago I stated that Arsenal may have been playing the best football in the world at the time, but like the weather things change. Yes, Arsenal was unlucky against Manchester United a few ago and should have come away with a result. Arshavin leaves a severe hole for Arsenal to fill on the attacking side of the ball and as a result will struggle to score. Arsenal is still a quality side but at this price Man city is definitely worth playing, as they were the big spenders in the EPL this season and now have pressure to win these types of matches Play: MANCHESTER CITY +1.93 (Risking 2 units)

September 12, 2009 1:00pm EST
France Ligue 1
NANCY +1.44 OVER Toulouse PINNACLE
A season ago these two teams were polar opposites. Toulouse finished an impressive 4th place in France earning them a spot in this season’s Europa League while Nancy finished an unimpressive 15th place almost getting relegated. This season however, Nancy has been the better team in the French League early on and has won their only home match of the year spanking a decent Monaco team 4-0. Since then they had two straight away from home. Toulouse also has not won in their last three matches overall and may be looking ahead to their first Europa match this coming Thursday in Belgrade. Nancy looks to build on a decent start to their campaign in France’s top league and return home and after playing two consecutive road matches should be able to handle Toulouse. Play: NANCY +1.44 (Risking 2 units)