WEEK 1

Give us a second....

Helmets flying. Headsets thrown. Broncos players sprinting onto the field, pointing to the heavens in celebratory gratitude.

The clock read 0:00.

Western Michigan 12. Michigan 7.

WMU had become Appalachian State 2.0.. They’d walked into the Big House as 27.5-point underdogs and beaten mighty Michigan, spoiling Coach Whittingham’s big debut. The kind of glorious, inexplicable upset that makes college football college football.

Week One is awesome.

Or at least, that’s how anyone who doesn’t piss maize and blue wishes their Saturday night ended. We all know what came next. We all bore witness to the biggest favorite in college football history to celebrate a win with a field storming. 

Sigh. An offseason of off-field controversy yielded to on-field controversy of a different stripe. At least it was nice to finally have the lawyers back where they belong: out of the headlines and in the suites. Progress. Unless you’re a MAC fan, in which case you better be hoping your commissioner is planning to Al Gore the Supreme Court while hoping for a better outcome.

Saturday offered a glimpse into what the season may hold. Lane Kiffin, coach of Tennessee, USC, Alabama, Florida Atlantic, Ole Miss, LSU, sure seemed to be ready to geaux, debuting his Tigers with a 51-10 annihilation of Clemson, holding those other Tigers to a mere 145 yards of production. Woof Dabo. Worst loss of his tenure at Clemson.

Chaos continued in Tallahassee on Monday night, where a massive electrical failure delayed SMU and FSU by nearly two hours. The scoreboard didn’t work. The PA system didn’t work. Coach-to-player communication didn’t work. Sideline iPads didn’t work. Eventually they played football. That didn’t work for Florida State either. The only thing that failed harder than the infrastructure at Doak Campbell Stadium was the team playing inside it. SMU took the W 27-24.

In other OTC-relevant games, Auburn stopped a BOLD Baylor team inches short on a game-winning two-point conversion attempt. Ole Miss drilled a 48-yard field goal as time expired to stave off a sneaky tough Louisville team. Duke overcame a 90-minute weather delay and a decimated Tulane team. Cincinnati handled BC. Colorado State won comfortably by nearly 7x their spread. UNLV beat Hawaii and got the hell out before an impending hurricane. UCLA scored 21 unanswered after a 24-24 start. And Nevada dominated a favored Hilltoppers squad, beating Western Kentucky 49-14. 

Nothing like putting your confidence points on a favorite and watching them lose by five touchdowns.

Welcome back, Pick 'Em.

And welcome to the record-setting 35 entries competing for the One Tru Champ crown this year. Three of you came to play, emerging from Week One with 9-1 records and 54 points: Jonathan's 1st Entry (original name, dude), 404NoPointsFound (way to upend your namesake) and David's USA (tell that to Donald).

At the opposite end sits Juan's 1st Entry, whose 24 points earned our first Stinker of the Week and sole possession of dead last. It takes talent to suck that bad.

Thirty-five entries. Three tied at the top. One standing alone at the bottom.

And somewhere in Ann Arbor, Michigan fans are probably still celebrating the greatest upset of Western Michigan in Michigan history.

College football is back baby!!!

Tulane @ Duke (-7.5)

Boston College @ Cincinnati (-7.5)

Baylor @ Auburn (-7.5)

Wyoming @ Colorado State (-3.5)

Clemson @ #11 LSU (-10.5)

UNLV (-3.5) @ Hawaii

Western Kentucky (-1.5) @ Nevada

UCLA (-2.5) @ California

#24 Louisville @ #9 Ole Miss (-6.5)

#19 SMU (-2.5) @ Florida State

WEEK ZERO

ALL WEEK ZERO GAMES:

🍀UNC Vs. TCU(-9)                                        15-10

    San José State Vs. #12 USC(-38)               26-42

    NC State Vs. Virginia(-4)                               8-34

    JAX State Vs. North Dakota St.(-6.5)  7-33

    Sacramento St. Vs East Michigan(-9.5)  17-28

    Hawaii Vs. Stanford(-4)  27-37

    New Mexico State Vs. Florida State(-31.5)   17-31

    Memphis Vs. UNLV(-4.5)   27-21

NOTABLE THURSDAY GAMES: 

         Colorado @ Georgia Tech(-6.5)

         UAB @ Illinois(-28.5) 

NOTABLE FRIDAY GAMES:

        (-24.5)#7 Miami @ Stanford

        Fresno State @ #12 USC(-23.5)