Ryan’s Ramble: Off to the races

After months of playing out hypotheticals and what-if scenarios in our heads for the upcoming college football season, week 1 is finally here!

The week 1 board is absolutely glorious and I can’t wait to glue my eyes to a television set watching every football game humanly possible this Saturday.

On last week’s episode I had a relatively small set of picks to go through considering it was “Week 0” of the season, but now we’re in the big leagues. Tons of games to choose from, countless power 5 matchups, and even a few top 25 showdowns in primetime.

Although last weeks picks weren’t all that exciting, we began our first Saturday of the College Football with a perfect 3-0 record. Illinois +7, Nebraska @ Illinois u54.5, and SJSU -13.5 (1H) all cashed to open the year.

Fast forward to Thursday night and... well things didn’t go so hot. Boise State blew a 21-0 lead but it wasn’t enough to blow covering the spread. I picked UCF -5.5, and they won by exactly 5 points… a 0.5 point loss.

Hate to see it.

Alas, we take our losses with a grain of salt and move on to bigger and better things like this Saturday’s stacked slate.

I came up with the idea of organizing my picks in a tier system based on my level of confidence each line will hit. My goal is to make your experience as a viewer more straightforward and easy to find what you are looking for each week.

I will have picks organized in tier 3, my lowest level of confidence, all the way up to tier 1, my absolute favorite picks each week. Aside from my tiered picks, I will also analyze the spread and over/under for the upcoming TCU game each week. For example, the Frogs are -49.5 point favorites with a 56.5 over/under set for Saturday night’s home game.

Sometimes the TCU lines may find their way into my official picks, but for week 1 I’m going to pass in lieu of any potential bias.

Now that the new organization system is layed out, let’s get into my card for week 1 of college football starting with tier 3 and building our way up:

All betting lines are pulled from DraftKings Sportsbook and are subject to change.

Tier 3

Penn State @ Wisconsin

• Kickoff: 11:00 a.m. CST
• Spread: Wisconsin -5.5, Penn St. +5.5
• O/U: 50
• Money Line: Wisconsin -210, Penn State +175

Pick: Under 50

LA Lafayette @ Texas

• Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. CST
• Spread: UT -8, ULL +8
• O/U: 58
• Money Line: UT -350, ULL +270

Pick: Over 58

Fresno State @ Oregon

• Kickoff: 1:00 p.m. CST
• Spread: Oregon -20.5, Fresno St. +20.5
• O/U: 64
• Money Line: Oregon -1375, Fresno St. +800

Pick: Fresno State +20.5

That’s all for my tier 3 picks this week, again these are my LOWEST confidence rating going into this Saturday. Now let’s look at tier 2:

Tier 2

UTSA @ Illinois

• Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. CST
• Spread: Illinois -4.5, UTSA +4.5
• O/U: 50
• Money Line: Illinois -200, UTSA +175

Pick: Illinois -4.5

Georgia @ Clemson

• Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. CST
• Spread: Clemson -3, UGA +3
• O/U: 50
• Money Line: Clemson -155, UGA +135

Pick: Over 50

Alabama @ Miami (FL)

• Kickoff: 2:30 p.m. CST
• Spread: Bama -19, Miami +19
• O/U: 61
• Money Line: Bama -1125, Miami +700

Pick: Miami (FL) +19 & Over 61

UNC @ Virginia Tech

• Kickoff: 5:00 p.m. CST (FRIDAY GAME)
• Spread: UNC -5.5, VT +5.5
• O/U: 63
• Money Line: UNC -220, +180

Pick: UNC -5.5

I want to reiterate the fact that I am NOT a financial advisor by any means, but these tier 1 picks are about to CASH!

Tier 1

Baylor @ Texas State

• Kickoff: 6:00 p.m. CST
• Spread: Baylor -14, TX St. +14
• O/U: 53.5
• Money Line: Baylor -650, TX St. +450

Pick: Baylor -14

Georgia @ Clemson

• Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. CST
• Spread: Clemson -3, UGA +3
• O/U: 50
• Money Line: Clemson -155, UGA +135

Pick: Clemson -3 (Free Money)

San Jose State @ USC

• Kickoff: 4:00 p.m. CST
• Spread: USC -14.5, SJSU +14.5
• O/U: 59.5
• Money Line: USC -600, SJSU +435

Pick: San Jose State +14.5

West Virginia @ Maryland

• Kickoff: 2:30 p.m. CST
• Spread: WVU -2.5, Maryland +2.5
• O/U: 57
• Money Line: WVU -135, Maryland +115

Pick: West Virginia -2.5

For more details as to why exactly I am making these picks check out the Ryan’s Ramble podcast!

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