College football’s opening week has AL.com’s staff split in a few places, but not everywhere. The group leaned hard toward Alabama and Auburn to handle their first tests, while several other matchups brought real disagreement - especially Clemson-LSU, SMU-Florida State, and the neutral-site Ole Miss and Notre Dame games.
The in-state slate starts rolling Thursday and continues through a long holiday weekend, with all six of Alabama’s FBS programs in action. And as always, these are picks against the spread, so the choices reflect which team is expected to cover, not necessarily win outright.
The clearest consensus came in Jacksonville State’s game against Eastern Kentucky. Nine of the 10 staffers went with Jacksonville State to cover as a 19.5-point favorite, with only Gabe Burggraf and Ben Flanagan backing Eastern Kentucky.
South Alabama drew an even stronger show of support. Every staffer except Creg Stephenson picked the Jaguars to cover 12.5 points against Southeastern Louisiana.
Troy’s meeting with Sam Houston was far less settled. Thomas Ashworth, Gabe Burggraf, Andrew Hammond, and Creg Stephenson took Sam Houston as a 16.5-point underdog, while Michael Casagrande, Ben Flanagan, Izzy Gould, Jerry Humphrey, and Nick Kelly backed Troy.
The biggest national debate in the group came with Clemson’s trip to LSU. Four staffers picked LSU to cover the 10.5-point line - Michael Casagrande, Izzy Gould, Nick Kelly, and Creg Stephenson - while the other six sided with Clemson.
Ole Miss got almost the same kind of backing against Louisville in Nashville. Nine of the 10 picked the Rebels to cover as 6.5-point favorites; Ben Flanagan was the lone pick for Louisville.
Notre Dame’s Sunday matchup with Wisconsin in Green Bay also split the panel more than most of the weekend’s marquee games. Thomas Ashworth, Michael Casagrande, Ben Flanagan, Izzy Gould, Nick Kelly, and Peter Rauterkus took Notre Dame to cover 20.5 points, while Gabe Burggraf, Andrew Hammond, and Jerry Humphrey went with Wisconsin.
The Monday night game between SMU and Florida State was another close call. Creg Stephenson joined a majority that backed SMU to cover as a 1.5-point underdog, while Gabe Burggraf and Ben Flanagan took Florida State.
As for the headliners involving Alabama and Auburn, the staff was confident in both.
Against East Carolina, every pick went Alabama’s way. The predicted scores ranged from Alabama 30, East Carolina 13 to Alabama 52, East Carolina 10. Other forecasts included Alabama 45, East Carolina 17, Alabama 48, East Carolina 17, Alabama 42, East Carolina 10, Alabama 38, East Carolina 13, Alabama 35, East Carolina, Alabama 45, East Carolina 13, and Alabama 44, East Carolina 13.
Auburn also swept the board against Baylor in Atlanta. The predicted scores had Auburn winning by margins such as 24-20, 27-21, 28-17, 23-20, 35-24, 27-17, 24-21, 24-13, and 28-20.
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