College Football Betting Picks, Week 3: Picks For This Weekend's ACC and Pac-12 Action

It has not been the most stellar of starts for me this season. I dared a Boston College's new old conference arch-rival to beat the point spread against Northwestern and 'Cuse proceeded to lose by 21. Drew Allen threw FOUR interceptions and the #Hardnosed Syracuse defense surrendered 48 points.

Then I challenged BC's in-state FBS upstart to cover the point spread as a home underdog against former CAA rival Maine. Maine won by 10. About the only thing that went right last week for me was that BC covered.

Here's hoping for better picks ahead.

2013 Standings below: (All-Time Standings here)

Jeff: In honor of the Boston College vs. USC game this week all my picks are PAC-12 or ACC games. The third and fourth week of the season is when it is time to make some money. Vegas is only a couple of hours drive from LA, just saying.

Virginia Tech Hokies (-7.5) at East Carolina Pirates - Virginia Tech lost to Alabama badly as we all saw but Tech bounced back nicely last week with an easy win. Alabama is in a very elite class and Virginia Tech had no chance in that game. The Hokies have looked good on defense and should be able hold down ECU now that Dominique Davis is gone.

Boston College Eagles (+13.5) at USC Trojans - HELLO! Who expected BC to be getting almost two touchdowns after each team's performances last week?

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Duke Blue Devils (+8.5) - Duke is the most underrated team in our BCI ACC Power Poll and Georgia Tech might be one of the most overrated. Duke traveled to Memphis last week and handled business easily. But, because their jerseys still say Duke on the front, they get no respect. Duke might win this game outright and should easily cover in their home ACC opener.

Tennessee Volunteers at Oregon Ducks (-28.5) - Is Tennessee any better than Virginia? Maybe, but not significantly. The Vols have to travel to the west coast for this game and they are going to get throttled by the Oregon offense which has not missed a beat yet with the departure of Chip Kelly. Tennessee should consider it a small moral victory if they are still covering the spread at halftime. This is the game to put all your chips on.

Wisconsin Badgers (+4.5) at Arizona St. Sun Devils - Neither team has allowed an opponent to score yet this season. NEITHER TEAM has allowed a single point!! So obviously one defense, or both, is going to end their streak of shutouts. While Arizona State has one shutout on the young season, Wisconsin already has two and both teams can put up some points offensively. But Wisconsin is team to beat in this matchup and if Wisconsin were favored by 4.5 I would still be taking them so that's a free 9 points I'm getting.

Brian: I'll also go with the all-ACC, Pac-12 special this week.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (-8.5) at Duke Blue Devils - One thing you failed to mention about Duke is that the Blue Devils' starting quarterback Anthony Boone is out indefinitely with a broken collarbone suffered in Saturday's win at Memphis. Junior Brandon Connette gets his first start of the year and second of his career in relief of Boone. BC fans remember Connette as the kid who came into the BC-Duke game in relief of Sean Renfree to rush for -8 yards on five carries and just 2-of-5 passing. Connette is a good runner but an inconsistent passer. Duke is not rolling up 470-488 yards of offense against the Georgia Tech D, which is a much better team than both Memphis and N.C. Central. I like the Jackets big here.

Stanford Cardinal (-29.5) at Army Black Knights - Gonna try this again. Even though Stanford didn't punt all game and scored on six of its first eight drives against San Jose State last week (the ninth drive was cut short by the clock), the Cardinal failed to cover the 25.5 point spread against the Spartans, beating SJSU by 21. This time, the 5th ranked Cardinal is a 29.5 road favorite at Army. Army is coming off a 40-14 loss at Ball State. This is an early game and Stanford is flying cross-country but I'm expecting a big win here.

Louisville Cardinals (-13.5) at Kentucky Wildcats - Rivalry games are always tricky, but I don't see the Wildcats stopping Teddy Bridgewater for throwing for 300 yards and 4 TDs, which is what he is going to do week-in and week-out against UofL's LOL schedule. The only way Bridgewater doesn't achieve this feat weekly is if he gets bored of being so awesome. UK is coming off a 41-7 win over hapless Miami (Ohio), but lost to Western Kentucky 35-26 in week 1. Beware the back-door cover here, but I like Louisville to cover the spread.

ULM Warhawks at Wake Forest Demon Deacons (-3) - I think this is a bit of an overreaction from last week's results. Louisiana-Monroe pasted I-AA Grambling 48-10 while the Deacs fell flat at Boston College, losing 24-10. ULM's offense was limited to 166 yards and just 2-16 on 3rd down in a season-opening shutout loss to Oklahoma, 34-0. While Wake's defense is nowhere near as good as Oklahoma's, I think the D will do enough to keep the Deacs in this game. Perhaps it's wishful thinking but I think Grobe works out the kinks of the new Wake option offense and the Deacs win this by a couple scores.

Maryland Terrapins at Connecticut Huskies (+7) - This is a rematch of an early season non-conference matchup from a year ago -- the second annual Edsall Bowl sponsored by monster.com. The Huskies left College Park last season with a 24-21 win, slightly outgaining the Terps 223-205. Maryland couldn't even blame the loss on playing their 9th string QB at that point in the season. Maryland has outscored opponents 90-20 through the first two weeks of the season, while UConn lost to FCS Towson in week 1. Paul P. and the Huskies have had an extra week to stew on that loss and prepare for a Maryland team that seems to have figured it out on offense, even if playing inferior competition. A.J sees Maryland winning by 32 here. I've got UConn covering the spread. Takes cold shower.