College Football Betting Picks, Week 12: Syracuse-Florida State, N.C. State-Boston College And More

Last week:

Jeff: 2-3, 28-27 overall ATS
Brian: 4-1, 25-30 overall

2013 Standings below: (All-Time Standings here)

Brian: DRA-MA with this week's annual college football betting picks. I picked first this week, so after I sent my weekly picks to Jeff, we had the following exchange of one-line emails:

Jeff: 0-5
Brian: Then go against me every pick. 
Jeff: That would be ballsy.
Brian: Only one of us has had an 0-5 this season ... and it wasn't me.

Looks like Jeff is going to do just this, except wimp out when it comes to picking against Boston College. If my picks are going to go 0-5, why not go for the easy 5-0 bud? Anyhow, when these picks inevitably go a combined 4-6 this week, we'll have no one to blame ... but Jeff.

Brian:

N.C. State Wolfpack at Boston College Eagles (-7) - Andre Williams up against the N.C. State run D is a very favorable matchup for the Eagles. Add to this the fact that N.C. State's QB situation is unsettled going into tomorrow's game and things look pretty, prettty, pretttty good for BC. Earlier in the week, N.C. State, which had been going with a QB rotation, decided to turn the keys of the offense over to Brandon Mitchell. Mitchell is now questionable, so BC may see him or Pete Thomas in this one. Addazio knows full well how important this game is to BC's 2013 season. Thing the dudes come out strong and send Chase Rettig, Alex Amidon, Andre Williams and the rest of the seniors out with a two score W.

Maryland Terrapins at Virginia Tech Hokies (-16) - Maryland is going through the motions at this point. After the Terps started off the season 4-0, Maryland has won one game -- a come-from-behind one-point victory over hapless Virginia -- over the last six weeks. The latest was a listless 20-3 home loss to Syracuse where the Terps made 6-7 trips into SU territory and came away with 3 points. The Coastal Division crown is in sight for Virginia Tech, where the Hokies need wins over Maryland and Virginia and hope for one more Duke loss (Miami / @ Wake Forest / @ North Carolina). Virginia Tech leaves no doubt in this one as the Terps fall to 0-4 in Lane Stadium in ACC play.

Oklahoma St. Cowboys (-3) at Texas Longhorns - After dropping the Big 12 opener in Morgantown, Oklahoma State has rattled off five straight conference wins in increasingly impressive fashion. The last two victims were a ranked Texas Tech team in Lubbock (52-34) and a bad Kansas team (42-6). Texas has been playing well in its own right, winners of six straight to start Big 12 play, including a 47-40 OT win at West Virginia last week. Both of these offenses have played about even through the first 11 weeks of the season, but I think the edge on D goes to the Cowboys. The Oklahoma State D allows just 19.7 points per game and has generated 23 takeaways this season.

Oregon St. Beavers at Arizona St. Sun Devils (-14) - Oregon State rattled off six straight wins against the softer portion of the Pac-12 schedule after losing the season opener to FCS Eastern Washington. The Beavers have proceeded to come down to earth a bit over the last two weeks, losing to Stanford (20-12) and resurgent USC (31-14) in consecutive weeks. Last week, OSU surrendered 489 yards of total offense to the Trojans offense. Arizona State's passing offense ranks 2nd in the nation and is a much better unit than USC. That's a scary proposition for an Oregon State D that ranks 90th in the nation against the pass.

Indiana Hoosiers at Wisconsin Badgers (-23.5) - Bucky is the only FBS team left standing that's still perfect against the spread (8-0-1). That makes this an intriguing line. This isn't your older brother's Indiana Hoosiers football team as IU can really put up some points this year (Indiana ranks 9th nationally in scoring offense). It's the Hoosiers D that's suspect, a unit that has surrendered 519.1 yards per game of total offense. That's good for 122th nationally in FBS (and ahead of only Cal, Idaho and our frenemies in Las Cruces, New Mexico State).

Jeff:

Brian can't be as good as his picks the last two weeks (5-0 and 4-1 the last two weeks) so it's time to pick against him. I'm going against Brian in all his picks except I'm not taking N.C. State since the Wolfpack is terrible. Hopefully BC covers instead of just winning. My one pick to replace that game is Syracuse at Florida State -38. FSU has had some extra drama this week but they are way too good to not destroy Syracuse. Famous Jameis is playing so I expect the 'Noles to be covering by halftime.

Syracuse Orange at Florida St. Seminoles (-38)

Maryland Terrapins (+16) at Virginia Tech Hokies

Oklahoma St. Cowboys at Texas Longhorns (+3)

Oregon St. Beavers (+14) at Arizona St. Sun Devils

Indiana Hoosiers (+23.5) at Wisconsin Badgers