Start Your Saturday Morning With Black Shoe Degenerates

As it seemingly has been this season, every time we say there’s a boring week in college football a major upset always takes place. So here we go: Week 8 has quite the boring set of games across the land, and the Big Ten is no exception. Every game, except two, has the favorite favored by at least 21 points. Can the massive favorites avoid an upset on Saturday? We shall find out

Illinois at No. 7 Penn State (-24)

The Nittany Lions are likely playing without Sean Clifford in this game, but the reality is that they won’t need him. If you heard Bret Bielema’s comments from earlier in the week, the Illini are in bad shape already, and some of those players were asked, in no uncertain terms, to start looking elsewhere. Ta’Quan Roberson left a lot to be desired two weeks ago, but there’s too much talent on Penn State’s side to fall trap to Illinois.

Besides, the Illini messed up the perfect score last season. They must pay.

Clay: Penn State 30, Illinois 10
Tim: Penn State 24, Illinois 6
Lando: Penn State 28, Illinois 10
Jared: Penn State 20, Illinois 6
Dylan: Penn State 34, Illinois 10
Eli: Penn State 56, Illinois 17

Northwestern at No. 6 Michigan (-23.5)

Michigan is an improved team over last season, but Northwestern’s favorite pastime is to look dead in the water in September, only to come back from the dead in October and onwards. The only Big Ten team Michigan has beaten by more than 7 points is Wisconsin, and we all know what happens to the Badgers in the fourth quarter of games. Northwestern should cover this massive spread easily.

Clay: Michigan 31, Northwestern 10
Tim: Michigan 38, Northwestern 10
Lando: Michigan 35, Northwestern 10
Jared: Michigan 28, Northwestern 13
Dylan: Michigan 27, Northwestern 13
Eli: Michigan 28, Northwestern 17

Wisconsin (-3.5) at No. 25 Purdue

Funny how things turn, Halfway into the season, it’s Purdue that finds itself ranked, after taking down the number two team in the country. Meanwhile, Wisconsin is struggling to get anything out of its offense, especially its quarterback. Maybe Purdue can let them borrow one. Vegas has confidence in Wisconsin, as they’ve historically fared well against Purdue. I’m taking my chances with the Boilers.

Clay: Wisconsin 17, Purdue 13
Tim: Wisconsin 17, Purdue 13
Lando: Wisconsin 20, Purdue 17
Jared: Wisconsin 20, Purdue 16
Dylan: Purdue 23, Wisconsin 16
Eli: Purdue 24, Wisconsin 14

Maryland at Minnesota (-4.5)

Minnesota has been looking pretty good as of late, while Maryland spent the past three either getting its behind handed to them, or thinking about the ass whooping they just took. So of course Maryland is going to come out in this game and drop 80 points on the hotter team.

Clay: Maryland 31, Minnesota 24
Tim: Minnesota 24, Maryland 21
Lando: Minnesota 21, Maryland 20
Jared: Minnesota 38, Maryland 30
Dylan: Maryland 34, Minnesota 27
Eli: Maryland 35, Minnesota 31

No. 5 Ohio State (-21) at Indiana

Another game where, if you’d talked about it at the beginning of the season, the vibe would have been a lot different. Now, Indiana is hoping to simply keep it competitive. Meanwhile, this is the first defense Ohio State will face that may be able to slow down the Buckeye offense some, but, unfortunately for the Hoosiers, they no longer have the offense to keep up.

Clay: Ohio State 45, Indiana 20
Tim: Ohio State 45, Indiana 17
Lando: Ohio State 48, Indiana 20
Jared: Ohio State 48, Indiana 28
Dylan: Ohio State 51, Indiana 24
Eli: Ohio State 55, Indiana 28

Standings

As promised, standings are ready! Look for a post on Tuesday evening with the full standings, and ways to check your scores for each week. Hope it was worth the wait!

Open Thread

Feel free to use this as your early morning open thread. Same open thread rules apply, as always. Here’s to a fun, stress-free Saturday!