The B1G Preview And Degenerate Challenge: Together At Last

Welcome welcome welcome to another edition of Black Shoe Degenerates er, The B1G Preview er, The B1G Preview and Degenerate Challenge! For those of you who have been friends of the blog for a while, you’ll remember The BSD Challenge of old. Well, we decided to take the the B1G preview you know and love, the Black Shoe Degenerates you know and love, and combine them into one unstoppable force that you’ll hopefully know and love!

Each week, we’ll preview every Big Ten game, make our picks, and take the glory! Or we’ll show just how little we know about this whole gambling thing.

Scoring will also remain the same as it was last season, and as a refresher, it’s so:

• Staff predicts the score of the game in question.
• 2 points are awarded for a correct winner (AKA straight up).
• 3 points are awarded for correctly picking the spread (AKA, uh, the spread).
• 10 points are awarded for getting the score prediction right.
• In the event no one get the score prediction right (so most weeks), the prediction closest to the actual score gets awarded 6 points. Thus, if someone correctly predicts a score in a given week, they’ll get 16 points!
• The formula for “closest score” is away team delta + home team delta.
• New: 4 points will be awarded for getting the correct margin of victory. Messed up the score so bad you want to hide under a rock, but somehow got the margin of victory right? Here are your consolation points!

The Games

Northwestern (0-0, 0-0 Big Ten) vs Nebraska (0-0, 0-0)

12:30 PM Eastern, Fox
Nebraska -13

Two teams that really need to start off on the right track if they want to have a good season square off in the first game of the year!* For the past four seasons, Northwestern has oscillated between Big Ten West Champion and dead last in the West, so one would assume the division is theirs for the taking, right? On the other hand, you have a Nebraska coach in Scott Frost who could very well find himself stranded in Ireland if he loses this game.

Desperation makes for the most fun games, in this writer’s humble opinion!

Should You Watch? It’s the literal first second game of the season. Yes you sicko, yes!
Prediction: Nebraska 17, Northwestern 14

Wyoming (0-0) at Illinois (0-0)

4:00 PM Eastern, B1G Network
Illinois -11

I vividly remember Craig Bohl complaining about the transfer portal during the offseason, given how half his team left for greener pastures after season’s end. Meanwhile, Illinois found a way go get a few key transfers in to hopefully maintain and improve upon the level of performance they got last season.

I don’t see either team doing much overall, but in this game, the team less decimated by departures figures out a way.

Should You Watch? Do you have other plans?
Prediction: Illinois 31, Wyoming 17

The Picks

Under construction.

*Yes, New Years, I know.

Check out the latest odds for the week 0 games. Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.