College football Week 2: There's so much we can do

SportsCenter last night identified Notre Dame as a road favorite against Michigan. For serious?

Alabama-Penn State is either going to be an upset or a Crimson Tide beatdown. I can't decide which.

South Carolina will have a good sense of whether it's a BCS contender at Georgia. The Bulldogs have to put last week's game (and uniforms, I hope) behind them, or their season will be done before we reach Sept. 15.

Stanford-Duke would be a HELL of a Quiz Bowl showdown. Too bad they're playing football.

Bigger asskicking -- LSU-Northwestern State, West Virginia-Norfolk State or Florida State-Charleston Southern?

OK, I'm not going to lie. I started this thread to claim dibs on the thread title.

 

It's 4.5 right now.

 

Stanford-Duke might be a bigger ass-kicking than any of those three FBS-FCS match-ups you mentioned.

 

Wow. Even factoring in that Notre Dame didn't look bad at all despite losing, I would have still figured them and Michigan to be roughly in the same ballpark. But linesmakers didn't get to be where they are for being dumb, so if they think Notre Dame is -4.5 on the road, who am I to judge?

 

I don't think I'd touch that game at 4.5. If it were Notre Dame -3, maybe. And that's a big maybe, when I remember how Denard Robinson ran all over them a year ago. Then again, Notre Dame was still in that game until Robinson flat-out won it for an otherwise bad Michigan team.

 

Just about any year ND-Michigan year, it's a bad idea to take either team by more than 3 points -- especially a road time. There are exceptions when blow outs happen but in general, regardless of the supposed talent difference between the two teams, it's usually really close.

 

Anybody who'd wager so much as a counterfeit penny on either of those two teams should report to Gamblers Anonymous immediately.

 

Notre Dame names Rees the starter for Saturday. So, Crist will probably come in during the second half.

 

My guess is that Crist is done as a starter at Notre Dame. Wouldn't be surprised to see him transfer next year to a I-AA school and play his final year.

I don't think Kelly is going to play musical quarterbacks. Rees isn't going to be an NFL starter or anything, but he's capable of game-managing. Crist isn't.

 

Take Michigan and the points. First home night game ever, right? They'll be jacked up for this one.

 

But that seems like something that the oddsmakers would have taken into consideration already in setting the line, right?

I wouldn't take Notre Dame at 4.5. But I also wouldn't feel confident taking Michigan whatsoever, mostly because it was hard to tell from Week 1 what kind of team Notre Dame is.