If you didn’t see it, I wrote a longish personal history of Bedlam that can be read here. I expect nothing but close games this week—a bit worried I might go 0-6.
WHISKEY CUP STANDINGS:
Trent last week: 5-1 (.833)
Nate last week: 5-1 (.833)
Trent overall: 55-22 (.714)
Nate overall: 54-23 (.701)
Thursday: I picked Texas Tech to win 37-30, not bad considering the Red Raiders won 35-28. Trent also picked Tech to win, via text though he said 45-42.
Saturday
No. 23 Kansas State 34, No. 7 Texas 27. I had to do a double-take when I realized Texas has won the last six between these two. After the formation of the Big 12 in 1996, the Wildcats won eight of the first eleven of these matchups. K-State is playing as good as any team in the conference right now outside of OSU.
Houston 21, Baylor 20. Two of the worst four teams in the conference go at it. Coin-flip.
UCF 24, Cincinnati 17. The other two worst teams go at it. Another coin-flip. UCF has lost five in a row, but kept at least four of those games reasonably close.
No. 21 Kansas 30, Iowa State 34. Super tough call here. I expect a post-OU hangover for Kansas. This game has been played every year since 1932; KU owns the all-time edge 51-45-6.
BYU 20, West Virginia 28. That this is one of the picks I feel most confident about is saying a lot about how difficult this week’s slate of picks is.
No. 9 Oklahoma 38, No. 22 Oklahoma State 41. I hope and expect this game to be a classic, with a score in the neighborhood of the one I’m suggesting here, but I’ve seen enough Bedlams to know that for an OSU fan to use the word hope about this game is the height of foolishness. There have been a lot of these games where OSU loses an important player early on or is playing without their studs; if the Pokes can keep both Ollie Gordon and Alan Bowman healthy throughout the game, I think they’ll run right over the Sooner defense. Though I am definitely worried about Dillon Gabriel carving up the OSU secondary, I think the environment—as hostile as I reckon he’ll ever experience—will get to him in the fourth quarter.