I'm going to stop doing the "oh well maybe this week won't be so much fun as earlier weeks," because this season has been outstanding at turning seemingly dull college football weekends into incredible spectacles. Who would have figured that we'd see Miami lateral eight times on a kickoff return in an improbable win over Duke one week after firing their head coach? What about Iowa State shutting out Texas? Minnesota botching a goal line situation to give Michigan a win? A year ago, you weren't predicting Florida to beat Georgia, and you sure as hell weren't going to write Auburn off as the SEC West's worst team.
So screw the platitudes for this week. This weekend, like every weekend we've seen thus far, is going to be great. We're all zeroed in on the Alabama vs. LSU matchup, but there will probably be a half-dozen other "oh, wait, what the hell was that" type of moments and we'll spend our Sunday mornings trying to piece it all together while updating our fantasy rosters. This sport is silly and remarkably difficult to predict, which is why we love it so much.
So, on to this week! The Red Cup Rebellion dot com pick 'em standings after eight weeks are as follows:
- Juco (36-27)
- Borkey (34-29)
- Ghost and Whiskey Wednesday (33-30)
- Smeargle (32-31)
- Jeff (31-32)
- Gray (30-33)
- Berry (27-36)
Juco cheetin', there's no other way to explain it. The games we're picking from against the spread this week are below. Again, we must remind you that we don't advocate you taking these picks to Vegas:
Mizzou is terrible and Mississippi State is not, so we're almost unanimously picking the Dawgs to win and cover the points. Smeargle isn't, but his opinions are :trashemoji: anyway. An astute observer of Ole Miss football might wonder to themselves how Missouri could be so bad in 2015 when they were the No. 10 team in the country the last time Ole Miss played them a mere two years ago.
The short answer is "I dunno, it's football, these kinds of things happen." A corollary to that short answer is the observation that Ole Miss hasn't had good luck with SEC East scheduling over the past few years, whereas Mississippi State has been particularly lucky in this same regard.
So when you watch State pummel Mizzou on Thursday and ask "why does it seem like State gets easy draws with the East," it's because they do.
— Red Cup Rebellion (@RedCupRebellion) November 3, 2015
A reasonable fan of a football team - any football team - would read that and think "huh, that's kinda interesting. Welp, that's just how these things go sometimes!" But reasonable responses would not be found. That take unassailable fact was delivered to the masses by Twitter, meaning it was exposed to the paranoid, confirmation-bias crippled #clangatwitter, a group known for confidently delivering bad opinions and even worse jokes with a frequency and self-unawareness that no one can rival.
@mwnfootball @RedCupRebellion this is stupid...both cross division rivals suck...SEC decides rotation...what's the freaking point?
— Randy(6-2) (@randy5off5on) November 4, 2015
@RedCupRebellion @mwnfootball I would much rather have Vandy every year than UK
— MoreCowbell (@MissStFanTalk) November 4, 2015
Ok. In Mullen era MSU's is 36-41, OM's is 42-35. Both have faced two East champs. Not a big difference. https://t.co/LSe6jZgUxw
— Maroon & White FB (@mwnfootball) November 4, 2015
@sbcmortgageman @RedCupRebellion It is just had luck. MSU has no control over the won loss record of their opponents. Continued BS by TSUN
— Ron Duckworth (@ronduckworth777) November 3, 2015
So, in case you're keeping score at home, we've got poor reading comprehension, getting defensive against an imagined opponent, strawman arguments, shifting goalposts, and completely missing the point while making the point. This would be remarkable stuff if it weren't so common.
Reading this may cause you to entertain the idea that Mizzou could win this one; don't fall into that trap, as enticing as it may be. Mizzou ain't gonna win, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't tune in to tonight's game. Even if it's sloppy and dull, a lopsided SEC matchup is the perfect amuse-bouche for another kickass weekend of college football.