With the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, the BangTheBook.com College Football Podcast changed things up for this week with a Sunday night recording for Week 14. It’s Rivalry Week. It’s Hate Week. It’s the last week of the regular season for almost every conference as conference championship games loom on the horizon for some teams. For other teams, it’s the last chance to impress the College Football Playoff Committee. On this week’s show, Adam Burke and Kyle Hunter projected some line movements, talked about the potential College Football Playoff Rankings, and broke down several games in depth with a lot of free picks included.
The Quick-Hitters segment is a good way to kick off the show because injuries and personnel changes often explain some of the line moves that have happened this week. Working in conjunction with the Inside the Lines segment, things that bettors need to know that can be easily overlooked are laid out with top-notch analysis. Basically, think of it like cause and effect. The Quick-Hitter points are the cause and the effects explained by two guys with over 25 years of handicapping experience. With an early week show, the Quick-Hitters segment was certainly quicker than usual, but a very interesting totals trend was brought up that listeners should be aware of.
In the Inside the Lines segment this week, there weren’t big line movements to talk about, but Adam and Kyle looked at a couple of lines featuring College Football Playoff contenders and discussed where those numbers might move. Keep in mind that there are teams with five wins fighting for bowl eligibility this week and there are other teams that have nothing to play for, so bigger line moves than we’ve seen over the last few weeks are certainly possible.
Getting into this week’s games, the guys covered more games in-depth than usual with so many exciting rivalry week matchups. The first game under the microscope was this week’s battle between TCU and Texas on Thursday night. The Longhorns are a much different team than they were earlier in the season under Charlie Strong. This game has a lot of different layers to it with TCU playing under immense amounts of pressure to impress the committee with an impressive road win. How have the Horned Frogs fared on the road so far this season? Kyle has some details about that. Who has the advantage in this game? You might be surprised to find out.
Moving on to the SEC, there’s a slightly important game going on in Tuscaloosa as Alabama hosts Auburn in this year’s edition of the Iron Bowl. Alabama is around a double-digit favorite for this game. Where will the line go from here? The guys discuss that among plenty of other things. Who has the advantage from a situational standpoint? Kyle has a strong opinion on that. Both teams are playing much differently at this stage of the game. Should that factor into your handicapping?
Sticking with the SEC, Mississippi State and Mississippi battle in the Egg Bowl this week, in a game that certainly looks different at this point. This was supposed to be a big battle of top-10 teams, but Mississippi has gone in the tank a little bit and Mississippi State lost its one big game in recent weeks to Alabama. It still means a lot to both teams as a rivalry game and to the Bulldogs in their quest to remain in the top four in the College Football Playoff. Adam has a very strong opinion on this game and concerns about one of the two teams have been very evident over the last few weeks.
Moving to the non-conference rivalry matchups, Florida State takes on Florida in a game that Adam had some strong opinions on. “The line tells a story” is a common expression on our football podcasts and that’s certainly true of this matchup. We won’t spoil any of it here. Just listen to this week’s show to find out what the guys had to say.
Another SEC/ACC rivalry takes place in Athens on Saturday between Georgia Tech and Georgia. These two teams have played some close games of late, including last season’s double overtime battle. The Yellow Jackets have had some extra time to prepare for this game, but they are already locked into the ACC Title Game against Florida State. Will that have an impact? Is there a lean from either guy on this matchup?
In this week’s pick-six segment, free picks were given out on six of this week’s more compelling games, including a couple of under-the-radar contests. The show ended with Kyle’s exclusive free pick for podcast listeners.
