Start the Countdown

Today is the beginning of Big 10 Media Days in Chicago.  Locally you can catch snippets on all the TV news stations and the radio talk shows will be loading up.  Big 10 Network will have coverage if you're located outside the Chicago area.  The economy still sucking has cost me...I have no invitations to anything.  That is life on the periphery.

Speaking of living on the edge, an SEC team once again strides right past the edge.  Houston Nutt and Mississippi have brought Jeremiah Masoli, the disgraced Oregon Duck, into the fold and it appears that he'll be their QB this fall.  Masoli is a bright guy, he's already graduated from Oregon, so he's enrolled in grad school at Ole Miss to use his final year of eligibility--without any waiting period.  It looks like Masoli is skating away from the charges that were filed against him back on the left coast, just in time to be a Rebel.  Houston, we have a problem child.

Football games start one month from today.  Two Gun Pete is in mid-season form, having informed me that his first week already includes a Pete's Perfect Pick, a promise of prodigious prognostication.  He has presented the statistical argument to me, and it is indeed compelling.  Two Gun has also begun to stir up excitement for his Pete's Powerful Parlay of the Week.  Proceed with the parlays, people, at your own risk!

The first weekend of football starts on Thursday, September 2.  This is Labor Day weekend, and there are five days of football, Thursday through Monday.  There will be lots of profit opportunities spread out over the weekend, some of them in games that are not likely to be spellbinding from a competitive standpoint but are going to be a hoot when you figure in the spread.  Some notorious games for this weekend:

Thursday
Minnesota @ Middle Tennessee State--we get to see whether MN can be for real
Southern Mississippi @ South Carolina--Steve Spurrier's team carries a lot of promise
Pittsburgh @ Utah--best game of the day, competition-wise
USC @ Hawaii--the debut of Kiffin.  Whatever the spread, we'll take USC

Friday
Friday offers two games, Villanova @ Temple and Arizona @ Toledo .  How can we turn our backs on the Rockets on the first weekend? 

Next time, we'll look at opening Saturday's games.