OTHER PICKS
Texas 38, Kansas 19Memphis 25, Houston 24Virginia 26, Virginia Tech 21Central Florida 41, South Florida 16West Virginia 42, Oklahoma 35Washington State 34, Washington 28Oregon 49, Oregon State 20Kentucky 37, Louisville 23LSU 20, Texas A&M 17N.C. State 23, North Carolina 22Duke 28, Wake Forest 25MTSU 31, UAB 26Penn State 29, Maryland 10Northwestern 36, Illinois 13Notre Dame 30, USC 7Wisconsin 33, Minnesota 14Iowa State 24, Kansas State 9
The Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference is 8-5 in head-to-head matchups against the Western Division with only Friday’s Missouri-Arkansas game remaining this regular season, leaving the East assured of producing the superior record for the first time since 2008.
Call it the Dan Mullen effect.
“It seems like whatever side of the league I’ve been on, that side has won,” Mullen said Wednesday.
The first-year Florida head coach has never been on the losing side of this equation since entering the SEC for the first time in 2005 as the offensive coordinator of the Gators. Mullen spent the past nine seasons as Mississippi State’s head coach, and the West dominated the East in head-to-head showdowns every year except for a 7-7 split in 2012, which marked the debut seasons for Missouri and Texas A&M in an expanded 14-team league.