It seems like just yesterday we started the SEC picks with the bold call that LSU would thump Oregon in that season-opening showdown. After last week’s success, the numbers have become pretty one-sided picking these games, hitting 84.7 percent of all the SEC games this season and hitting a touch better than 63 percent against the spread. That’s not too shabby.
That’s a preface to the tip of the ol’ ball-calling visor to the fact that this is rivalry week, and we all know what that means. Whatever barometer or stats or nickname preference or inside intel you use to pick college football games becomes far less valuable during rivalry week.
There are only two certainties as the Thanksgiving week that was dominated by calories and bulging bellies gives way to consumers and busy shoppers: Tennessee will beat Kentucky — it’s happened every year since Reagan was in the White House — and the best time to get your Walmart shopping done in Alabama will be between 2:30 and 5 p.m. Central time today, when the Iron Bowl is on nearly every TV in the state.
Other than those two, expect the unexpected in rivalry week, when anything can happen and usually does. Take the Alabama-Auburn game. If these Tide players were playing these Tigers players in street clothes or in green and yellow jerseys, then Alabama’s superior talent would roll. But these kids will be carrying the banners of each fan base and wearing the colors of each university. The passion and the pressure and the power of rivalry week have a way of either magnifying gaps in talent or erasing them.
So pick wisely or carelessly this week and the results are anyone’s guess. It’s rivalry week.