This Week's College Football Picks: Sept. 3

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

It's time to introduce a new OGS feature called This Week's College Football Picks, and there's more to it than you think.

I've never gotten too caught up in gambling, mostly because a) I'm not smart and b) I've seldom had extra cash to blow.

But for those of you who do bet on football, I'm pleased to tell you that a guy I met on my tour last year, a former professional gambler named Adam, has agreed to contribute to OGS with his against-the-spread picks of a few top college games every weekend. This feature will normally appear on Thursdays, but today we're rolling it out a little late. Sorry.

Anyway, each Thursday in This Week's College Football Picks, I'll predict winners straight up, Adam will pick the same games against-the-spread, and just for fun, I'll be placing $100 fake wagers every week on Ohio State and Alabama.

I asked Adam, as an experienced bettor, would he endorse an idea I had where a gambler wagered the same amount on the same team to cover every week. Nothing fancy at all. If you do a little research and find programs with good recent success and nice stability (Iowa, for example), you can make some money. For example, a team that went 9-4 ATS last year would have netted you $460 just for betting $100 each week on that team to cover ($900 in wins - $440 in losses = $460).

"In order to be a successful gambler, it all comes down to the discipline you're willing to commit to," Adam told me. "If you can discipline yourself to stick to those guidelines, I think your idea would work most of the time."

So without further delay, here is the first installment of This Week's College Football Picks:

My Bets
+ Pitt over Utah (I already lost this one)
+ Michigan over Connecticut
+ TCU over Oregon State
+ Virginia Tech over Boise State
* I threw out LSU-North Carolina because it was a Pick 'Em game when I talked to Adam on Tuesday, and we all know where that line stands now.

Adam's Bets
+ Pitt +3 (push)
+ Michigan -3
+ TCU -11
+ Virginia Tech +2

Miscellaneous Bets
+ Ohio State covered 28 points, so my fake-wager experiment is now at +$100.
+ The money line required Ohio State bettors to lay $4,700 to win $100. Heavy bet, obviously, but that experiment also now stands at +$100.
+ Alabama is -38 over San Jose State Saturday.