Big Sky Predictions 9-29

[JALMOND]

36-5 for the year so far. Been close to perfection but still can't seem to get there. Only six games this weekend, all conference games and Northern Colorado gets the bye. Here are my predictions for this weekend's slate of games. All my opinion only. i'm sure there will be quite the discussion so here they are.

CP at UND---The Mustangs seem to struggle a bit at home last week against a pesky UC-Davis team that really has no offense. The "Dakotans" (as I've started to call them) were pretty impressive in getting a road win at Sacramento State. These two teams have had quite the battles in the Great West, now it carries to the Big Sky...UND 38, CP 31.

UM at EWU---Is this a must win for the Grizzlies after their heart wrenching loss last week at home to Northern Arizona? Can they win on the road against a strong Eastern Washington team, who did have their struggles on the road last week at Weber State. This will be interesting but for now...EWU 35, UM 17.

MSU at SUU---The conference season officially opened last week and the Bobcats showed their dominance at home against Northern Colorado. The Thunderbirds, on the other hand, had their hands full on the road at Portland State, needing their beleagured defense to snuff out a drive at the goal line with no time left. The end of this one, no goal line stand allowed...MSU 35, SUU 24.

PSU at NAU---The Vikings had the win in the bag against Southern Utah, only to lose it at the end (when it counts). The Lumberjacks meanwhile, were exercising some demons at Montana in getting an impressive road win. Now they are at home, will they need the fireworks? Probably not...NAU 38, PSU 17.

Sac State at ISU---The Hornets are pretty peculiar. They have a win over Colorado, but they have looked pretty ordinary in their last two games, including last week's loss at home to North Dakota. The Bengals looked terrible against FBS Nebraska but have looked good when they can get the passing attack working. Should be no problem here...ISU 38, Sac State 21.

WSU at UCD---Hard to imagine without looking at whom they played that the Wildcats would still be searching for their first win of the year, but they are encouraged after last week's performance against Eastern Washington. The Aggies once again showed off that impressive defense against Cal Poly. Soon, though, they will need some type of offense...WSU 21, UCD 10.

[mvemjsunpx]

I guess I can post these over here, too…


Montana 24-26 EWU — Eagle injuries make this even more interesting, but…

Weber 27-31 UC Davis — Weber probably has more talent, but they're still a little discombobulated

Sac State 31-35 Idaho St. — This week's enigma game; I'll go with the barn

Montana St. 38-28 Suutah — The T-Birds won't stop MSU's offense

Portland St. 24-42 NAU — The only easy pick of the week

Cal Poly 42-38 NoDak — The winner is probably a contender, the loser is probably a pretender

[Squealofthepig]

SUU and the Cats and the Mustangs/[TFKAS] are the intriguing ones for me - the Thunderbirds seem to be an unknown quantity, and there will be a battle to see who between Cal Poly and UND will be the new up-and-comer in the Big Sky. I'll take the home teams in every game except Sac State at Idaho State just to really shake up the Big Sky.

[darell1976]

Sac St and Montana St are the only road teams I picked.

[GoAgs72]

Sac St and Montana St are the only road teams I picked.

This was my choice too.

[cpalum]

This has been the hardest week for me to pick so far. I think you could put together a rational argument for any team to win.

[darell1976]

This has been the hardest week for me to pick so far. I think you could put together a rational argument for any team to win.

That's the beauty of conference play. Anyone could beat anyone, no one is a 100% lock.

[wapiti]

CP 27 at UND 24--- Both teams are looking good this year. I give the edge to CP and enough of an edge to overcome UND's homefield advantage. This game could go either way.

UM 26 at EWU 32---Not a must win for UM, but can only afford only two more L's before puting them at the 7 win threshold (Great scheduling by UM). EWU has been playing tough. 3 road games and 2 of those against FBS and they show a positive record of 2 -1, plus EWU will be at home.

MSU 36 at SUU 28--- Both of these teams have shown improvement with each game played this year thus far. I would say MSU is the better team, but SUU is at home and has an excellent quaterback and MSU has a weakness with secondary coverage and pressuring the QB. But SUU's weakness is also defense. MSU's total defense is better and that will make the difference here.

PSU 17 at NAU 42---NAU has won 2 tough games while PSU has been struggling. This seems to be the easy pick this week.

Sac State 24 at ISU 22---ISU has played 2 FBS teams and a Div 2 with expected results, but making it tough to measure how much they have improved, while Sac has beaten an FBS, but went 1-1 at home against conference opponents. I see Sac as the better team and takes the 'W'.

WSU 20 at UCD 27---These two teams are 1 -7 between the two of them, with 3 of the L's being against FBS. UCD is at home and appears to have been playing better in there L's as opposed to BBQ.

[MSUBobcat]

CP @ UND - UND 34, CP 24
UM @ EWU - EWU 27, UM 21
MSU @ SUU - MSU 31, SUU 24
PSU @ NAU - NAU 30, PSU 17
Sac St @ ISU - Sac St 27, ISU 21
WSU @ UC-D - WSU 21, UC-D - 17

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Sac State 31 @ 20 Idaho State

Montana State 34 @ 28 Southern Utah

Portland State 23 @ 42 Northern Arizona

Montana 20 @ 27 Eastern Washington

Cal Poly 35 @ 28 North Dakota

Weber State 30 @ 20 UC Davis

[darell1976]

I like how everyone has the UND-Cal Poly game picked so close in score, that is how much of a toss-up this game is. I will be shocked if one team gets blown out.

[Screamin_Eagle174]

I like how everyone has the UND-Cal Poly game picked so close in score, that is how much of a toss-up this game is. I will be shocked if one team gets blown out.

I don't see many blowouts happening tomorrow for the BSC. Even PSU might play it close with NAU, wouldn't be surprised at all. Great slate of games.

[JALMOND]

I don't see many blowouts happening tomorrow for the BSC. Even PSU might play it close with NAU, wouldn't be surprised at all. Great slate of games.

For me, I'll be happy if PSU stays within 2 touchdowns of NAU. I do feel confident we will be able to contain Baumann somewhat, but when Grossart starts throwing will scare the hell out of me. Burton has got to be the only person in Portland who has faith in our defensive secondary.

[coover]

36-5 for the year so far. Been close to perfection but still can't seem to get there. Only six games this weekend, all conference games and Northern Colorado gets the bye. Here are my predictions for this weekend's slate of games. All my opinion only. i'm sure there will be quite the discussion so here they are.

CP at UND---The Mustangs seem to struggle a bit at home last week against a pesky UC-Davis team that really has no offense. The "Dakotans" (as I've started to call them) were pretty impressive in getting a road win at Sacramento State. These two teams have had quite the battles in the Great West, now it carries to the Big Sky...UND 38, CP 31.

UM at EWU---Is this a must win for the Grizzlies after their heart wrenching loss last week at home to Northern Arizona? Can they win on the road against a strong Eastern Washington team, who did have their struggles on the road last week at Weber State. This will be interesting but for now...EWU 35, UM 17.

MSU at SUU---The conference season officially opened last week and the Bobcats showed their dominance at home against Northern Colorado. The Thunderbirds, on the other hand, had their hands full on the road at Portland State, needing their beleagured defense to snuff out a drive at the goal line with no time left. The end of this one, no goal line stand allowed...MSU 35, SUU 24.

PSU at NAU---The Vikings had the win in the bag against Southern Utah, only to lose it at the end (when it counts). The Lumberjacks meanwhile, were exercising some demons at Montana in getting an impressive road win. Now they are at home, will they need the fireworks? Probably not...NAU 38, PSU 17.

Sac State at ISU---The Hornets are pretty peculiar. They have a win over Colorado, but they have looked pretty ordinary in their last two games, including last week's loss at home to North Dakota. The Bengals looked terrible against FBS Nebraska but have looked good when they can get the passing attack working. Should be no problem here...ISU 38, Sac State 21.

WSU at UCD---Hard to imagine without looking at whom they played that the Wildcats would still be searching for their first win of the year, but they are encouraged after last week's performance against Eastern Washington. The Aggies once again showed off that impressive defense against Cal Poly. Soon, though, they will need some type of offense...WSU 21, UCD 10.
Cal Poly at North Dakota ... it pains me to pick North Dakota so I'll be rooting against my pick, North Dakota by 3

Montana at Eastern Washington ... Montana will work hard to come back from last weeks loss. they'll fail. EWU by 10

Montana State at Southern Utah ... If Montana State can stop the pass, they'll will. Montana State by 7

Portland State at Northern Arizona ... Northern Arizona showed last week that they are the real thing. NAU by 14

Sacramento State at Idaho State ... Sacramento State is much better than ISU. SSU by 10

Weber State at UC Davis ... Davis gained some confidence in their offense last week against Poly and will keep WSU winless. UCD by 7

[JALMOND]

36-5 for the year so far. Been close to perfection but still can't seem to get there. Only six games this weekend, all conference games and Northern Colorado gets the bye. Here are my predictions for this weekend's slate of games. All my opinion only. i'm sure there will be quite the discussion so here they are.

CP at UND---The Mustangs seem to struggle a bit at home last week against a pesky UC-Davis team that really has no offense. The "Dakotans" (as I've started to call them) were pretty impressive in getting a road win at Sacramento State. These two teams have had quite the battles in the Great West, now it carries to the Big Sky...UND 38, CP 31.

UM at EWU---Is this a must win for the Grizzlies after their heart wrenching loss last week at home to Northern Arizona? Can they win on the road against a strong Eastern Washington team, who did have their struggles on the road last week at Weber State. This will be interesting but for now...EWU 35, UM 17.

MSU at SUU---The conference season officially opened last week and the Bobcats showed their dominance at home against Northern Colorado. The Thunderbirds, on the other hand, had their hands full on the road at Portland State, needing their beleagured defense to snuff out a drive at the goal line with no time left. The end of this one, no goal line stand allowed...MSU 35, SUU 24.

PSU at NAU---The Vikings had the win in the bag against Southern Utah, only to lose it at the end (when it counts). The Lumberjacks meanwhile, were exercising some demons at Montana in getting an impressive road win. Now they are at home, will they need the fireworks? Probably not...NAU 38, PSU 17.

Sac State at ISU---The Hornets are pretty peculiar. They have a win over Colorado, but they have looked pretty ordinary in their last two games, including last week's loss at home to North Dakota. The Bengals looked terrible against FBS Nebraska but have looked good when they can get the passing attack working. Should be no problem here...ISU 38, Sac State 21.

WSU at UCD---Hard to imagine without looking at whom they played that the Wildcats would still be searching for their first win of the year, but they are encouraged after last week's performance against Eastern Washington. The Aggies once again showed off that impressive defense against Cal Poly. Soon, though, they will need some type of offense...WSU 21, UCD 10.

Very bad, 3-3 for the week, brings me to 39-8 for the year. Terrible.

[Squealofthepig]

4-2 in a reckless week - Montana State pulled out a tough one in Cedar City, and Cal Poly surprised me a bit (and have a great path to the playoffs) with their convincing win vs. the team-formerly-known-as-Sioux-and-a-dog-named-Boo. My Griz did much better vs. EWU than I expected them to, though their turnover bug still probably cost them much more than EWU's great execution down the stretch.

[tingly]

I checked possible 8-0 ties and got that it could only happen between the winners of Cal Poly@NAU and EWU@Montana State. EWU and Cal Poly own the tiebreakers for now.
Montana St. and NAU - Sagarin Rating (currently EWU by 3)
Montana St. and Cal Poly - Sagarin Rating (currently Cal Poly by 7)
EWU and NAU - Sagarin Rating (currently EWU by 3)
EWU and Cal Poly - winner of Cal Poly@EWU non-conference game

[coover]

Cal Poly at North Dakota ... it pains me to pick North Dakota so I'll be rooting against my pick, North Dakota by 3

Montana at Eastern Washington ... Montana will work hard to come back from last weeks loss. they'll fail. EWU by 10

Montana State at Southern Utah ... If Montana State can stop the pass, they'll will. Montana State by 7

Portland State at Northern Arizona ... Northern Arizona showed last week that they are the real thing. NAU by 14

Sacramento State at Idaho State ... Sacramento State is much better than ISU. SSU by 10

Weber State at UC Davis ... Davis gained some confidence in their offense last week against Poly and will keep WSU winless. UCD by 7

Ahhhh! 5 -1 with my loss as my teams gain. I did think North Dakota's offense would beat Cal Poly. Thankfully, I was wrong!

[wapiti]

After I saw I had perfect picks this week I went and figured out my overall record on my BSC picks.

42 - 5
Better than I expected.
Now that I have tooted my own horn I will most likely do terrible on my picks.

[darell1976]

I lost only one game...the game that meant the most to me.xbawlingx