Best Bets: Championship Week

Every week, Rock M Nation will post the SEC betting lines for that week’s slate of games. DISCLAIMER: Rock M Nation is not an online gambling operator, nor a gambling site of any kind. We are simply here to provide information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only. None of the staff will be using this information for gambling purposes and are not liable for any losses incurred due to the analysis contained within.

So we promised a Best Bets Bounce Back™ last week (well, to be honest, we’ve promised it the last several weeks) but THIS time we actually delivered, going 2-1 on our picks (no thanks to SMU absolutely choking away their bid to the ACC championship game.) Sadly, because the gods have cursed us with the inability to get ahead, we went .500 overall on the week. Best Bets sits at 20-22 with our overall picks still at .500 at 42-42 going into Conference Championship Week. We still have a couple more weeks to turn this thing around and we’ve been putting in the hours to make it happen. Let’s get to it.

Best Bets

UNLV @ Boise St. (-3.5)

This is a pretty chalk pick and to be honest, Boise has been pretty mid this year. Thankfully for them, the rest of the Mountain West has been even midder (this is grammatically correct when referring to the Mountain West.) Neither of these teams excites me at all, but Boise has the predigree and they get to play this game at home in the cold. I’ll take the Broncos by a touchdown.

BYU (+13.5) vs. Texas Tech

Yes, Texas Tech blew out BYU the first time these two teams met, but that was in Lubbock while hosting ESPN Gameday. The Red Raiders had all the momentum and, while dominating the game defensively, really didn’t show anything interesting on offense. I do think Tech is the better team and will win this game, but I don’t see it being a blow out like the last match up. A two-touchdown spread is just a bit too much for my tastes, so give me BYU to cover.

Georgia (-2.5) vs. Alabama

This has to be the time Kirby finally beats Alabama in a big game. Right? RIGHT?? He’s 0-fer against the Tide in conference championship games and lost to them in the regular season both last year and this year. The Tide have been trending down a bit in recent weeks, including a loss to Oklahoma and were scarily close to losing to Auburn last week as well. Georgia is peaking and I think they’ll finally handle business.

Worth a look

Miami (OH) vs. Western Michigan (-1.5)

WMU has only dropped one MAC game all year. Yes, that one game was to Miami, but that game was in Athens and they’ve really rallied since to win out and secure the top spot in the MAC. Miami has been a bit more up and down this year. I think the spread Vegas attached to this game is right on the money as this will be a pretty evenly matched game but I’ll take the Broncos to come out on top in the revenge game.

Duke vs. Virginia (-3.5)

In perhaps the must underwhelming conference championship match up, 7-5 Duke inexplicably has a chance to win the ACC. That prospect has the ACC office shaking in their boots because if that happens, there is a more than zero percent chance the ACC gets left out of the playoffs altogether. Expect the referees to err on the side of the Cavaliers whenever possible in this game. That, plus Virginia being the better team should result in a Cavaliers victory by more than a field goal.

Indiana vs. Ohio State (-4.5)

Ohio State is far and away the best team in the country this year. Indiana is very good too, but I just don’t see any chance that they don’t get punched in the mouth repeatedly by the Ohio State defense and eventually fold. It won’t be a blowout like pretty much every other Buckeye result this year, but do expect them to win fairly comfortably by the time the game ends.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See sportsbook.fanduel.com for details.