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The ESPN College Pick Em game goes into Week 8 this weekend! There will be ten games to pick every Saturday. Each week you assign a confidence total for each game from 1-10 points. If you win, you get that many points. Simple, right? Now that you've got the hang of it, this year we are going to offer a little prize. The winner of the group this season will win FREE access to RotoBaller's college football DFS premium tools for the 2023 season. We have a pretty good turnout of 33 entries. You have a one-in-33 chance of winning, so set your lineups every week!
Last week was a rough week for all involved. The Syndicate was the only one in the group to hit 40 points. ryan_peoples2 had 37. After that, it was cnbaker and jphowell09 with 31 points that tied for third this week. Everyone else was under 30. The big week vaults ryan_peoples2 into first with 285 points. jphowell is four points behind. HumbleBee sits in third with 279 points. lbockenek is fourth with 273 points. Fred Smoot Boat Rentals rounds out the top five with 267 points.
Then it starts to tighten up a little. ertlt is only two points out of the top five. Kev Shep sits in seventh with 260 points. The Syndicate climbs to eighth with 257 points. San Diego's Finest is ninth with 253 points. Bamarick and XLVIII round out the top ten with 251 points. RickH219 is only one point out of the top ten and I'm one point behind that. 34 points separate first from tenth this week, so it's still pretty tight up there.
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College Football Pick Em Overview
This article will be for the confidence game mode. You can also read my against-the-spread picks here every week for every game so you know how I'm leaning for that version of the game. Each week, I will recap who's dominating the group before I get into the picks. If you're going to beat everyone, all of the readers will know about it!
Let's get to the countdown! I will count them up from least confident (1) to most (10). You know, for dramatic effect. If I do change my pick or points sometime during the week, I will try to update the article or post it on Twitter. Otherwise, you know all of my picks each week. Good luck out there. This looks like a tough week. There are some close ones on there, but that's what makes this fun!
(1) Oklahoma State over Texas
This Oklahoma State defense has had a rough go of it late in games. If Texas hangs around through the first three quarters – which they should – this is far from a sure thing, even in Stillwater. I trust Spencer Sanders to put up some points on this Texas defense, but I don't trust the defense as much against the Texas offense. I'm more on the fence about this than the field is.
(2) Liberty over BYU
Charlie Brewer's first estimate after his broken hand in Week 1 was that he would miss 6-8 weeks. This is going to be seven weeks, so we could see the Baylor and Utah transfer get a crack at BYU. I don't want to put too much on Brewer in what could be his first game back, but the BYU defense has plenty of holes. Dae Dae Hunter will have room to run, and Kaidon Salter has been more than serviceable in place of Brewer. The BYU receivers are healthy, but Jaren Hall has been beaten up over the last month or so. This is a winnable game for Liberty and the ESPN analytics have this much closer than the pick em players do. I'm trying to gain some points on the field here with these kinds of odds. BYU is being selected at 96% right now.
(3) Minnesota over Penn State
Tanner Morgan should be active for this game, but he won't have much of a say in who wins this game. Michigan just ground up the Penn State defense last week. Minnesota has the backs and the offensive line to do the same thing in this one. Illinois has an elite defense. Penn State does not. Mohamed Ibrahim could have a monster here, but he'll need more help from the passing game than he got last week. That should be doable against Penn State.
(4) Oregon over UCLA
I would probably take the Bruins in Pasadena, but maybe not. Oregon – and Bo Nix in particular – has looked outstanding since being blown off the field by Georgia in the opener. DTR and Nix should put on quite a show here, but I like the Oregon defense to hold up once or twice in key situations.
(5) TCU over Kansas State
If your favorite color is purple, this is the game for you! It's going to be purple overload in Fort Worth. I'm seriously considering flipping here just because TCU is being picked at 92%. That's huge leverage for a game that isn't likely to be a blowout. There are going to be points galore here, but we've seen TCU stiffen up when they really need to, and the Kansas State offense has gone stagnant at times.
(6) Tulane over Memphis
The Tulane defense is really good, and Memphis still seems shocked by what happened in Houston. The lack of a consistent run game is going to be a big problem for the Tigers here. Big enough for Tulane to win this game by ten points and have it feel like they dominated.
(7) Mississippi over LSU
It's in Death Valley, but it's not at night. The Rebels should be safe. They have the offense to blow the Tigers out, but the Ole Miss defense may not let them. Still, the Ole Miss run game feels too strong for LSU.
(8) Toledo over Buffalo
Did someone say MACtion? On Pick Em? That's great! I've struggled with Buffalo against the spread this year, but this is outright, and Toledo is by far the better team. I'll take the Rockets, even in Buffalo, unless an impromptu blizzard blows in.
(9) Cincinnati over SMU
I might end up moving this down. Evan Prater looked very good in relief of Ben Bryant, so if Bryant can't go, I still feel pretty good about the Bearcats. Maybe not nine points good, but good nonetheless.
(10) Central Florida over East Carolina
East Carolina is good enough to get some points on UCF, but they are going to have a hard time with John Rhys Plumlee. This feels like the closest one to a gimme that we have this week. It's better than last week though!
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