The following four games are the ones that I, personally, find most interesting this week. Let me put my 4-3 record against the spread on the line and discuss them a little more.

Ball State (+31) at Pittsburgh: This is obviously another name-your-price, sucker bet game that is almost impossible to pick against the spread. That being said, Pitt beat the living hell out of the spread last week against Kent State, and looked quite impressive while doing so. Plus, I doubt that Pitt will be looking past the Cardinals (yes, I had to look it up) to Toledo. I’ll suspect more of a let down next week than this week. So I’ll actually (gulp) take Pitt to cover.

Notre Dame (+10.5) at Michigan: First off, I sincerely commend the University of Michigan for refusing to play Notre Dame after this series until the Irish join the Big Ten Conference. It’s nice to finally see the Wolverines match the stand Woody Hayes took in the freakin’ 1960s (and that John Cooper broke in 1995-96). Personally, I think that Big East schools should refuse to play Notre Dame as well until the Irish join a conference (hopefully the Big East… think of all your subway supporters in the Northeast!).

Michigan has looked dominant this year, so far. And therein lies the problem. Neither Michigan nor Ohio State ever look dominant three games in a row. Add in the Wolverines historical slump against the Irish, and the fact that Michigan is about the biggest rival that Notre Dame has these days, and… well… this one seems easy. On history alone (as well as Ty Willingham’s strategizing), I’ll take the Irish and the points.

North Carolina State (no line) at Ohio State: No line? No freakin’ line whatsoever on the Buckeyes at home on national television against the team that got manhandled (not just upset) by an admittedly decent Wake Forest team last week?

I know that Ohio State looked pathetic against San Diego State, but I think we can assume that the Buckeyes might have been looking past the Aztecs to the only team that I’ve ever seen talk more trash than Michigan. And sure Maurice Clarett has been a distraction. Good. Ohio State has traditionally needed a reason to focus on big out-of-conference games like this.

N.C. State’s aerial attack against Ohio State’s secondary will decide this game, and I don’t think that the Wolfpack can keep it up all day. So I’ll take N.C. State to lead at halftime, and Ohio State to pull away in the end.

Penn State (+10) at Nebraska: Heck, these days a man could make his living picking Penn State not to cover spreads. Add in the facts that (1) Penn State’s defense couldn’t stop Boston College’s running game but now must face the Cornhuskers’s option, and (2) Zack Mills couldn’t pass against BC’s defense but now must face the resurgent Blackshirts? Forget about it. The world needs more easy picks like this.

(Incidentally, the fact that these two equally downtrodden programs are actually finding the time to talk trash about each other, to the level that even ESPN noticed, is the funniest thing I’ve seen this week.)

Hail to More Night Games at Heinz Field

Pitt has announced it’s 2003-2004 basketball schedule. It features a high profile, neutral site game at the beginning against Alabama (RPI #38) and a home game against Georgia(RPI #5, but wracked with scandal and transferred players). Aside from that the non-conference schedule features powerhouses St. Francis (PA) (RPI 221), Robert Morris (RPI 284), Albany (Albany 294), Duquesne (RPI 243), Penn St. (RPI 202), Youngstown St. (RPI 280), New Hampshire (RPI 309), William & Mary (RPI 265); and a bizarre holiday tournament hosted by Pitt — Murray St. (RPI 135, but not actually scheduled to play Pitt), Florida St. (RPI 81), Wagner (RPI 103), Eastern Michigan (RPI 205) and Chicago St. (RPI 314).

RPI from the 2002-2003 season out of 327 schools.

Now the Big East schedule actually looks difficult because the new 16 game season means playing 10 of the teams only once, but 3 teams twice. The 3 teams Pitt will be facing twice are: UConn, Notre Dame and Syracuse.

Now Pitt has had really easy non-con b-ball schedules for a while, and it hurt them 2 years ago in the seeding for the NCAA tournament. Last year, despite being a Top 10 team, the strength of schedule (SOS) for Pitt was only 56. It doesn’t look, judging by the non-con, that the SOS will be that much better. So to read this from Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon in the press release, just makes me roll my eyes.

“By far, it’s the most difficult schedule we will play in my five years here,” Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon said. “The Big East will again pose a tremendous challenge. I’m excited about our non-conference schedule as well. We’re bringing in teams from three of the major conferences — the ACC, SEC and Big 10. I doubt there are many schools nationwide who can say that.”

You’re not exactly facing in Duke, Florida and Michigan St.

So let’s keep the schedule in perspective. The doubters of Pitt will have every right to point at the schedule once again before conference play begins and ask “But whou have they played?”