An offer you can’t refuse
If you are looking for someone to complain about the 12-team College Football Playoff, don’t ask Brent Musburger, The Godfather of VSiN and the voice of college football for so many years.
He and I were talking about the CFP seedings with the first four seeds going to conference champs and I expected him to want a change for next year like many have suggested.
“Look at the sites you get for first-round games this way,” he said. “Notre Dame on a Friday night, Columbus, Happy Valley, Austin.”
Then we got down to business. He gave me his picks for every side and Total for every bowl game as he has since our first guide in 2017, going head-to-head with VSiN analytics guru Steve Makinen.
You will find their picks in the VSiN College Football Playoff Guide, which will be available Thursday for VSiN Pro subscribers. Not a subscriber yet? Check out our Holiday Special.
In the Guide, we will focus on the CFP. We will post our bowl previews at least 48 hours before kickoff so that we can account for line moves and player opt-outs.
While you are waiting, Steve has filed the first in a series of handicapping angles for bowls, starting with “home-field advantage.”
Embracing (bad) changes
Michael Lombardi, host of The Lombardi Line (8-10 a.m. weekdays), warns us about the dangers of overvaluing a coaching change in season total bets:
Teams make changes for change’s sake, which never makes sense. Look at the Falcons; they fired Arthur Smith for being 7-10 three years in a row. They don’t change their front office or decision-making structure and hire Raheem Morris as their new man. They all believed adding a quarterback was all they needed to improve, discounting the work Smith had done to achieve the seven wins. With Morris, they have taken steps backward, causing many to wonder, why didn’t they keep Smith, add a quarterback, and move forward, building off the good?
>>Plenty more examples from Michael.
Speaking of win totals, Adam Schein, host of Make It Rain (3-4 p.m. ET weekdays), is not giving up on his Rams’ ticket.
The Rams are back! Cue Sia and let’s dream of California playoffs. Our preseason prediction of their win total staying alive got a huge boost with their thrilling 44-42 victory over the Bills. Now sitting at 7-6, I’m doubling down on LA to win the NFC West.
Everything we do on Week 15 is posted here, including early Best Bets from Mike Somich, Tyler Shoemaker and Adam Burke.
Today in college basketball
Greg Peterson has posted his Best Bets for today’s menu.
>Adam Burke’s top plays will be up later today.
Quick Hits
NBA: The Bucks and Thunder are heading to Las Vegas for the NBA Cup. Zach Cohen has posted previews of tonight’s quarterfinals: Hawks vs. Knicks and Warriors vs. Rockets.
NHL: Look for Jonathan Davis‘ picks by mid-day on our NHL page.
