Week 3 viewing guide: Breaking down/predicting Michigan vs. CMU, plus other key games from around the country
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It’s time for the Week 3 installment of my weekly viewing guide. For those of you who may need a reminder, this Friday staple typically include the following:
My breakdown and prediction (both straight and against the spread) of Michigan’s game
My choices for the three biggest Big Ten games of the week that don’t involve Michigan, including predictions straight and against the spread
My choices for the three biggest non-Big Ten games of the weekend, including predictions straight and against the spread
Rapid-fire predictions for all other Big Ten games, both straight and against the spread.
Since we’re at the start of the season, today’s newsletter will also include my weekly Big Ten power rankings, similarly to how we treated last week’s rankings. Once we hit conference play and there are enough big games to give us true data points to really move things around, it will start being a standalone weekly staple.
Last week wasn’t a very good weekend for anyone associated with the Michigan football program. And that extends to my picks, where I blew the Michigan game by going with a last-minute flip to an upset, giving me just my third incorrect Wolverine moneyline pick over the last three seasons (but hey, 85% of you took Michigan last weekend, too, so it appears I have plenty of company at the loser table).
Overall, I went 16-2 straight/9-9 ATS in Big Ten games, and then underwhelmed with my three big non-B1G games for the second straight week, thanks largely to SMU absolutely melting down the stretch against Baylor. This week’s slate has better matchups than Week 2, but doesn’t quite match the greatness that was the jam-packed Week 1 offering.
Here are my cumulative stats through two weeks of picks:
2025 results
Michigan games
Straight: 1-1
Against the spread: 1-1
B1G games
Straight: 34-2
Against the spread: 19-17
Overall
Straight: 35-7
Against the spread: 21-21
It’s good not being below .500 in any of the against the spread categories. But I’d love to get a little more separation from that .500 mark — ideally in the positive direction. Let’s check out this week’s picks after the paywall jump and see if we can do exactly that. 👇
