Week 3 viewing guide: Breaking down/predicting Michigan vs. Bowling Green, plus other key games from around the country
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Week 3 viewing guide
Michigan’s Under The Lights opponents went from an exclusive group that includes Notre Dame three times, Michigan State twice, Wisconsin twice and the likes of Penn State, Washington and Minnesota all once to turning into a TV-driven mess of inclusivity that has added the likes of Middle Tennessee and Hawaii in recent years.
On Saturday, Bowling Green will add its name to the mix, coming into the Big House as 40.5-point underdogs, serving as the final test for Michigan’s rotation of interim coaches as Jim Harbaugh finishes out his cheeseburger suspension.
Will it be a close game? Of course not. Can it still be interesting? Well, that’s in the eye of the beholder. But I’ll do my best to try and point out how and why it can be worth watching.
It’s not just a “meh” week for Michigan, either. This weekend could be college football’s most underwhelming slate of games of the entire fall. There are no ranked vs. ranked matchups, and the vast majority of games have double-digit point spreads in Las Vegas.
Speaking of Vegas spreads, I’ve used this place in past seasons as a way to hopefully help y’all win a little spending money if you take my predictions to heart. So far this season, there seem to be two things are pretty locked in when it comes to my picks: I’m going to get Michigan’s games correct, both straight and against the spread. And please, for the love of God, don’t trust a word I say about football games outside of the Big Ten.
Through two weeks, I’m 2-0 straight and ATS on Michigan games, a respectable enough 19-5 straight/12-12 ATS on Big Ten games and … then a complete dumpster fire when I branch out into the non-B1G games. Please take that to heart moving forward.
Because of this (OK … and because this week’s slate is pretty awful, and most of the interesting games have Big Ten ties) I’m going to make a slight audible from my usual “break out previews for 3 non-Michigan B1G games and 3 non-B1G games” format. I’ll be highlighting four Big Ten games this week (five if you count Michigan) and just two national ones.
This should just be a one-week thing, because next week’s schedule is looking mighty juicy (along with two huge Big Ten matchups in the way of Ohio State-Notre Dame and Penn State-Iowa, the slate includes non-B1G matchups like Florida State-Clemson, Ole Miss-Alabama, Colorado-Oregon, UCLA-Utah, Oregon State-Washington State, Arkansas-LSU, Texas-Baylor, and North Carolina-Pitt, among others). But until we get to next week, there are still some diamonds in the rough that could make this week a sneaky underrated and impactful week still.
Let’s get to it.
