Our selection service produced another profit this week, picking up +12 units ($100 bettors made $1,040). Most of the damage was done in the NFL, as we went 3-0 on Sunday, including nailing a 6-unit play from the Detroit/Washington game. One of our losses on Saturday was a real mystery, as I have yet to figure out what happened to Nevada. The Wolf Pack were up 35-0 at halftime, playing in Reno. They went on to give up 42 points in the second half. Did the defense decide to go home after intermission? It always amazing me how some games take a different twist after one team dominates after 30 minutes of play.

The Big Ten Conference looks to feature a tough slate of games this week. I have thought about a complete pass, but one game will likely be a selection on the weekend card for our subscribers. This week three teams are favored by 20 or more points, and two of those teams are on the road. Wisconsin vs. Purdue looks to me like the only game I would consider. The Badgers had last week off and this was badly needed as they had some key personal banged up. Wisconsin controls their own destiny for a BCS Bid and they have a pretty easy schedule to close to the 2010 regular season. The Badgers offensive line is playing outstanding and I look for them to use their punishing running attack to wear down the Boilermakers.

As for Purdue, they are still nursing numerous injuries on the offensive side of the football. They are playing a fourth-string quarterback and he has some nicks as well. It is always difficult to lay this much wood on the road, but I may make an exception here.

There is no question in my mind that the No. 1 team in the country is the Oregon Ducks. I watched the Ducks play USC last Saturday night. The Trojans were fired up coming off a bye week and played their hearts out. However, they just could not handle the team speed of the Ducks. Should Oregon continue to win, it will set up a great Civil War match-up on Dec. 4 in Corvallis, Oregon. The Ducks have knocked the Beavers out of the Rose Bowl in the last two meetings. However, this may be the year that they return the favor.

As difficult as I believe that the Big Ten is to handicap this week, a couple of games have jumped out to me in the Pac-10. One game has especially caught my eye and it will be our Pac-10 Game of the Year (6-unit play). We still have not used our Big Ten Game of the Year (8-unit play), but if things go as planned, I will likely pull the trigger on the game next Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010.

Moving onto the NFL, what a mess has developed with the Minnesota Vikings. The team had a brutal schedule to open up the 2010 NFL season and they finally reached their breaking point this Sunday with a double-digit loss to the New England Patriots. The Vikings waived WR Randy Moss after only a month of action and have now lost a third round pick for very little production. QB Brett Favre has not been the same player as he was in 2009, and many believe he should have never came back for an encore. I am not so sure of that and believe that the loss of WR Sidney Rice has really hurt this team.

This team still has a lot of talent but they need to get on the same page quickly. Their schedule does ease up a bit starting this week with an easy game against the Arizona Cardinals. I do believe that Coach Brad Childress made the right call in dismissing WR Randy Moss. I knew Brad personally when he was the offensive coordinator at Wisconsin. He is a genuinely nice guy and a very hard worker. I am not a big fan of the Vikings, but I hope that they can turn it around for Childress.

Moving around the league, the NFC has been taking a beating from the media as being a far weaker conference in 2010 compared to the AFC. Last Sunday the NFC flexed some of their muscles with two impressive wins over top teams in the AFC. Green Bay went to New Jersey and shut down the one-loss Eagles by a score of 9-0. Sunday night New Orleans got a must-win by beating the one-loss Steelers, 20-10.

The wind seemed to play a role in many of the games in the East, causing many of those games to stay way below the posted total. Overall it was a very successful week in the NFL, as we went 3-0, +14 units on Sunday and fell just a couple of points away from a perfect 4-0 with the Monday Night Game. I really like the Sunday card this week in the NFL and we will have another 5-unit play going this week in the play-for-pay league.

As the weather gets colder, the gym light comes on, and that can only mean one thing: the start of college basketball. Like football, this will be my 39th year of handicapping college basketball and I am already busy studying my 2010-11 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. If you have never seen one of these books, I would encourage you to check them out as there is not a better college basketball preview book available. It goes into detail about each of the 300+ teams and I have found it as a great tool in helping me handicap games.

We are about two weeks away from our 2010-11 College Basketball selection service tipping off and I am very excited about this. I am expecting a monster year and would love to have you along for the ride. Packages are now posted and the best value is a full-season package for just $725.

This weekend for football picks looks promising, and we will be gunning for our fifth profitable week in our last six. The featured play this week is our Pac-10 Game of the Year (6-unit selection). You can purchase this play for just $25 or sign-up for a one-week package and receive our complete card in college and NFL.

That’s it for this week