I’m sure you are familiar with the old saying “you can’t win them all “. Well, that pretty much sums up our picks from last week as nothing went our way on Saturday and our top college play of the week ended up way off the mark. The one thing we can hang our hat on was our correct call on the NFL game of the week with St. Louis. While we never like to head into a big weekend like the one with have planned coming off a down week, we also have not been successful in the sports selection business for over 40 years by resting on our laurels.

Our 7-unit NFL Game of the Year has been in the works for the last couple weeks and is still a go for this week. We also came across a line on a Big Ten matchup that was just too good to pass up, so we will also be releasing our 8-Unit Big Ten Game of the Year. We normally do not like to go with two big plays in the same week. However, when opportunities like this come along you cannot hesitate to jump all over them. Anyone who has been with Doc’s over our many years in this business know that our 8-Unit Big Ten Game of the Year has been legendary, with 19 straight winners from the late 1970s into the early 1990s. We have not been able to duplicate that incredible level of success in recent years, but have been right on the money with the majority of our picks.

The reason I am so excited about this year’s play is that this matchup features one of my favorite angles when it comes to handicapping college football. We have sometimes hesitated to go with a game like this with the expectation of a better opportunity coming down the pike later in the season, but our confidence level for this game is sky-high.

Given that we did decide to release both the Big Ten and NFL Game of the Year in the same week, make sure you stick with Doc’s Unit Betting System when wagering on these games. Regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s 8-Unit play, be sure to only go with seven units on Sunday’s NFL game. Our most successful customers over the years are the ones that base their betting strategy on our recommended unit system from Week 1 of the college football season right through the NFL’s Super Bowl in February of the following year. Winning and losing streaks are inevitable in this business, so it is vital that you have the patience to ride things out by always maintaining a consistent approach to wagering on the games.

I am going refrain from previewing any of the Big Ten games this week in light of our game of the year, but I feel compelled to pass on a few personal thoughts about the conference in general. Has there ever been a time in recent memory when the Big Ten has been more irrelevant in light of the initial BCS standings that came out this past Sunday night? There is not one team from the conference on the list, and in my personal opinion that is the way it should be. Every single team is strapped with major flaws, and the separation from top to bottom is just not that wide. I think every Big Ten fan should lobby commissioner Jim Delany to revoke the bowl ban on Ohio State this year in order keep the conference from completely falling off the cliff. If the Buckeyes were eligible, they would have been a Top 5 team from the start and in perfect position to run the table all the way to a berth in the national title game. That is obviously not the case, so all we have to look forward to is a bunch of very average teams playing in a New Year’s Day Bowl game that they do not deserve to be in.

The SEC takes center-stage this week when South Carolina heads into the Swamp to tangle with the Florida Gators. The “Old Ball Coach” returns to his old stopping grounds where he won a Heisman Trophy as a player and a National Championship as a coach. South Carolina’s biggest challenge will be to quickly put aside last Saturday’s second-half collapse against LSU in a heartbreaking two-point loss. You have to question whether or not the Gamecocks have enough left in the tank to knock the Gators off on the road. The winner of this game will have the inside track to represent the East in the SEC title game, so both teams fully understand the importance of Saturday’s tilt. Spurrier has led his team over Florida the past two years, but I do not believe that his offense is good enough to get past the Gators this time around.

One of our favorite teams this season has been Notre Dame, and, for the most part, the Fighting Irish have not let us down. The defense remains one of the best in the country and is allowing just 8.7 points per game. The Irish survived an overtime thriller against Stanford last week but barely have time to catch their breath as the remainder of the schedule is still loaded with a couple of tough games. Notre Dame plays BYU this Saturday before travelling to Norman on Oct.27 to face No.9 Oklahoma. Lurking in the wings is a trip to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to close out the season against No.10 USC. Mark my words, if the Fighting Irish run the table they will be in the BCS Championship Game. Now ask me if I think that this will be the case? The simple answer is “no,” as the constant shuffling at quarterback will eventually catch up with the Irish.  

Moving onto the play-for-pay league, the key word through the first six weeks is “parity”. There are 12 teams that have a share of first place in their respective divisions, and the entire AFC East is 3-3. Atlanta remains the only undefeated team, but until the Falcons do something in the postseason nobody is going to take them seriously. Injuries are becoming a major factor, and it already looks like the team that enters the playoffs hot and healthy will once again win the Super Bowl. The idea that someone can get off to a fast start and stay on top all season long is just not that realistic anymore given all the media and fan pressure they have to face along the way.

One thing we have prided ourselves on over the past 41 years in the sports selection business is the ability to always bounce back from bad weeks, and this week will be no different. This presents a golden opportunity to sign up for a one-week package that gives you all eight of our top picks, including the NFL Game of the Year (7-Unit play) and our world famous Big Ten Game of the Year (8-Unit play) for the low price of just $99. Including last week’s drop off we are still 11-4 overall this season on our top plays and a sterling 8-1 in the NFL, so please give us a call at 1-800-356-9182 for all the details.

Best of luck and together let’s get the job done!