Betting Picks

Like the rest of us, I think oddsmakers can get caught up in rivalry week and abandon their usually sound logic - or maybe they are just eager to stuff themselves full of turkey this Thanksgiving and didn't do the research. Either way, Boston College at Syracuse is a weak line.

It's rivalry week in NCAA football and that means wherever you look, there are big-time games available for wagering. Some will impact the national championship race, while others will simply offer regional bragging rights for another year. But one thing you should remember when betting on rivalry games - you should throw the records and the odds out the window, because emotion often carries the day in these games.

The winless Cleveland Browns. The team-less Colin Kaepernick. This week's list of NFL special bets on offer from Bovada reads like a who's who of prop bet regulars. Will the Browns go 0-16 seems like an annual member of the NFL prop bet festivities. And wagers on when and where much-maligned former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Kaepernick will play next are also in abundance.

After a short break following the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Grade 1 racing returns this weekend, starting with Friday's Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs. The race has drawn a field of nine, and they'll be going 1 1/8 miles on the dirt for a purse of $500,000.

Detroit Lions coach Jim Caldwell didn't enjoy being reminded of his Thanksgiving Day success, insisting his team can still be better in their traditional holiday showing. But how can you improve on perfection? The Lions are 3-0 on Thanksgiving Day under Caldwell's tutelage and have won four straight Thanksgiving Day games. Considering they were 1-11 the previous 12 Thanksgivings, you'd have to say that's impressive.

Like a giant boulder steamrolling down the side of a hill, the New Orleans Saints just keep picking up steam, and steamrolling everyone and everything in their path. Up next, a road test against NFC-West leading L.A. Rams. This will be another measure of the Saints' ability to overcome a challenge, but no one's stopped them yet, so betting against them would be a unwise choice to make.

The most popular feature of the FIFA 18 video game is Ultimate Team where players can build their own team of superstars. Many FIFA 18 players like to build teams from the English Premier League, if this describes you, you need to get these EPL players into your Ultimate Team.

Are the Atlanta Falcons finally starting to come around? Seemingly in a state of disarray ever since they blew their big lead and lost Super Bowl LI to New England, there was a definite hangover from that failure as the 2017 NFL season got underway, as the Falcons struggled to find their game. But last week in a decisive 27-7 win over Dallas, they looked like the defending NFC champs.

No gargantuan games on the horizon in Week 12, but still plenty of opportunities to beat the books and fatten the bankroll for the upcoming playoff/bowl season. For this week's pick of the day, I'm looking at some strong angles in the Miami/Virginia matchup.