For My Next Bet, I'll Need A Volunteer From The SEC

You've got a half hour left to put down money on amateur athletes. You're desperate. I mean, REALLY desperate. You turn to Deadspin for three shoe-in victories. You'll probably only cash in on one of them, but it's that one game in which you'll be forever indebted to me.

Alabama (+1) over Tennessee. Since the colonial times, citizens from the areas known today as Alabama and Tennessee would meet once a year to play a game called "find a savage tribe, and kill as many women and children as possible." Today, Native American murder is frowned upon in most states, so they slowly evolved from Indian killings to lifesize foosball (using slaves) to Jim Crow curling¹, and presently the game is football. They had planned on having the game every year on October 20, but they felt that would be too hard for people to remember, so they just made it the third Saturday of October.

So that's the history. In recent years, the home team has won this game for the last three years. Let's bet on that being four in a row.

Buffalo (+3) over Syracuse. It's not saying too much by asserting that UB could be the best FBS school in New York, because, well, the other options are Syracuse and Army. But hell, when else do the Buffalo Bulls get any chance to say "they're the best team among..." and finish that declaration with multiple schools? Since their move to the FBS, they've never had a three-game winning streak. Until now.

Even though there is no line, find some bookie out there who will allow you to put money on North Dakota State over Minnesota. It's not just that the Golden Gophers are teaspoon-of-diarrhea bad, but NDSU is Sagarin' up the rankings. Plus they are 2-1 in their last three games against FBS schools. The one loss was a 10-9 heartbreaker to ... Minnesota. They pasted MAC champion Central Michigan by 30 points earlier this year. And most importantly, they use the correct plural noun of "bison," unlike the Cleveland Indians' Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons.

¹ - The teams were separate but equal, thus often resulting in tie games. Coupled with the lack of ice in Alabama in October, this tradition only lasted three years.