Sean Higgs Premium Picks

Taking TOLEDO. Rockets come in off an absolute disaster. An 18.5-point home favorite against Buffalo and they lose outright, 23-8! EIGHT POINTS! At home! Against a Buffalo team whose only two previous wins came against Robert Morris and Albany. Oh boy. Now Toledo hits the road to face an Eastern Michigan team riding a three-game winning streak. Three straight wins! Sounds impressive, right? Let's examine this powerhouse run. Akron, 1-5. UMass, 4-2. And Lindenwood, 1-4, out of the rugged Ohio Valley Conference! That's the three-game winning streak we're supposed to be impressed with? Meanwhile, before that Buffalo debacle, Toledo had scored 49 against Temple, 41 against San Diego State and 39 against Ball State. That's 129 points in three games. And suddenly this offense can only manage eight against Buffalo? I'm not buying that as the new normal. Toledo averaging 31 points per game. Eastern Michigan around 21. Now, points per game aren't the end-all, be-all. I get that. But one team has demonstrated it can put 35 or 40 on the scoreboard. The other has trouble consistently clearing 20. And let's look at Eastern Michigan at home. They haven't exactly been defending some fortress in Ypsilanti. Beat Lindenwood 29-3. Congratulations. Lost 27-21 to San Jose State. And this isn't some unstoppable San Jose State offense we're talking about. The Spartans have been held to 13, 16 and 20 points in three of their six games! So what exactly has Eastern Michigan shown us that says they're ready to knock off Toledo? Here's the difference for me. Eastern Michigan is winning games against lesser competition. Toledo has already demonstrated a much higher offensive ceiling. One awful Saturday against Buffalo doesn't erase that. I'm expecting an angry Toledo team, a much sharper offensive performance, and a Rockets squad that reminds everybody why it was laying nearly three touchdowns a week ago. We're not laying 18.5 today. We're laying less than a touchdown against an Eastern Michigan team whose winning streak doesn't scare me one bit. 5* Best Bet TOLEDO ROCKETS

Taking BOSTON COLLEGE here. Why is Pitt laying this on the road? They lost their starting QB. Now they hit the road vs a team coming off their bye week that has been playing better. 2-3 BC vs a 5-1 Pitt team. Panthers come in off a home loss to North Carolina last week. Holden Geriner threw 2 TD passes and 2 INTs. Pitt also couldn't convert a 4th down to cost them that game. He threw more passes last week then his entire 11 games he played over the last 4 years at Auburn and Texas State. I have Bill O'Brien for BC with a week to prepare for a backup QB and getting points. 20-17, 24-20, 23-17. All winners if we don't steal this one. Bye week. Back-up QB. I think we can get the outright here. 4* Money Maker BOSTON COLLEGE

Taking UNLV. Three straight wins for UNLV. Air Force didn't throw a pass last week. They can't do that again. They will try though. We had UNLV (Best Bet) last week against North Dakota State. Everybody was talking about the undefeated Bison, and what happened? UNLV shut them down and won the football game. Now we're going to Air Force's triple-option offense. 400 yards last week. Not a single pass! I get it. The Falcons can run the football. But here's my question: Can they stop the UNLV offense? NO. What about the UNLV defense? Well this Rebels defense has allowed just 13 points in two conference games. They're playing their best defensive football of the season, and playing an Air Force team that has questions at quarterback. Dan Mullen has this team moving in the right direction. I think UNLV can win the Mountain West, and games like this are where you prove you're a contender. Back to back weeks we are taking UNLV for the outright win. 4* Money Maker UNLV

Taking OHIO STATE. Some Big 10 Championship Game revenge. Saw somewhere OSU is 31-0-1 (tie 1990) last 32 games vs the Hoosiers. Indiana as reigning Champs getting the inflated status, 6-0 SU, 1-5 ATS. Hoosiers barely escaped Nebraska last week. They were also in a dog fight vs Northwestern in their last home game. Indiana might be winning games, but Ohio State is starting to really dominate teams on  both sides of the ball. The market has overvalued Indiana all season long. Maybe this 3.5 should be 5.5. Ohio State has the more explosive passing attack, and the better defense. OSU isn't laying 10 or even 7. 31-24 gives us the early winner to start off Saturday.  4* Money Maker OHIO STATE

Taking ALABAMA. Tide come off a tough 20-17 loss to Georgia. Not a chance they are overlooking the Vols here. Can't lose back to back in the SEC. Tennessee comes in after struggling to beat Arkansas 24-17. Tennessee with some QB issues right now also as I write this on Wednesday. Vols will rely even more on their run game. Bama knows that is coming. We have seen Alabama put up 45+ on every team they have played except Georgia. Tennessee is not Georgia. I think we see more of what we saw last year in a a 37-20 Bama win. It will not be lost on the Bama players that they have lost their 2 trips to Tennessee in 2024 (24-17) and 2022 (52-49). If they had beaten the Bulldogs, I'm probably on the home dogs here. But off that loss, I would need double digits to back the Vols. Alabama will get out to a quick lead and Tennessee will not be able to mount a comeback. Tide pull away for a double digit winner for us. 4* Money Maker ALABAMA

4* Total Money OVER Arkansas State/ Southern Miss