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The first full weekend of college football is set to get underway Thursday night and there are some huge games on tap from Thursday through Monday, including several featuring SEC squads.
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Bill Connelly released some of his Week 1 predictions using his SP+ model, which he describes as “my opponent- and tempo-adjusted look at the most sustainable and predictive aspects of college football. It is intended to be predictive and forward-facing.”
?? WEEK 1 SP+ PICKS??
Ohio St 37, Minn 28
UNC 35, VT 28
Wisc 27, PSU 23
Bama 33, Miami 24
Iowa 28, Indiana 21
Texas 32, UL 26
Clemson 28, UGA 25
UCLA 32, LSU 31
ND 32, FSU 24Time to find out the hard way if 2020 data is worth a single damn thing!!! pic.twitter.com/TY0BgU3K9R
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) September 1, 2021
Of course, most eyes this weekend will be on two huge games involving SEC teams as top-ranked Alabama faces No. 14 Miami and No. 5 Clemson plays No. 3 Georgia.
In those games, the SP+ model pegs the Crimson Tide to win 33-24, which would be far closer than the current spread of 19.5, and the Tigers to nip the Bulldogs, 28-25, which would currently result in a push in Vegas.
SP+ is forecasting an upset in another high-profile game involving an SEC squad, as he has UCLA upsetting 16th-ranked LSU 32-31 at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night, despite the fact that the Tigers are currently 3-point favorites.
As for the Labor Day night game on ESPN between Ole Miss and Louisville, Connelly has the Rebels winning a shootout, 37-30.
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
