I’m bringing back my weekly parlay picks this year, where I pick 3 college football games and 3 NFL games each week against spread (always making a pick on the Illinois and Bears games, if applicable).  Basically, it’s an ongoing experiment/validation that it’s a good thing that I don’t live within driving distance of Vegas and how no one should EVER play a parlay in real life.  Here are my picks for the college games this week with hazy illogical reasoning (home teams in CAPS with odds from Bodog.com via Yahoo!):

(1) Illinois (+12) over Missouri (neutral site in St. Louis) – This is just a feeling based on the line itself (because frankly, there’s no good concrete evidence to support putting money on the Illini).  It simply seems like too large of a spread for a neutral site rivalry game when the favorite just “permanently suspended” a star player.  Besides, I have to get the homer pick out of my system early since Illinois probably won’t cover for the rest of the season.

(2) Purdue (+11) over NOTRE DAME – My initial impression is that Purdue is going to perform a bit better than expected this season and the weird overconfidence vibe that I’m getting from South Bend (that Brian Kelly is somehow miles different than the previous 3 Notre Dame head coaches) could turn this into a trap game for the Irish.

(3) Virginia Tech (+1.5) over Boise State (neutral site in Landover) – I know, I’m going to be called a non-believer in Boise State.  However, Virginia Tech is not some Pac-10 team with a gimmicky offense or an overconfident power school heading into a bowl game.  These 2 schools are neck-and-neck in the rankings, yet the Hokies have been placed as underdogs despite being the virtual home team.  I’ll gladly eat my words (and adjust my BlogPoll rankings) if Boise State proves me wrong, but as of now, I love taking the points here.

Feel free to use this post as an open thread for the weekend’s games.  If you want to talk about conference realignment or the Big Ten divisional setup, please continue the discussion on the Big Ten Division-palooza post.  Have a great Labor Day and enjoy the actual football action!

(NOTE: There’s no real reason for the posted picture, other than it needs to be exposed for the world to see and will be my laptop wallpaper for the next 15 years.  Yes, I’m about as street as the Kenny G look-alike from Color Me Badd.  Why do you ask?)

(Follow Frank the Tank’s Slant on Twitter @frankthetank111)

(Image from Rap Radar)