College Football Picks from Home This Week

Back from the far side of the world with some picks for Saturday. I will enjoy watching these games. Last week my entire college football fix was the second half of Rutgers-Army Friday night game viewed Saturday morning in Kazakhstan.

Texas A&M (-7) over Iowa State
Texas (-9) over Oklahoma State
Houston (-6.5) over Southern Miss
Michigan State (-3.5) over Minn
Kansas State (+28) over Oklahoma
Florida (-15) over Georgia

For recreational purposes only.

Amsterdam versus Kazakhstan

They are two very different places. Canals, 300+ years buildings, compact, densely populated, cool, wet, you can hear 10 different languages spoken in a 10 minute walk down the street, bars, pubs, and restaurants on every corner. Drink beer like water.

Flat, brown and tan, clear skies, very cold in winter, very hot in summer, salt dried out on the coastal plain, free range camels, horses, sheep, new construction, most everyone who lives there speaks Russian and Kazakh, three times the size of Texas with 15 million people. Drink vodka like water.

Football Results Comments from Amsterdam

Aggies beat the hell out of Tech, in Lubbock??? Great!!!!

MSU almost beats Iowa, wow.

Amsterdam is quite a contrast to Atyrau. I have not any free range camels here. But I did not see any Dutch girls riding their bikes on a crowded street while talking on a cell phone in Atyrau.

Football Picks from The Far Side Of The World

Live from Atyrau, Kazakhstan, college football picks:

Texas over Missouri
Alabama over Tenn
Florida over Miss State
Texas Tech over A&M (bet the over)
Michigan State over Iowa - my upset special

No guarantee on the picks since I had about 20+ rounds of toasts with vodka and a six hour drive to and from the oil field site. Western Kazakhstan near the Caspian looks like Midland Texas, but with camels and sheep, and not as scenic. Midland also has cattle and horses.

College Football Picks October 17, 2009

Texas A&M over Kansas State
Texas over Oklahoma
Michigan State over Northwestern
Florida over Arkansas
Notre Dame over USC
Texas Tech over Nebraska

College Football Picks Today

Florida over LSU
Texas over Colorado
Texas A&M over Oklahoma State
Michigan State over Illinois

MSU Debate Win at Kentucky

Debate pair wins tournament
Contact: Greta Stahl, Debate, stahlgre@msu.edu
Published: Oct. 09, 2009 E-mail Editor
Related Links· MSU Debate Team


EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan State University debate pair of senior Carly Wunderlich (Brookfield, Wis.) and junior Eric Lanning (The Woodlands, Texas) won first place at the Henry Clay debates at the University of Kentucky, defeating many of the nation’s top teams.
Wunderlich and Lanning’s win marked the first time a team from Michigan State won the event in its 39-year history.

More than 130 debate teams challenged for the championship, including some of the toughest teams from Wake Forest University, the University of Texas-Dallas, Northwestern University, Emory University and the University of California-Berkeley.
The Michigan State pair entered the tournament ranked No. 9 in country, according to the national coaches’ poll. The latest poll will be released on Monday.
“Intercollegiate debate has a ranking system, just like many sporting events,” said Will Repko, MSU’s head debate coach. “After our showing at Kentucky, I think we’re all curious to see where the team lands in the latest poll.”