Mike Kern’s Fraud Five – Week 5

October 2, 2022 –

Mike Kern’s Fraud Five (and then some)

Where to begin? And we won’t even include the Brewers, who blew late leads at home against the Marlins on Thursday and Saturday to remain behind the Phils in the pursuit of the last wild-card spot in the NL. Or maybe we already did. Anyhow, here goes for the first weekend in October. Which means the regular season is already 25 percent over. Time flies.

Oklahoma — Once again. And I thought they would bounce back. Silly me. I know their quarterback had to leave after a egregious hit in the second quarter, but the Sooners were already way behind by then. The former 18^th ranked team has now lost two straight in the regular season for the first time since 1999, The final was 55-24, at home to TCU, which had four touchdowns of at least 62 yards.

Pitt — Was favored by 23 at home against a Georgia Tech team that just fired its coach. The Panthers lost, 26-21. Good thing they scored with 18 seconds to go.

Wisconsin — Lost 34-10 at home to Illinois and their one-time coach, Bret Bielema. First lost in Madison to the Illini in two decades.

Minnesota — A week after putting Michigan State in the FF, lost at home to Purdue, 20-10. The Gophers had outscored their first four opponents, 183-24.

Florida State — No shame in losing to Wake Forest, even at home, and even if that doesn’t happen very often. Still, the Noles were favored by seven and lost by 10. So kind of a minor violation, all things considered.

Fresno State — Lost to UConn, which hadn’t beaten an FBS opponent since 2017. Favored by three TDs, which it should have been, gave up a TD with two minutes left.

Army — Hate to pick on the academies, just because, but the Cadets were favored by eight at West Point and lost 31-14 to Georgia State. Doesn’t sound right.

Texas A&M — Like Florida State, this is a close call. But unlike FSU, Aggies were supposed to be in the national-title contender conversation. They were slight underdogs at Mississippi State, fell behind 21-3 before going down 42-24. Good thing they scored late. Yo, some teams get held to higher standards, for the obvious reasons. Nobody said it has to be fair. For better or whatever, I make the rules. You have to learn to live with that necessary evil. But if nothing else, I try.

Until next week.