October 22, 2023 –
Mike Kern’s Fraud Five
North Carolina — Can’t be ranked 10th, off to best start in forever, and lose at home as 24-point favorites to one-win Virginia, which had never beaten a Top 10 team on the road before.
Penn State — I know Nits never win at Ohio State, or beat the Bucks period, but this was supposed to be the year they really had a chance. Oh well. Their offense looked ancient. They went 1-for-16 on third-down conversions. And so now the folks in Happy Valley who aren’t all that happy with James Franklin have more ammunition to work with. At some point don’t they have to come up big in a big spot?
Southern Cal — Maybe the expectations were just too much. No sin losing to Utah, which still doesn’t have its starting quarterback and beat the Trojans in the Pac-12 title game last December when USC’s QB got banged up. But SC was favored at home by a touchdown coming off that embarrassment at Notre Dame. This time they lost on a field goal at the buzzer.
Georgia Tech — I know most folks don’t care much about the ACC, or Boston College at Ga. Tech in particular, but the Yellow Jackets were favored by a TD and got beat by 15. That seems a bit, well, fraudulent to me. And mine is the only opinion that matters. Sorry.
Michigan State —Just when you thought things couldn’t get much worse for what’s become this dumpster fire of a program, but Sparty lost at home to Michigan, 49-0. That might not be the worst part. Before the game on the stadium’s video board, they asked a trivia question courtesy of a YouTube page showing a picture of Adolph Hitler and wanting to know where he was born. Uh, no. The school has apologized. It could really use a few more mulligans. Been way too long of a year in East Lansing. At least it’s almost basketball season. At least I hope that’s the good news.
Near Miss
You know I never (or at least rarely) put teams in here when they win, Oklahoma was favored at home by 24 over a Central Florida club that had just lost 51-22 at Kansas. This time UCF lost by two when it couldn’t convert a two-pointer after scoring a TD with a little over a minute to go. Of course the Sooners had just beaten Texas. Yet as I often say, maybe that’s the reason this almost happened.
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