Your Pencil Storm prognosticators are back for another season of Friday bets for real. These are actual bets placed by actual people. However, it is important to remember that we are not encouraging you to follow our lead and gamble your hard earned money away on our behalf. But it is also important to remember that “winners play and players win baby!” Ok, let’s do this.

Jeremy Porter (Musician, fast-food Mexican connoisseur, terrible gambler, Pencil Storm Co-Editor in Chief)

Most of the bowls seem like such a crapshoot. I like Indiana with the points (+7.5) over Notre Dame and Texas A&M over USC by -3.5. Alternately, parlaying A&M and Notre Dame on the money lines pays out +272 so I'll try that.

Michigan +10.5 is a tough sell against `bama. I can't bet against them, but I don't love it.  OSU -7.5 over the Vols seems more palatable, and probably a better game. I've got Oregon winning it all. 

AMERICA'S TEAM The Detroit Lions are decimated on defense. It's going to be a rough ride into the playoffs, and Buffalo exposed that they can be beat. Still, -6.5 against a terrible Chicago team seems perfectly reasonable.

I love the Ravens and Lamar is on fire, but -6 against the 10-4 Steelers is a little daunting. It's in Baltimore, and Pitt has been struggling a bit, so I'll probably look at the Ravens. 

Bills -14 against the awful Patriots? Yes please.

Ben Galli (Pencilstorm NBA Writer)

Clemson +11.5 vs. Texas Believe me, I'm among the last people who want to see Dabo do well. But the ACC is closer to the SEC than many think, and Texas hasn't looked the best against their top competition. I see Clemson losing but covering. We can only hope it's in true Clemsoning fashion. Browns at Bengals Over 46.5 Browns are starting DTR and they probably picked a good defense for his debut as the new qb. The Bengals have been surprisingly bungly against the Browns in Joe Burrow's tenure, going just 2-5. They need to win to keep their very slim playoff chances alive but don't count on their defense to help in that regard. I see it playing out with a 31-21 score or thereabouts. 

Colin Gawel (Colin’s Coffee, Pencilstorm, Musician at Watershed)

I must warn folks, betting on bowl games is throwing your money away. We used to do a bowl pool at Colin’s Coffee and out of about 50 entries the winner would usually be at 50% accuracy. And this was just picking winners. No lines. It’s tough sledding. Point is, except for the new college football playoff games, who knows what is going on in all these locker rooms before playing some meaningless football exhibition. 

Having said that, I will take Indiana +7.5 just for the hell of it. I am not touching the other 3 games. 

AND…I like Tyson Fury to beat Oleksandr Usyk for the heavyweight title and for the fight to last at least 9 rounds. +250

Big $ (Pencilstorm Browns Beat Writer)

my saturday CFB playoff parlay

SMU v PSU under 53
clemson +12.5
OSU v Tenn over 46