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The college football season has finally arrived. That means only one thing: the return of our Saturday Tradition weekly picks.
We kickoff the first week of picks with 13 games featuring spreads, with Idaho-Penn State being the only matchup that doesn’t have a line from Vegas. Typically, FCS vs. FBS matchups don’t have any lines, but South Dakota State-Minnesota and Howard-Maryland seem to be breaking that trend.
This year, we’ll have four expert staff members making our B1G picks on a weekly basis. The four are:
- Connor O’Gara — Senior National Columnist (2018 picks champion)
- Dustin Schutte — Managing Editor (2016, 2017 picks champion)
- Paul Harvey — Staff Writer, News Desk
- Kevin Cunningham — Staff Writer, News Desk
Connor is our reigning champion, and Paul and Kevin will make their picks debut this season. We’ll see who comes out on top 14 weeks from now.
But, for right now, let’s just get to our Week 1 picks:
| Week 1 Games | Connor | Paul | Kevin | Dustin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDSU vs. Minnesota (-12.5) | Minnesota | Minnesota | Minnesota | Minnesota |
| Purdue (-10) vs. Nevada | Nevada | Nevada | Purdue | Nevada |
| Tulsa vs. #18 Mich. St. (-22.5) | Tulsa | Tulsa | Mich. St. | Mich. St. |
| #19 Wisconsin (-13) vs. USF | USF | Wisconsin | USF | Wisconsin |
| UMass vs. Rutgers (-15) | UMass | UMass | UMass | Rutgers |
| FAU vs. #5 Ohio St. (-27.5) | Ohio St. | Ohio St. | Ohio St. | Ohio St. |
| S. Bama vs. #24 Nebraska (-36.5) | S. Bama | Nebraska | S. Bama | S. Bama |
| Howard vs. Maryland (-30) | Maryland | Maryland | Howard | Howard |
| Akron vs. Illinois (-17) | Illinois | Akron | Akron | Illinois |
| Indiana (-17) vs, Ball State | Ball State | Indiana | Ball State | Indiana |
| N’Western vs. #25 Stanford (-6.5) | Stanford | N’Western | N’Western | N’Western |
| #20 Iowa (-21.5) vs. Miami (OH) | Iowa | Iowa | Miami | Iowa |
| MTSU vs. #7 Michigan (-34) | MTSU | Michigan | Michigan | Michigan |
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB