--Dan McGowan

Several interesting matchups this week. Iowa's lack of offense and strong defense against Northwestern's strong offense and lack of defense. Sounds like a turnover battle, winner takes all and is almost guaranteed to be the best team....in the bottom half of the Big 10.

Illinois will do their best to right their ship, which shouldn't be a terribly difficult task against Minnesota. As if the cold weather in Gopher country isn't depressing enough. Indiana gets to have fun with the Ball State team that Illinois took care of last weekend, and Penn State and Purdue will try to once again rise out of the puddle that is the middle of the conference.

Wisconsin will attempt to knock off Ohio State and take the shine off the OSU-UM game later on, while Michigan will try to keep rolling against a Michigan State team that may not always be good, but always gets up for the Michigan game.

Winners: Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State.

--Geeves

In their pursuit to be the most mediocre conference in America, the Big XII keeps proving that beyond Oklahoma, maybe Missouri, and Kansas of all teams, they have nothing to offer us as a real team. While 9 teams may likely get into bowl games, don’t count on a stellar performance from the “other” six, which only makes my record picking games in this conference apropos.

0-fer last week means that I am 6-15 on the year. A monkey could do better.

In fact, this week, Steve the Monkey is going to pick the games.

Texas A&M (+21) at Oklahoma - My favorite quote this week was from Michael Bennett, Martellus “Not a Crook” Bennett’s brother, after Texas A&M again managed almost zero offense, this time against Kansas.

"I'm not impressed,'' said Texas A&M defensive end Michael Bennett, who went as far as to say the Aggies would beat the Jayhawks in the Big 12 championship game.

Maybe he missed how hard that will be, after losing last week and this week facing Oklahoma’s run defense. Dennis Franchione will likely avoid running the ball again which is not a winning strategy for the Aggies. Steve the Monkey says, “EEEEEK!!” He is going with Oklahoma to cover.

Nebraska (+18.5) at Kansas - Kansas is on the map now, albeit with a few more hurdles remaining. The first of those is Nebraska. It seems that Tom Osborne won’t worry about the result of the game. He is already looking for a new coach based on some quotes in a TV interview. Steve the Monkey says, “OOK! OOK!” He likes the Jayhawks to cover.