What better place for the Hedgie to Kickoff the season than in    SIN CITY .  

 Tonight's first play of the season is on Minnesota/UNLV  UNDER 51 

Both teams last season averaged a combined 35.7 points per game and this opening game should be no different as both teams should be committing to the run.  UNLV has an experience OLINE and their best chance at an upset will be pounding RB Tim Cornett while Minnesota has just one WR on the roster with a TD on his resume.    

  UNDER 51    2 stars

Friday Night:  Michigan State -7 vs Boise St

   13th ranked Michigan St  returns virtually all it's key defensive players which ranked #6 nationally last yr and will be amped up at home.   24th ranked Boise St loses Kellen Moore at QB which  Hedgie thinks it'll be too tall of a task to overcome . This games comes down to the Spartan Defense which should dominate.  The line opened at -6 and is climbing  so Hedgie says get your wager down asap..

      Michigan St  -7    3 stars

Madness Friday

Fla State -6 4 stars

Duke -12 3 stars

Cinci -2.5 2 stars

St Louis +3 2 stars

Gtown -4 2 stars

Creighton +1.5 1 star

Florida -3 1 star

Xavier +2.5 1 star

Purdue +2 1 star

NC State -2 1 star

Madness

WEST VA +1 3 stars

Kansas State -5 3 stars

W kty/ Kentucky UNDER 136.5 3 stars

Baylor -8 3 stars

VCU +6.5 3 stars

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Uconn -2 1 star

Vandy -5 1 star

LB State +4 1 star

Montana +9

SUPER BOWL

4 years after the Gmen ruined the Pats perfect season and won the Lombardy Trophy they meet again and even though both teams are very different they are both still led by the same Head coaches and starting QB's. The line opened Pats -3.5 with the Total set at 55.5. And neither of those lines stayed there for long. The money has poured in on the Gmen as the public and NY money look to back the hot team right now. Most sportsbook have the line set at Pats -2.5 and 54 Total.

Although the Gmen are coming in HOT sometimes a 2 week break can be disruptive. And The Hedgie sure likes the idea of Bill Belechik getting 2 weeks to prepare for this one. The biggest querstion mark coming into this game is the high ankle sprain of star TE Gronkowski. Hedgie believes the 2 weeks will serve him well enough to be effective. The Pats defense gets a bit of a bad rap being the 31st rank statistically but many of those starts are padded due to protecting leads. Alot of people don;t think REVENGE plays a roll here but the HEdgie does. This game is very important to Tom Brady and he will play like it. All these things point to PATS -2.5 2 star play

PROPS :

FIRST TD A. Hernandez 8-1

Team to receive the ball first: GIANTS -180 . This prop has steep juice but there's a reason. FEB 7, 2008 when the Pats won the coin toss vs the Chiefs they elected to receive. Tom Brady's ACL was hurt on that opening drive. Ever since, the Pats have been involved in 65 coin tosses and won 28 of them. ALL 28 they have deferred the coin toss. Can't see why that would change today.

PRO BOWL

AFC/NFC UNDER 74.5 2 stars

This is the highest total in 6 years. The players don't want to get hurt. With Ray Lewis playing in this one who always seems to give 100% and high winds expected this game should stay UNDER

NFL Championships

At the end of the Ravens/Texans game Ed reed rolled his left ankle. The Ravens are obviously downplaying this but Hedgie thinks it'll play a role in this game. Brady and the pats run an uptempo game to exploit their matchups and not let defenses change personnel groups. With the Pats 31st ranked defense this game should have plenty of scoring. The Pats have gone OVER in their last 7 games. All those totals ranged from 47-50.

Ravens/Pats OVER 50 3 stars

The last time these two teams met the Giants stacked the line and were determined not to let Frank Gore run on them. After 6 carries for zero yards Gore got hit on the knee and did not return. The Niners still won that game 27-20. Having said that the Gmen are now a different team riding a hot streak with alot of confidence. But Hedgie thinks with all the rain this week and more forecast for sunday that the niners have the edge. With home field , a little extra rest and an edge in special teams the Niners should prevail with much help from Frank Gore's legs this time.

NINERS -2 2 stars