Real college football is officially here. We made it through months of baseball. We survived endless Urban Meyer scandals. We traversed through the brutal Week Zero action, and we are rewarded by the college football gods with a great opening weekend slate. If you haven’t already read my Best Futures Bets you can read them here. Most books still have a lot of these futures up. Every week I am going to be delivering free winners to the people in Blake’s Best Bets. These are going to be my top 5 or 6 (or 15 I don’t know) bets of the weekend. It doesn’t mean that it’ll be the best games but I’ll try to get my thoughts out on the marquee games too since that ‘s what most people will be watching. However, it’s important to remember you make just as much money betting on Kent State as you do betting on Bama. In this edition I am going to be bringing you the Thursday/Friday games so you can get those bets locked in, then tomorrow I’ll be dropping another edition for the Saturday games.

Tulane vs. Wake Forest (-6)

If you read my futures preview you know that I’m pretty high on Wake Forest this season. Wide receiver Greg Dortch is going to be a beast coming off of a very productive freshman year. This line started at -7 which I wasn’t totally sure about but with this full point drop it’s a must bet. The reason for this point drop is because projected starting QB for Wake Forest, Jamie Newman, isn’t going to be healthy for Week One. Freshman Sam Hartman will be starting in his place. However, word out of Wake camp is that Hartman isn’t only starting because of the injury. He is capable of making every throw in the Wake offense. Jump all over this six points for Wake.

Pick: Wake Forest (-6)

New Mexico State @ Minnesota (-21.5)

This one is interesting. New Mexico State is one of the few teams who did play Week Zero and they got beat up by Wyoming. They could not move the ball to save their lives. However, people may not realize that’s because Wyoming has an insanely good defense. I like teams that played in Week Zero covering in Week One. They’ve already had a chance to shake off the cobwebs and figure their team out. I was pretty borderline on this still, but the line moved from 21 to 21.5 and that’s enough for me. I mean this line was at +17 and after last week’s loss they moved it a mile and I think NMSU is better than they played last week.

Pick: NMSU +21.5

Northwestern @ Purdue (-2)

I really don’t understand this line. Obviously Purdue is at home but Northwestern is clearly the better team. Northwestern were 9-3 last year and is 5th in the B1G in returning production. Purdue was 6-6 and is 12th in the B1G in returning production. Maybe this is one of those bets that seems too obvious but I’m all over Northwestern in this one.

Pick: NW +2

Colorado State vs. Colorado (-7.5)

This is another one like the NMSU game. This line opened at -6, but Colorado State got spanked last week against Hawaii and the line has moved a point and a half. In the biz we have a thing called key number. 3, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, etc. are all key numbers. When a line moves over a key number it definitely draws my eye. CSU’s offense really found its groove in the second half last week and like I said with NMSU, I like that they have had a chance to shake the cobwebs off. With that key number movement I can’t pass it up. Trust in Bobo.

Pick: CSU +7.5

That wraps up my Thursday and Friday action. Tomorrow I will be posting my Saturday bets. Then Sunday we’re all going to be rich. You’re welcome everybody.