Putting them to sleep: The 49ers (+3.5) routed the Rams 27-7 Thursday night in Melbourne.
🏈 Six Bets to Start Your Football Weekend
We spent a lot of time this week digging through Steve Makinen’s analytics for the first full football weekend of the season.
There’s a lot in there — trends, systems, three different sets of power ratings and years of historical results. My goal is to help you sort through all of it and identify a few bets where the data points us in the same direction.
So let’s put it to work.
We went 2-1 with our college football plays last week and are now 3-3 through Weeks 0 and 1.
Here are three more for Saturday:
Navy -5.5
Buffalo +10.5
Oregon-Oklahoma State Under 57.5
And three from Steve’s NFL analytics for Sunday:
Arizona +9.5 at LA Chargers
Cleveland +8.5 at Jacksonville
Green Bay +1.5 at Minnesota
Want to go deeper?
>> Steve’s 3 Sets of CFB Power Ratings
>> Steve’s Official CFB Week 2 Picks
>> Steve’s 3 Sets of NFL Power Ratings
>> Steve’s Official NFL Week 1 Picks
🏈 Friday Night’s Two Real CFB Games
There are plenty of college football games tonight.
There are two that aren’t basically cupcakes.
Rutgers (-3.5) vs. Boston College, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Missouri (-5.5) vs. Kansas, 8 p.m. ET (FOX)
Adam Burke broke down both matchups:
>> Rutgers-Boston College Picks and Preview
>> Missouri-Kansas Picks and Preview
And we’re collecting everything for the entire Saturday card in one place:
>> VSiN’s CFB Week 2 Betting Hub
🏥 The NFL Injury Board Is Already Moving Lines
We haven’t even reached the first Sunday of the NFL season and quarterbacks are already making news.
Tua Tagovailoa suffered an oblique injury in practice Thursday, leaving backup Cooper Rush to take all of Miami’s first-team reps.
The betting market noticed. Pittsburgh moved from -3.5 to -4.
And in Seattle, Sam Darnold will miss the Seahawks’ next game with the hip injury he suffered Wednesday night, although it isn’t expected to be a long-term issue.
Injuries. Picks. Props. Trends. Power ratings. Every matchup.
>> Everything VSiN Has for NFL Week 1
🏆 25 Bettors. 175 Picks. It Starts Tonight.
The Circa Friday Football Invitational returns tonight.
A field of 25 handicappers will compete in a college football and NFL pick’em contest over the next 20 weeks.
Every contestant makes seven plays each week.
That means Matt Youmans will unveil 175 picks tonight from 7-10 p.m. ET.
>> Meet the Field and Know the Format
We’ll post all of the selections on VSiN.com, and VSiN Pro subscribers will get an email from me after the show with all 175 picks.
>> Circa Friday Football Invitational Contest Hub
👤 Think You Can Beat Them?
One of this year’s 25 Invitational contestants is Clyde Walker.
How did he get into the field?
He won last year’s EdgeBoost Average Joe Contest.
So if you’d like to find out how your picks stack up against the pros, this year’s Average Joe contest is open.
>> Enter the 2026 Average Joe Football Contest
🏈 Entering the Circa Contests?
If you can’t make it to Las Vegas every week, FootballContest.com can serve as your proxy for the Circa Million and Circa Survivor contests.
>> Learn More at FootballContest.com
⚾ Greg’s Friday MLB Card
Football owns the weekend, but the baseball season isn’t taking Friday off.
Greg Peterson has today’s MLB betting board covered.
>> Greg Peterson’s Friday MLB Best Bets
>> More MLB Picks from VSiN Experts
🏈 Strike Point Sports Is Rolling
Strike Point Sports posted a stellar 4-1, +1,270 college football weekend, including a 7-Unit winner Monday.
Strike Point Sports is on a 60-43, +5,790 overall football run (documented here) and is 34-20 (63%), +7,620 on football plays rated 5.0+.
📈 Get the Market Move Before Everyone Else
DonBest delivers real-time odds, line moves and Steam alerts so you can see where the betting market is moving.
VSiN readers can try DonBest free for 7 days and use promo code VSIN10 for 10% off the initial subscription.
