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Our Mike Marteny lays out the confidence points in ESPN College Pick Em for Week 13 of the 2022 NCAA college football season.
The ESPN College Pick Em game goes into Week 13 this weekend! There will be 10 games to pick every Saturday. Each week, you assign a confidence total for each game from 1-10 points. If you win, you get that many points. Simple, right? We only have two weeks left, so these are the weeks that really count!
Week 12 was better overall for the group even though we didn't have any entry break 40. HumbleBee and Kev Shep led the way with 39 points this week. ryan_peoples2 had 36 and Fred Smoot Boat Rentals had 35. We did have eight more that topped 30 though, so it's getting close at the top. jphowell09 took the lead back this week with 435 points. The Syndicate is only three points behind with ryan_peoples2 just one point behind that. Fred Smoot Boat Rentals and ertlt both have 430 points, so with two weeks left, only five points separate the top-five! Wow!
lbockenek is in sixth with 421 points. Humble Bee pulled to within one point with their good week. Kev Shep sits in eighth with 414 points. XLVIII is ninth with 407. Rounding out the top-10 is Bret8821 with 404 points. Two more entries are over 400 points and three more are over 390. First and 15th are only 41 points apart, so a good week can vault an entry up the list quickly!
College Football Pick Em Overview
This article will be for the confidence game mode. You can also read my against-the-spread picks here every week for every game so you know how I'm leaning toward that version of the game. Each week, I will recap who's dominating the group before I get into the picks. If you're going to beat everyone, all of the readers will know about it!
Let's get to the countdown! I will count them up from least confident (1) to most (10). You know, for dramatic effect. If I do change my pick or points sometime during the week, I will try to update the article or post it on Twitter. Otherwise, you know all of my picks each week. Good luck out there. This looks like a tough week. There are some close ones on there, but that's what makes this fun!
(1) Notre Dame over USC
This game won't affect USC's status in the Pac-12 title game. Yes, it's a rivalry, but I guarantee the UCLA game is far more important. The Irish are capable of winning this game. I'm not sure they will, but USC's defense is just bad enough to get beat by a guy like Drew Pyne. The Notre Dame defense has been strong all season. Can they stand up to this offense? If they can keep USC under 28, Notre Dame has a really good shot at winning this. Enough so that I'll lay a point on it.
(2) South Carolina over Clemson
No one, myself included, gave the Gamecocks a chance against the Vols. They aren't being given much of a chance here either. Easier wins over Louisville and Miami have made some forget just how bad Clemson looked against Syracuse and Notre Dame, not to mention almost losing to Florida State. This is a beatable team and the Gamecocks are flying higher than they have been in years.
(3) Oregon over Oregon State
The Civil War is anything but. This year, the Beavers have a good enough defense to fluster the Ducks. Will that result in a win? I don't think so, but weird things can happen in Corvallis in November. That's keeping this game low on the point scale.
(4) James Madison over Coastal Carolina
The Dukes aren't allowed to go to the conference championship game, nor are they allowed to go to a bowl game despite their seven wins. Stupid rules aside, this IS the Fun Belt Championship for the Dukes and they'll treat it as such. They're coming out swinging in this one and I don't think CCU can take the body blows without Grayson McCall.
(5) San Diego State over Air Force
I know that the San Diego State defense is good and I trust Jalen Mayden to take this game into his hands and win it. Air Force is too one-dimensional for a team that has only allowed one team since Mayden took over as the starting quarterback to top 100 yards on the ground. Air Force will, but I don't trust them to gain enough yards to win. The Aztecs are only allowing 3.8 yards per carry on the season and haven't allowed that mark since October 8.
(6) Wake Forest over Duke
Riley Leonard is going to have another big game, but I don't trust the Blue Devils to shut down Sam Hartman and the passing game. Wake has issues because they can't run the ball, but Duke really doesn't force enough turnovers for Wake to blow this. I know...famous last words.
(7) Washington over Washington State
I hate putting rivalries this high, but most on this slate are. The Apple Cup is always hotly contested. Will Washington turn it over enough to keep the Cougs in the game? I don't think so. I expect another big game from Michael Penix here.
(8) Minnesota over Wisconsin
The bad version of Graham Mertz has returned for Wisconsin. Mohamed Ibrahim proved beyond a doubt that he can run on anyone. This is going to be a low-scoring game, which favors the Gophers. They won't really be able to throw to win either. Athan Kaliakmanis will be good at some point, but he has only thrown 73 passes in four and a half games since Tanner Morgan went down against Illinois. He can't be counted on alone here, but Ibrahim is good enough to continue to make Minnesota look good.
(9) Western Kentucky over Florida Atlantic
The Owls have tanked since a strong start and the Hilltopper defense has looked really good over the last month or so. There's no way FAU can stop this offense. I might end up moving this to the top.
(10) Ohio State over Michigan
If I'm going down, I'm going down big! I only have two weeks to make up some ground since I sit in 12th place. What better place than going heavy on a game that many think will be close? Michigan ran it into every open orifice on Ohio State's defense last year and will try to do the same this year. That's going to be hard to do whether Corum plays or not. This Ohio State offense is even more explosive than last year. If Corum plays and is completely healthy, I may move this down. However, we likely won't know before kickoff.
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