No changes or surprises coming out of Randy Edsall's Thursday teleconference, so I'll take the slow news day as another opportunity to go completely off-topic before I get to my weekly picks.

• Two Yale football players, including the starting quarterback, were arrested early Sunday morning after a brawl with three Yale hockey players at Gourmet Heaven on Broadway in New Haven that eventually broke the storefront window. No word if the fight began after an argument over recent developments in the Middle East, non-euclidean geometry or whether an Oregon pinot noir or classy chardonnay better complements a dinner of sea bass and asparagus.

• Joel Zumaya was consistently hitting 103 mph on the radar gun against the Yankees today. That is ungodly. But he was a little too pleased with himself trotting off the field after striking out three in his inning-plus. The Yanks will make him pay for that.

• One of my many, many, many pet peeves is that the workers at Starbucks (I refuse to refer to them as baristas) ask for your name when you order coffee. So I spend my time in line thinking of false names to give them. I've been sticking with "Jerametrius" lately. Always good for a chuckle. From me, at least. I implore you all to try this. Fun times.

• I talked about wanting to see more non-conference games against non-ACC opponents for UConn in the future. I found out they have secured or are working on home-and-home's with Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Iowa and Baylor. Hey Jeff Hathaway and Randy Edsall...don't forget to look into Hawaii and UNLV -- (there are no ulterior motives from the traveling beat writers, I swear).

On to the weekly picks. Let me first pat myself on the back by saying I wiped the floor with all challengers last weekend with a sparkling 6-4-1 record., bringing my season record to 21-21-5. I will brush past the fact that only four of you had the guts to challenge me. It's OK, I'm not one to gloat.......

Game 1: Louisville (-31) over MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE: Spud, my keystone combo partner from high school who used to call everyone "Hank", played baseball at MTSU. That's about all I know about them.

Game 2: SYRACUSE (+7) over Pittsburgh: The Orange have been a royal pain in the posterior to everyone this season.

Game 3: West Virginia (-21.5) over MISSISSIPPI STATE: How great for the Big East if Steve Slaton wins the Heisman, and the Mountaineers make it to the national championship game in Glendale, Ariz. this season?

Game 4: CINCINNATI (+6.5) over Akron: Bearcats seem to be much improved. And doing well against the spread, I might add.

Game 5: SOUTH FLORIDA (-6.5) over UConn: Hate to do it, but I'm just feeling 28-14 at RayJay.

And for the non-Big East games

Game 6: Penn State (-3) over MINNESOTA: JoePa also gets through the game without making a third-quarter dash for the crapper.

Game 7: Navy (+2.5) over AIR FORCE: This is going to be a hell of a game.

Game 8: LSU (+1.5) over FLORIDA

Game 9: TEXAS (-4.5) over Oklahoma

Game 10: Missouri (+4) over TEXAS TECH

Game 11: GEORGIA (+3) over Tennessee

Game 12: Yale (-4) over DARTMOUTH

I'm off to Tampa in the morning, where I plan to spend as much time as possible in the hotel swimming pool. I love my job.

And don't forget to make your picks. The field is thinning by the week! Click "comments" below to enter.