Benster and D Pick Your Games --- Parents Weekend Edition

It is Parents Weekend this week at Knox, so that means that all the parents can come down and see the delights that Western Illinois has to offer.

Like the sounds of endless trains?

No, I am not sure of those, but there are others, But time is short. I'll think of some eventually. In the meantime, atch me work!

Beloved Wisconsin Badgers (-5) vs. Illinois Cheating Illini. Wisconsin is still finding ways to win close games, which is good to see, because in the Big Ten, that is how you win and get to Indy. Illinois is a difficult trip in the recent past and always seems to give Wisconsin a tough time, despite not being as good as in the days of Juice Williams. The Badgers should win again, but I would not expect any typical Wisconsin blowout of a weak sister team. Badgers 28, Cheating Illini 23.

Hard to argue with that. Corey Clement may play today, which would help. Joel Stave has done well without a lot of targets. Close game. Badgers 24, Illinois 14.

Indiana Wants Me, Lord I Can't Go Back There Hoosiers (+16) vs. Michigan State Sparty the Spartan. You may be asking yourself why I would allow myself to branch out and pick a Big Ten game that I might not have an interest in. The reason is to highlight a fact that the media is not paying attention to. Indiana is a good team this year, capable of causing an upset. Sparty is coming off one of the craziest victories I have ever seen against Big Brother in Ann Arbor. The Hoosiers are the type of team that has shown that the best football this year is in the Big Ten. Iowa is also getting no respect nationally, despite the fact that if they go undefeated and beat the East Winner in Indy, they would be impossible to screw out of the Cotton or Orange bowls. As for this game, as much as I respect Sparty for what they have done, this game has all the makings of a trap game. Indiana Wants Me, Lord I Can't Go Back There 20, Sparty 14.

Disagree. Sparty is going to kill 'em. Spartans 44, Hoosiers 10.
Knox College Prarie Fire (NL, Because Vegas Is Full of Scots Grads) vs. Grinnell College Pioneers. Knox has a rough day at the office against the Rams of Cornell last weekend, and they will be on the road to hopefully ruining somebody;s day at Grinnell. You know that I will always choose Knox, because it is my school and because we have been on SportsCenter this year for being awesome. Knox 100, Pioneers 2.

Could happen -- Grinnell got edged by Illinois College 83-10 last week. I suspect Knox will score and score often. Knox 45, Grinnell 28.

Minnesota Vikings (-2) vs. Detroit LOLions. The Vikings won a game against Kansas City last week, and they looked pretty solid. Stephon Diggs has been killing it on the field, and Teddy "Smoke On The" Bridgewater seems to like looking for him to make big plays. That is a positive sign and I am sure that Viking fans have been waiting for a solid receiver to emerge to help Mike Wallace. The LOLions looked better as Matthew Stafford finally started to figure out that throwing deep to Megatron will work sometimes. Granted, they were playing the Bears, who are about as reliable as Hillary Clinton's server. Minnesota should win, and maybe the Lions can rehire Matt Millen, who was an excellent source of humor and fun to an entire nation. Minnesota 56, Hire Matt Millen 8.

Better than listening to Millen mispronounce the names of Rutgers players on the Big Ten Network. I think this game is a trap for the Vikings. They've had a lot of people telling them how good they are. That's always a problem. Lions 31, Vikings 26.
This week is a terrible week to find games to pick, because the Packers and Bears are both on bye this week. I would pick the Packers against the bye, while the Bears will struggle because the Bears are just not good against a lot of opponents. Ben out!