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Come Fan with UsFriday, August 7, 2026

College football picks, Week 12: We’re big on LSU, and not so big on Oklahoma State

Below are our picks for the weekend’s four biggest college football games. It’s not just who you pick; it’s how confident you are.

TCU v Oklahoma State
TCU v Oklahoma State
Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images

Every college football media outlet has its own version of a pick ‘em. SB Nation’s will focus on only the biggest games of the week, as determined by us. Here are the games we’re picking this week, followed by our picks and our rules.

No. 23 Florida at No. 16 LSU: LSU has been rolling of late. Florida has been struggling on offense, and now has some defensive injuries. The winner has a good shot at the Sugar Bowl.

No. 22 Washington State at No. 10 Colorado: Both teams are actually playing good defense this year, and Washington State is even running the ball efficiently. This could be a Pac-12 Championship preview.

No. 9 Oklahoma at No. 14 West Virginia: West Virginia plays the best defense in the Big 12. Oklahoma’s offense has been on fire, but it hasn’t been getting a lot of stops. The winner could take the conference.

No. 11 Oklahoma State at TCU: After a rough start, TCU has been playing better football of late. But so has Oklahoma State. OSU’s Big 12 title hopes are partly on the line.

Here are our rules:

  • We will pick the winner of all games between ranked (Playoff top 25) teams, but if there are not enough such games in a given week, we will throw in a game or two of note, so we are always picking four games per week.
  • Players must assign a confidence rating from one to 10 points with each pick. If they win, they get the points added to their weekly and season total. If they lose, the points are subtracted. Yes, a player can choose the same confidence number for each game, and yes, this could result in some hilariously poor scores.

The average points wagered this week is 27.

LSU is by far the most popular choice this week, with 15 of 15 picks and an average wager of 8.6.

Our participants are Dan Rubenstein, Bill Connelly, Matt Brown, Morgan Moriarty, Alex Kirshner, Jason Kirk, Jeanna Thomas, Richard Johnson, Sarah Hardy, Luke Zimmermann, Spencer Hall, Bill Connelly, Brian Floyd, Ryan Nanni, Wescott Eberts, myself, and Steven Godfrey. Hall’s picks will follow in the comment section, as he is traveling at the time of publish.

Your turn

Please post and track your picks in the comment section.

I’d said the highest-scoring verified commenter each week will get to pick with the staff the following week, but due to some commenters cracking the obvious flaw with week-to-week scoring, the highest-scoring commenter for the season will get to pick with us in 2017 (Week 1 is not included in this due to the initial wonky rules).

So, please post your season total each week. At the end of the season, I will verify anyone claiming to be the winner.

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