A spot in the BCS will be on the line on Saturday afternoon in the Lone Star State, where the Houston Cougars will look to become an automatic BCS qualifier when they take on the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. Check out our Southern Miss vs. Houston keys to the game!

Conference USA Championship Game: Houston Cougars vs. Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Conference USA Championship Game Location: MM Roberts Stadium, Houston, TX
Conference USA Championship Game Date/Time: Saturday, December 3rd, 12:00 p.m. (ET)
Conference USA Championship Game Television Schedule: ABC

Key #1: Southern Miss has to keep Case Keenum off the field
It is brutally clear that Southern Miss cannot sit here in this game and just try to duke it out with the Houston offense. It simply isn’t going to happen. Keenum has not just five, but six years of experience in this offense, and he knows exactly what he is doing. He has 43 TD passes against just three picks on the year, and he just doesn’t make all that many mistakes. The Eagles can score, so don’t think that they have to play this game in the 40s or 50s to be victorious, but they are going to be better served making this as short of a game as possible. The team ranks No. 24 in the land in rushing at 207.8 yards per game, and this is the unit that really needs to step up to keep Houston’s potent offense off of the field.

Conference USA Championship Game Odds at Wager Web Sportsbook
Houston Cougars -13.5
Southern Miss Golden Eagles +13.5
Over/Under 72.5
Click Here to Bet on Your Conference USA Championship Game Picks!

Key #2: Keenum can play like a Heisman winner
We have already mentioned some of the remarkable numbers that Keenum has put up this year, as he has those 43 TDs against just three picks. This is one of the rare times that he is going to be playing in a nationally televised game, and though most Conference USA opponents don’t have defenses that are recognized as good enough for some merit, Southern Miss is probably one of the lone exceptions in the conference. Keenum needs 274 yards passing to reach 5,000 yard for the third time in his career, and he is two TD passes away from breaking a career high in that category. He will surely throw the ball at least 35 times in this game, and quite possibly a heck of a lot more than that, and he is averaging 10.1 yards per pass attempt. Simply put, that’s just awesome. There hasn’t been a defense in the country that can stop Keenum when he is on his game, and he has to prove that to be the case again on Saturday, not just for Houston to win this game and cover the number, but to keep his name in the hat for the Heisman Trophy as well.

Key #3: The Cougars cannot play this game like it is the end of the world if they lose…
… Though the truth of the matter is that it is the end of the world if they lose… Either way, Southern Miss knows that it is going to likely be in the Liberty Bowl against an SEC foe trying to become the second C-USA team to ever win that bowl game (last year, UCF beat Georgia). The Cougars though, have so much on the line, it isn’t even funny. Losing will not only take them out of the BCS all together, but it would drop them to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, a game that would likely cost the school money instead of giving it a seven digit payout. It would also be a killer in recruiting, and goodness knows that Houston needs every recruit it can get after this year to replace Keenum and his tremendous offense. If the Cougars play loose, they’ll be just fine. However, if the pressure starts to mount on them, they could have some serious, serious problems on their hands.

Click Here to get the best college football picks that you’ll find on the internet, including our Conference USA Championship Game picks and the NCAA football picks for the rest of the games on the Week 14 slate.

Our SEC Championship predictions are hot and heavy here at Bankroll Sports, and before we make our college football picks for one of the biggest games of the year, check out these SEC Championship Keys to the Game.

SEC Championship Game: Georgia Bulldogs vs. LSU Tigers
SEC Championship Game Location: Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA
SEC Championship Game Date/Time: Saturday, December 4th, 4:00 p.m. (ET)
SEC Championship Game Television Schedule: CBS

Key #1: The Dawgs have to stay loose and realize that they have nothing to lose
Head Coach Mark Richt has to know that this is a game in which his team can only win and not be a loser. Even if the Dawgs get blasted by 40, they still are the SEC East champs and still will have a spot in one of the better SEC bowl games this year thanks to this 10 game winning streak that they have gone on since September. LSU is clearly the better team in this game, and no one really believes that UGA can hang around. Richt’s job, which was once considered in some serious jeopardy, is now as safe as could be, and that means that this game is one that would only bolster his status and could give a massive payday to his school with a win.

SEC Championship Game Odds at Wager Web Sportsbook
Georgia Bulldogs +13.5
LSU Tigers -13.5
Over/Under 46
Click Here to Bet on Your SEC Championship Game Picks!

Key #2: LSU can’t be complacent
The Bayou Bengals got off to a bad start last week against the Arkansas Razorbacks at home, falling behind by two touchdowns before finally turning on the jets in the second quarter and never looking back. Common thought is that this game doesn’t mean a heck of a lot to LSU, as it might ultimately be in the National Championship Game one way or the other, but you know that the Mad Hatter isn’t going to let his team get off of the gas pedal for one second. He and his Tigers should know just how dangerous the Bulldogs can be, especially in this building, where they will probably have a bit of a home field advantage. Remember that Georgia has already played one game this year here at the Georgia Dome, so it won’t be an unfamiliar setting.

Key #3: Aaron Murray absolutely cannot turn the ball over
It’s hard enough to move the ball up and down the field on the LSU defense without turning the ball over, but it becomes impossible to win games when you are giving the ball back to the boys in purple and gold. The Tigers have only turned the ball over a grand total of seven times all season long, so you know that forcing turnovers to get the ball back just isn’t going to happen all that often. Murray has had a great year, throwing for 32 TDs and 2,698 passing yards, and he is just continuing to rewrite the record books for passers in Athens. However, if he doesn’t figure out how to keep the ball in Georgia’s hands during the game and he gets flustered in the pocket, the Bulldogs just don’t stand even the slightest of chances.

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The MAC Championship Game will be contested on Friday night at Ford Field, and we are set to make our Ohio Bobcats vs. Northern Illinois Huskies picks for one of the biggest games on the schedule! Check out the MAC Championship keys to the game!

MAC Championship Game: Ohio Bobcats vs. Northern Illinois Huskies
MAC Championship Game Location: Ford Field, Detroit, MI
MAC Championship Game Date/Time: Friday, December 2nd, 7:00 p.m. (ET)
MAC Championship Game Television Schedule: ESPN2, ESPN3.com

Key #1: The Bobcats have to put a harness on Harnish
QB Chandler Harnish is one of the most athletic players in the entire country, and he is going to be the one player on the field that the Bobcats truly have to contain. If Harnish gets going with his legs and his arm, this NIU offense is absolutely impossible to stop. Harnish accounted for 2,692 passing yards and 1,351 rushing yards this year, and he has a total of 34 TDs to his credit. He hardly ever turns the ball over either, as he only has five picks on the campaign. The Bobcats have the speed in their front seven on defense to be able to at least keep Harnish under wraps, but the problem is that he can beat you with his arm as well in a big time way, and he isn’t afraid to spread the ball around to a slew of receivers. Ohio only ranked No. 62 in the nation against the pass at 226.7 yards per game.

Key #3: NIU special teams have to at least be remotely special
Though the Huskies do score a slew of points, they have a big time problem on special teams. Kick and punt returning isn’t a problem, but when it comes to the kicking game, there are some issues. P Ryan Neir is only averaging 35.3 yards per punt this year, and his long boot is only 54 yards. Meanwhile, K Mathew Sims has had problems kicking the ball from any sort of distance. He is only 3-of-6 in kicks that are longer than 38 yards on the season, and he hasn’t hit one from further than 44 yards. We tend to think that Ohio’s defense will at least make this sophomore kicking in his first big time game work for his points, and if that turns out to be the case, the Huskies could be in some real trouble.

The first annual Pac-12 Championship Game kicks off on Friday night at Autzen Stadium, as the Oregon Ducks vs. UCLA Bruins odds will be contested. The team that makes for great college football picks in this one will end up playing on January 2nd in the Rose Bowl!

Pac-12 Championship Game: UCLA Bruins vs. Oregon Ducks
Pac-12 Championship Game Location: Autzen Stadium, Eugene, OR
Pac-12 Championship Game Date/Time: Friday, December 2nd, 8:00 p.m. (ET)
Pac-12 Championship Game Television Schedule: FOX Sports

Key #1: UCLA has to show some heart
It goes without saying that the Bruins are the decided underdogs in this game, and everyone is just expecting them to lay down and die on Friday night. This is the last time that Head Coach Rick Neuheisel will get to coach the Bruins, and the team might be brutally disappointed, especially knowing that a bowl game would require a petition to the NCAA if this one is lost. Last week, UCLA just looked like it gave up after the first quarter against the USC Trojans, a game that ended 50-0, and if it isn’t going to show any more intensity than that on Friday, the final score could be a heck of a lot worse than that.

Key #3: UCLA has to hit the big play
We know that the Ducks are going to have a number of plays that travel at least 30 yards on Friday night, especially at home, but UCLA has to take advantage of its chances as well. Oregon doesn’t have the greatest defense in the world, and just as its offense plays with a lot of spunk, its defense does as well. Sometimes, that leaves the Ducks out of position and prone to the big play. Last week, QB Kevin Prince had his chances to hit players like WR Shaq Evans and WR Nelson Rosario down the field, until the last drive of the game, it just didn’t happen. Neuheisel is surely going to use every last trick that he has in his bag to get his team to Pasadena in shocking fashion, but when those tricks come out, the Bruins have to capitalize.

If last week’s game was the “Game of the Century,” this week’s game can’t be all that far behind. After all, the stakes are virtually as high for the Cardinal and the Ducks. The winner’s hopes of winning the Pac-12 and going to the BCS National Championship Game are still quite intact, and the loser can pack its backs for either the Rose Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl in all likelihood. Both teams are still going to be ranked in the Top 10 when it’s said and done as well. And, much to the contrary of last week’s game, when neither team was able to score a touchdown, even with the aid of overtime, we expect to see plenty of scores in this one down on “The Farm.”

Oregon Ducks @ Stanford Cardinal Picks & Info
Oregon Ducks @ Stanford Cardinal Date: Saturday, November 12th
Oregon Ducks @ Stanford Cardinal Location: Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto, CA
Oregon Ducks @ Stanford Cardinal Spread: Stanford Cardinal -3.5

The Ducks have had their share of problems this year, most notably injuries to both RB LaMichael James and QB Darron Thomas. That being said, both are back in the saddle and are ready for this game. Oregon already has 414 points scored this year, and 600 seems to be a formality when it’s all said and done with. This team just does not stop trying to score under any circumstance, regardless of who is out there on the field, and it is that mentality that will keep it going in this game as well. The Quack Attack is only blemished this year by a loss to the LSU Tigers at the outset of the season, a loss that is certainly nothing to be ashamed of now, seeing all of what the Bayou Bengals have accomplished.

Oregon Ducks vs. Stanford Cardinal Past Games (Since 1995)
2010: Oregon 52 – Stanford 31
2009: Stanford 51 – Oregon 42
2008: Oregon 35 – Stanford 28
2007: Oregon 55 – Stanford 31
2006: Oregon 48 – Stanford 10
2005: Oregon 44 – Stanford 20
2004: Oregon 16 – Stanford 13
2003: Oregon 35 – Stanford 0
2002: Oregon 41 – Stanford 14
2001: Stanford 49 – Oregon 42
1998: Oregon 63 – Stanford 28
1997: Stanford 58 – Oregon 49
1996: Stanford 27 – Oregon 24
1995: Stanford 28 – Oregon 21

The argument could be made that the only thing that kept the Cardinal out of the National Championship Game last year was a loss to these Ducks at Autzen Stadium, a loss that came after scoring three touchdowns in the first quarter. QB Andrew Luck has bad memories of that one, and he wants to make amends by putting down the U of O once and for all. The Cardinal have done it both through the air and on the ground this year, and the end result has been not just nine wins, but nine covers in nine tries as well. Not bad for a team which was a 41.5 point underdog just four years ago in a conference game at the USC Trojans, eh? A win in this one would essentially lock up a BCS bowl bid for the Cardinal, though they’ll obviously have to finish off the Pac-12 slate and the conference title game to ensure nothing worse than a trip to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl.

Oregon Ducks @ Stanford Cardinal Game Odds @ 5Dimes Sportsbook (as of 11/6/11):
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Oregon Ducks (+3.5) @ Stanford Cardinal

We are starting to wind down the 2011 NCAA football schedule, but here at Bankroll Sports, we are starting to get concerned with a lot of head coaches on the hot seat. Check out the coaches that we think are in a heck of a lot of trouble if things don’t turn around for the rest of this season.

Mike Stoops – Arizona Wildcats: The Wildcats have already parted ways with Stoops after the team started off at 1-5 this season. Arizona had lost 10 straight games against FBS schools until it fired Stoops, and then it turned around the destroyed the UCLA Bruins in its next game. And that brings us to…

Rick Neuheisel – UCLA Bruins: Neuheisel should have already been fired this year to tell the total truth. His team was absolutely annihilated in that game against Arizona on national television, and there was an ugly skirmish that took place just before halftime as well. In fairness to Neuheisel, he hasn’t been able to keep a quarterback healthy for the past few seasons, but there is still no excuse. He came to Los Angeles vowing to put the Bruins back on the map and out of the shadows of the USC Trojans. The Men of Troy have been on probation these last two seasons, and UCLA is still irrelevant. The only way that Neuheisel ends up safe is by beating the Arizona State Sun Devils this coming week and getting into the Pac-12 Championship Game. Even then, we’re not totally sure.

Jeff Tedford – California Golden Bears: The Golden Bears were back on the map for awhile, but these last two seasons have been mighty frustrating. The team has never won more than 10 games in a year with Tedford calling the shots, and this is going to be the fifth season in his nine at the post in which this team has finished with a sub-.500 record in the Pac-12 (old Pac-10). Last year’s 5-7 seasons was brutal without a bowl game, the first time that that was the case since Tedford’s first year in 2002. Cal has two home games against Washington State and Oregon State over the next two weeks, and Tedford badly needs to win those two games and get this team back to a bowl game, or his days might be numbered in Berkeley.

Paul Wulff – Washington State Cougars: And the Pac-12 raid continues… Washington State hasn’t really had a good season in quite some time, and Wulff is about out of time to try to turn things around in Pullman. This team has lost four in a row, and without some momentum at the end of the season, we just don’t know if Wulff is going to survive. The Cougs have allowed 42 or more points four times this year and a whopping 21 times since 2008.

Mike Riley, Oregon State Beavers: We feel a bit bad for Riley, because he just doesn’t have the resources that Oregon does up the road in Eugene. His team went just 5-7 last year, and it is 2-6 this season, and things are clearly going in the wrong direction. The truth of the matter is that the Beavers really became relevant in the mid-2000s when they were finishing with nine or 10 wins virtually every year, but that time has come and gone. But, with USC, Stanford, and Oregon so dominating over the past few years, time is running out for basically all of the coaches in the Pac-12.

Houston Nutt – Ole Miss Rebels: Think that Nutt regrets that decision to leave Arkansas to go to Ole Miss? With the Hogs, he built a program that included three SEC West titles and eight Top 25 finishes. Now, he took over at Ole Miss and just was not able to rebuild after the wheels fell off for QB Jevan Snead in 2009. His team is going to miss a bowl game for a second straight year, and with a 1-15 record over two seasons in the SEC looming, the Rebels might be looking to make a change.

Neil Callaway – UAB Blazers: Coaching UAB has to be one of the most difficult jobs in the entire country. The school is tucked away in the middle of nowhere in Birmingham, and there is no way that it is ever going to be able to compete with Auburn and Alabama in recruiting. Since coming to the Blazers though, Callaway is only 16-44 without a bowl game, or a finish in the top half of the East Division in Conference USA. The time is clearly coming for UAB to head another direction.

Ron Zook – Illinois Fighting Illini: The thought was that the Zooker was off of the hot seat when he got the Illini off to a 6-0 start to this season and a Top 20 ranking in the country. However, after three straight losses, we’re just not all that sure. We tend to think that recruiting QB Nathan Scheelhaase will at least earn Zook one more season, but there is a point that this program really needs to improve. The only really notable season was the 9-4 Rose Bowl year in 2007. However, aside from that, Zook only has one other bowl bid, though we’re assuming that the Illini are going to go bowling this year even if they do only go 6-6.

Mark Richt – Georgia Bulldogs: Richt is really at best a fringe candidate to get fired at the end of this season, but if he survived the 0-2 start to this season, he has to be considered relatively safe right now. Richt scored a big, big win over the Florida Gators on Saturday, and that both ensured that the Bulldogs will be bowling and that Richt should be in good shape. If UGA ends up winning the SEC East this year, as it looks like it very much so could, we can’t see how it would fire its coach.

In the SEC, virtually every game is an important one. However, there probably won’t be a game in the SEC this season that means more than our No. 2 game of the season, the clash between the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

LSU Tigers @ Alabama Crimson Tide Picks & Info
LSU Tigers @ Alabama Crimson Tide Date: Saturday, November 5th
LSU Tigers @ Alabama Crimson Tide Location: Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa, AL
LSU Tigers @ Alabama Crimson Tide Spread: Alabama Crimson Tide -5.5

The Tigers are going to open up this game ranked as the No. 1 team in the country, as they are just in front of the BCS Rankings. They have had a tumultuous season chock full of suspensions and players that have been dealing with other off the field issues. QB Jordan Jefferson was suspended for the first month of the season, but he is back, though he is splitting time with QB Jarrett Lee. This defense is one of the best in the country, and it has shut down virtually every team that it has run up against. There isn’t a team in America that has played a schedule that has been this tough. The Bayou Bengals have already won a de facto road game against the Oregon Ducks and a legitimate road game against the West Virginia Mountaineers.

LSU Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide Past Games (Since 1995)
2010: LSU 24 – Alabama 21
2009: Alabama 24 – LSU 15
2008: Alabama 27 – LSU 21
2007: LSU 41 – Alabama 34
2006: LSU 28 – Alabama 14
2005: LSU 16 – Alabama 13
2004: LSU 26 – Alabama 10
2003: LSU 27 – Alabama 3
2002: Alabama 31 – LSU 0
2001: LSU 35 – Alabama 21
2000: LSU 30 – Alabama 28
1999: Alabama 23 – LSU 17
1998: Alabama 22 – LSU 16
1997: LSU 27 – Alabama 0
1996: Alabama 26 – LSU 0

This was supposed to be a rough year for the Crimson Tide, as they had to replace their three biggest offensive stars at quarterback, wide receiver, and running back. However, RB Trent Richardson has been a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate, and the likelihood is there that he could end up taking the honors for this award right here in this game. Scarily enough, the Tide have allowed less than half the touchdowns to opponents that Richardson has scored. Heck, the total yardage between the opponents and Richardson isn’t all that far apart either. Head Coach Nick Saban and company haven’t played that tough of a schedule yet, but that win at the Penn State Nittany Lions is looking better and better as the weeks pass and the Lions climb up the polls.

Alabama opened up this season at -6 in this game, but since that point, the line has come out at +5.5 at 5Dimes, and +5 at some other outlets. We fully expect to see this number drop over the course of the next two weeks, though both of these teams are on bye until the game the first weekend of November.

LSU Tigers @ Alabama Crimson Tide Game Odds @ 5Dimes Sportsbook (as of 10/23/11):
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LSU Tigers (+5.5) @ Alabama Crimson Tide