Staff Picks: Random CFB games and big Week 9 matchups during South Carolina bye week

South Carolina is currently in its second bye week of the year, which means there won’t be any Gamecock football to watch this weekend.

However, there are still plenty of great Week 9 matchups on tap. The GamecockCentral and 107.5 The Game staffs all picked one random game they will be predicting as well as picking winners from the best games around the country.

George Bagwell: This should be a really good matchup. If y’all have never seen the Colorado School of Mines roster photos, it’s a pretty nice laugh. A good portion of the players are rocking some insane haircut or dying their hair blue. And they’re also just a really good team, too, so they can back it up. The receiving duo of Flynn Schiele and Max McLeod will be too much for the Mountaineers. Colorado School of Mines 38, Western Colorado 31.

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Peyton Butt: Hillsdale over KY Wesleyan.

Elijah Campbell: Syracuse over Pittsburgh.

Chris Clark: Let’s go the Sun Belt for my random game pick. First place Georgia Southern is at Old Dominion, a team that South Carolina beat (narrowly) in game one. ODU has four losses this season by a one-score margin, and the Monarchs are favored by two in this one. I have Old Dominion winning 27-24.

Terry Ford: In an off week let’s give South Carolina State some love! They beat Delaware State 33-10.

Griffin Goodwyn: While searching for evenly-matched FCS matchups to predict, I came across an intriguing affair between two Ivy League programs that have had strong starts to the 2024 season — Dartmouth and Columbia. The Big Green head into Saturday’s contest with a perfect 5-0 record, while the Lions are one game behind at 4-1 overall after falling to Georgetown earlier this year. Even though both teams are on nearly equal footing at the midway point of their respective seasons, Columbia’s home-field advantage and stingier defense (which allows just 16 points per game, which is 20th in NCAA Division I football) will give it a slight edge this weekend. Columbia 27, Dartmouth 21.

Tyler Head: Dartmouth rolls in 5-0 but four of their wins are by four points or less. Columbia is undefeated at home this season. Columbia 20, Dartmouth 16.

Wes Mitchell: Virginia and my guy Columbia native Des Kitchings take another step towards bowl eligibility and continue the UNC freefall. UVA 27, UNC 21.

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Jay Philips: Going to the B1G for the “We Both Beat Southern Cal Classic” between Maryland at Minnesota. The Gophers are 4 point home favorites, but I’ll take Mike Locksley’s Terps in a nail biter with plenty of scoring. UMD 37, Minnesota 34.

Kendall Smith: Let’s take another SC school shall we? Samford at The Citadel this weekend and I’m picking the Bulldogs… Just kidding hahaha. They’re both bulldogs. Let’s go with The Citadel Bulldogs in this one. Beautiful school in beautiful Charleston! 

Mike Uva: A big CAA tilt is brewing in Villanova, PA this weekend between a pair of Wildcats. Give me Villanova (5-2) holding off New Hampshire (4-3) with Nova blocking a kick led by my old college teammate Matt Colangelo handling special teams duties. Fly the \///. Villanova 27, UNH 20.

Jack Veltri: My Last Chance U folks will probably love this one. We’ve got a heck of a matchup in Dodge City, Kansas on Saturday. The Indy Pirates certainly aren’t what they used to be. Long gone are the days of the great Jason Brown with star players like Malik Henry, Bobby Bruce and Rakeem Boyd. The glory days, if you will. These Pirates have been quite awful this year, and I expect much of the same on Saturday. Let’s ride with the Dodge City Conquistadors (shoutout Bam Martin-Scott who used to play here)! Dodge City Community College: 35, Independence Community College: 10.

Chris Wellbaum: N/R Ursinus 37, #22 Johns Hopkins 16 – My sister went to Ursinus (so did GA Mangus). The Bears are undefeated but unranked, so they will take it out on Johns Hopkins. Ursinus used to have a sycamore tree in one endzone of its football stadium. They removed the tree in 2011, allegedly so they could install artificial turf, but really they just didn’t want to be cool anymore.

Kevin Miller: North Greenville over Delta State; The Crusaders-turned-Trailblazers get Delta State at home, and quarterback Dylan Ramirez boasts an impressive 12-2 TD/INT ratio and averages nearly 300 yards of offense per contest. Taking care of the football will give NGU the edge 27-24.

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	Notre Dame at Navy	Washington at Indiana	Texas Tech at TCU	Missouri at Alabama	LSU at Texas A&M	Auburn at Kentucky	SMU at Duke	Cincinnati at Colorado
George Bagwell (38-34)	Navy	Indiana	TCU	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	SMU	Colorado
Peyton Butt (38-34)	Navy	Washington	TCU	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	Duke	Colorado
Elijah Campbell (47-25)	Notre Dame	Indiana	Texas Tech	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	SMU	Colorado
Chris Clark (39-33)	Notre Dame	Indiana	TCU	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	Duke	Colorado
Terry Ford (53-19)	Notre Dame	Indiana	Texas Tech	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	SMU	Colorado
Griffin Goodwyn (48-24)	Notre Dame	Indiana	Texas Tech	Alabama	Texas A&M	Auburn	SMU	Colorado
Tyler Head (42-30)	Navy	Indiana	Texas Tech	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	SMU	Cincinnati
Wes Mitchell (46-26)	Navy	Indiana	TCU	Alabama	LSU	Auburn	SMU	Colorado
Jay Philips (47-25)	Notre Dame	Indiana	TCU	Alabama	LSU	Auburn	SMU	Colorado
Kendall Smith (39-33)	Navy	Indiana	TCU	Alabama	Texas A&M	Auburn	SMU	Colorado
Mike Uva (43-29)	Notre Dame	Indiana	TCU	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	SMU	Colorado
Jack Veltri (44-28)	Navy	Indiana	Texas Tech	Alabama	LSU	Auburn	SMU	Colorado
Chris Wellbaum (43-29)	Navy or you hate America	Indiana	Texas Tech	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	Duke	Colorado
Kevin Miller (17-10)	Notre Dame	Indiana	TCU	Alabama	LSU	Kentucky	SMU	Colorado

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