The 141st running of the Preakness Stakes taking place on Saturday in Baltimore, and at 6:45 p.m. ET, more than 1 million viewers are expected to tune in to see if Nyquist can hold off Exaggerator and the rest of the 11-horse field to claim the second jewel in the Triple Crown.
Given the sports event du jour, we've decided to turn our focus to some of the college football teams with mascots tied to the equestrian arts. The Golden Nugget released 2016 win totals for some of the top college football teams in the country, including Oklahoma and Florida State -- while the Seminoles may not seem like a top pick for this horse theme, Cimarron makes them eligible for inclusion.
Below, we've used the Golden Nugget totals for OU and FSU and our own in-house oddsmaker (yours truly) to set some lines and make some picks for the upcoming season.
Oklahoma -- 10 wins (+110 over/-130 under): Oklahoma will have Baker Mayfield, Samaje Perine and plenty more of the pieces that helped the Sooners reach the College Football Playoff in 2015. A favorite to win the Big 12 again in 2016? Absolutely. But an 11-1 season could be tough with Houston and Ohio State on the non-conference slate followed by a road trip to TCU. Gut says push but the price (juiced to the under) and Ohio State's losses to the NFL has me picking the over. Projection: Over
Florida State -- 10 wins (-120 over/EVEN under): A season-opener against Ole Miss in Orlando seems to be the tipping point here, so if you like the Noles to come out on top in that game, you'll probably side with the over here. My concern is with a tough start to the ACC schedule, facing Louisville (on the road), North Carolina and Miami in the first half of the season. This seems like an FSU team that should be peaking in late October and November, but susceptible to an unexpected loss early. Projection: Push
Boise State -- 9.5 wins: San Diego State quietly took the Mountain West by storm last season and returns star running back Donnel Pumphrey, but for the second year in a row, the Aztecs are not on Boise State's regular season schedule. I think the Broncos are back in the MW title game in 2016 with a shot to take down the defending conference champs, only dropping one game in conference and going 1-2 in games out of conference. Projection: Over
SMU -- 4.5 wins: Non-conference games against Baylor and TCU and a brutal stretch at the end of the season. in addition to dates with Houston, Memphis, USF and Navy that will make Chad Morris' second year a challenge. A bowl game is not out of the question, but it's going to take a huge year from former Texas A&M signee Matt Davis to get there. Projection: Under
Western Michigan -- 8 wins: P.J. Fleck had a breakthrough year in 2015, finishing with 7 wins against a demanding schedule and getting the Broncos to back-to-back bowl games for the first time in program history. What's next? WMU returns quarterback Zach Terrell, 1,000-yard rusher Jamauri Bogan and 1,000-yard receiver Corey Davis. The schedule is easier this year and WMU should be a top-3 team in the MAC, so I'd take anything over 7.5. Projection: Over
