Free Sports Picks

At 10:10 pm, our complimentary selection is on the Los Angeles Dodgers over the San Francisco Giants. Future Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw just announced his retirement after this season. The 18-year MLB veteran may be stepping away from the game, but the 37-year-old southpaw still has some unfinished business in 2025. With a slim lead in the NL West over the Padres, Kershaw wants to help the defending Division and World Series Champs "seal the deal" in the next 10 days and then go on to lead them to another successful post-season. And he's been his usual late-season studly self recently, as Kershaw is 6-0 with a 3.40 ERA in his last eight starts covering just over 42 innings going back to the beginning of August. He'll try to keep it going in this huge start tonight at home against the fading Giants, who looked like they might make a Wild Card run a couple of weeks ago but who have since fallen down badly. Kershaw is 5-0 with a 3.38 ERA in nine starts at Dodger Stadium this season (vs. 5-2 and 3.67 in 11 on the road). Take the Dodgers. As always, good luck...Al McMordie.

#320 ASA FREE PLAY ON Miami OH +2.5 over UNLV, Saturday at 12 PM ET - UNLV is 3-0 this season but we haven’t been impressed. Their wins have come against Idaho State, Sam Houston State, and UCLA. They nearly lost at home vs Idaho State as a 30 point favorite needing 2 TD’s in the 4th quarter to get that win 38-31. Idaho St actually put up 555 yards in that loss and outgained the Rebels but had 4 turnovers. Their 2nd win over a terrible Sam Houston State team and the Bearkats actually played UNLV closer stat wise than they did in their losses to Hawaii and Western Kentucky. UCLA looked like a nice win at the time (UNLV won by 7) but the Bruins other 2 games were a 33 point home loss vs Utah and a 25 point home loss to New Mexico as a 15 point favorite! Tough travel here for UNLV and playing at 12 PM ET (9 AM for UNLV body clocks) won’t be ideal. Miami OH is 0-2 but they’ve played the much tougher schedule having to go to Wisconsin and to Rutgers. Now they get their first home game of the season and they have won 26 of their last 30 home games. The RedHawks have struggled offensively, however they take a big step down on Saturday facing a defense that has allowed 428 yards vs UCLA and 555 vs Idaho State. Just for reference, Idaho State has gained less than 400 total yards in their other 2 games (vs Southern Utah and New Mexico) and they are 0-3 on the season. We think the UNLV defense, which ranks outside the top 100 vs the rush, will have problems with Miami’s mobile QB Finn who has 100 yards rushing in his 2 games on the road vs Big 10 opponents. The RedHawks have covered 70% of their games as a home dog since October of 2016 and we like them to win this game outright.

For my best free pick this Saturday, I'm eyeing the Maryland Terrapins at the Wisconsin Badgers in an early kickoff. Maryland rolls in at 3-0, and the public is all over them. But let's pump the brakes— their wins came against Florida Atlantic, Northern Illinois, and Towson, hardly a gauntlet. Wisconsin, on the other hand, is coming off a tough blowout loss to Alabama (yep, I backed them last week), but this Badgers team is far better than that performance suggests. Both teams have struggled against the spread (ATS) this season, but Wisconsin has covered three of their last four against Maryland. I expect the Badgers to bounce back and make it four out of five after Saturday. **Play on the Wisconsin Badgers to cover the spread (Rotation #340).** ***Don’t miss my TITANIUM BIG PLAY in college football this Saturday! I’m 94-70 (57.3%) over the last two seasons!***

Saturday CFB Free play. My selection is on Notre Dame minus the points over Purdue at 3:30 pm et on Saturday. Notre Dame’s season hasn’t opened the way anyone in South Bend envisioned, with back-to-back defeats including last week’s stunning upset at the hands of Texas A&M. That loss has the Irish in desperation mode as they try to salvage their College Football Playoff hopes, and I expect them to respond with urgency. Despite the 0-2 start, Notre Dame still has the talent edge in virtually every area, and staying home for a second straight week gives them an opportunity to reset and regain momentum. Purdue has the look of a team that’s been playing over its head. The Boilermakers did well to cover against USC last week, but the underlying numbers were concerning: a paltry 50 rushing yards and three turnovers isn’t a recipe for long-term success. Their two earlier wins came against far lesser opponents, and this trip to South Bend represents a major step up in class. With Notre Dame’s back against the wall, I see this as a clear “wrong place, wrong time” situation for the Boilers. Take Notre Dame minus the points.

(#364) Connecticut Huskies | ATS | . UCONN did not have a very good performance last weekend and even though it played a lot better in the second half, it still came short. I believe that the Huskies are much better than what we've seen and that should show here against a team that's much worse, especially back at home. Ball State isn't very good and has a 1-2 record this season. Even though the Cardinals won last weekend, it was against an FCS opponent in New Hampshire. Prior to that, they got blown out by both Auburn and Purdue and scored only three points in those games. Expect UCONN to dominate them as well. Burns' Prediction: 44-14 UCONN.

Free Play from Doc’s Sports. Take #386 Under in Nevada Wolf Pack @ Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (7p.m., Saturday, September 20 ESPN+) We went against Nevada last week for a free pick winner, as Middle Tennessee State +9 beat them straight-up. We will go back to well again on September 20 with a Nevada game, but this time take the under. Nevada has major issues at quarterback, and they have trouble scoring points this season. In their first three games they have scored 11, 17, and 13 points. WKU is a higher scoring team, but I expect Nevada to dictate the pace of this game and keep the scoring low. Take the under in this game. Do not miss out on Doc’s Sports Weekend card featuring top plays in Football, WNBA, and NASCAR. Sign-up now and let 54 years of handicapping experience work for you.

We won with Stanford last week. The Cardinal were 14 point underdogs against Boston College and won outright by 10. Here's what was said: This is the longest road trip (3,125 miles!) that the Eagles will take all season. All 4 previous meetings have been won by the home team. Only time the Eagles played 2 straight road games last season, they lost by 21, their worst defeat of the season. Cardinal have 14 starters and a chip on their shoulder. This is their home opener and they'll be playing to win! Play Stanford. These are college kids. That was a big emotional win for the Cardinal. Virginia is better than Boston College and now the Cardinal are the team traveling thousands (2,823) of miles. They will not look like the same team we saw last week. Play Virginia

*3 Star Free Play Under* The Florida Gators lost 20-10 at LSU last weekend. Lagway threw five interceptions and the Gators actually outgained LSU, but fell due to the turnovers. The Florida defense has played well this season. The Gators are 10th in the nation in defensive success rate. They are 5th in rushing play success rate allowed. Miami has been very good this year, but the offensive hasn't been explosive. Miami is 96th in the nation in explosiveness on offense. Florida is 119th in offensive explosiveness. Neither team plays quickly either, so I see the clock bleeding down in this game. The teams should settle for some field goals and this should stay a bit lower scoring. Take the under. (10-2 Last 12 plays overall. A big card up for Saturday's CFB action)

Washington State is coming off an embarrassing 59-10 loss to North Texas, which is notable because, since 2005, college football home teams coming off a loss by 45 or more points are 145-195-8 ATS (42.6%) if they did not cover the spread by more than four points, including 56-85-2 ATS (39.7%) since 2018. Meanwhile, since 2001, college football road teams are 191-134-8 ATS (58.8%) versus opponents entering off a loss of 46 or more points, including 52-31-1 ATS (62.7%) since 2019, covering the spread by an average margin of +3.2 points per game. Washington State arrives off 38-21 and 70-10 wins to begin the 2025 season, which is significant in that, since 2004, double-digit favorites coming off back-to-back blowout wins are 211-157-7 ATS (57.3%) versus opponents that allowed 37 or more points in their last game, covering the spread by an average margin of +2.1 points per game. Washington has a huge game on deck against No. 1 Ohio State on deck, but college football teams with games against No. 1-ranked opponents on deck are 140-103-5 ATS (57.6%) since 1997, covering the spread by an average of +2.4 points per game. Finally, the Huskies are looking to avenge last year’s 24-19 upset loss at home, which is significant because double-digit road favorites with revenge are 132-107-4 ATS (55.2%) since 2009, including 80-60-3 ATS since 2017. Take Washington as Jeff Keim's Free Pick Winner for Saturday, September 20.

New Orleans arrives off back-to-back straight-up and against-the-spread (ATS) losses to start the 2025-26 campaign, which is significant in that Week 3 NFL teams off back-to-back ATS losses are 135-97-2 ATS (58.2%), including 39-23-1 ATS (62.9%) since 2016. Similarly, since 1991, Week 3 NFL underdogs of +20 or less are 91-53-1 ATS (63.2%) following consecutive ATS losses since 1991, including 22-11 ATS (66.7%) since 2018. Since 2009, winless NFL teams coming off an ATS loss are 51-29-1 ATS (63.7%) versus opponents with one or more wins, including 16-8-1 ATS (66.7%) since 2020 and 6-1 ATS in the last seven circumstances. Since 1999, NFL underdogs that have yet to cover the spread are 283-207-13 ATS (57.8%) in Weeks 2-11, including 101-66-5 ATS (60.5%) since 2016. Seattle is just 13-22 ATS at home since 2021, the third-worst mark in the NFL over that span. Seattle is 0-8 ATS as home favorites of ten points or less following a double-digit ATS win versus opponents arriving off consecutive home games. Let’s also note that the Seahawks are 0-5 ATS as non-division home favorites of more than four points. Finally, single-digit home favorites in games with totals of 42 points or less are 17-31-3 ATS (35.4%) in Week 3 Sunday affairs, including 30% ATS since 2019. Take New Orleans as Jeff Keim's Free Pick Winner for Sunday, September 21.

(#469) Denver Broncos @ (#470) Los Angeles Chargers | UNDER | . Denver has been a hard team to predict in the first two weeks. The public was heavy on Denver last weekend when a penalty blew the game for it. Denver missed a field goal before that drive and that's what ultimately blew the game for it. Now, the Broncos take on a very good defensive opponent in LAC who completely shut down LV on Monday. Both defenses should be able to keep this game low scoring on Sunday. I believe that the offenses won't have as much success as last weekend and this should be an "under." Expect time management to be key and lots of running the football. Play on the "under." Burns' Prediction: 17-13 Chargers.