Gary “The Gut” Goombah – Week 1, 2026
Gary is back after a long offseason. He’s back from his remote island in the Maldives, where he usually travels each winter after the end of the long football season. But now he’s back, and once again, it’s time to gamble. Who’s gonna win, lose, or draw? Remember that game show? It was pretty good. Gary remembers. His brain is full-go, all the time. He can recall stats and facts from decades worth of studying. It comes in handy when he’s layin’ money on the proverbial table. How do you think he bought all those toys anyway?…. the yachts, the cars, the private jets, his own remote island! It’s because he wins! He wins B-I-G…. big!
This year, we’re making some changes. WE are NOT going to be hamstrung by the number of picks. Last year, we struggled with our NFL picks because we picked seven games every week. Honestly, we did that because we heard of a pool that forced gamblers to pick seven winners, out of at-most 16 games, every week. Well, as you’d guess, they didn’t have many winners. That’s because it’s really hard. We also struggled with our NCAA picks, because we picked too many games, especially selecting all the bowl games as we were trying to make up ground. This was not a good idea.
When you gamble, you want to be smart about it. You should only pick games you think you’ll win, naturally. Picking winners just to pick, is not advantageous. So this year there are no set numbers. We pick winners only. And when I say “we”, I mean Gary “The Gut” Goombah. Speaking of Gary, when we last saw him, he made his Super Bowl 60 predictions. Here are his Super Bowl results, as well as his 2025 season totals:
Super Bowl 60 Result: 4-1 (80%) (Seattle beat New England 29-13. Gary picked Seattle -4.5 (Won with a 16 point victory), over 45.5 points (Lost with 42 total points), over 7.5 punts (Won with 15 punts), MVP: Kenneth Walker (Won MVP Award), & Seattle Kicker Jason Myers over 8.5 kicking points (Won with 17 points)
2025 Season Results: 135-152-3 (47.0%) Overall; (67-80-2 NCAA, 68-72-1 NFL, with 2-1-1 on “Lock of the Week”)
Week 1 NCAA Selections
North Texas Mean Green (+40.5) over Indiana Hoosiers – Sure the Mean Green have a new coach and only 6 returning starters. However, they were 12-2 last year. 12-2! Indiana was 16-0 last year in one of the most historic seasons in college history. However, don’t forget they started slow last year, winning by only 13 points over Old Dominion (27-14) as 23 point faves. This year they open as 40.5 point favorites. That’s a ton of points. PICK: North Texas
Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Keydets (+55.5) over Virginia Tech Hokies – VMI was 1-11 last year. They must be really bad. However, the once powerful Virginia Tech was only 3-9 last year, and thus fired their coach Brent Pry. The new coach is….. James Franklin, former Penn St. head ball coach. None of this adds up to a 56 point victory, in Gary’s opinion. But maybe VMI is just really, really horrible. Virginia Tech could go out and make a statement, a huge statement win, at 55-0, and STILL not win this point spread. By the way, the Over/Under is 61.5 points. So the experts think the final score will be 55.5 to 6. Interesting. PICK: VMI
Baylor Bears (+7.5) over Auburn Tigers – Gary remembers this matchup in last year’s opener. Auburn surprised Baylor in Waco, TX, winning 38-24. Both teams were disappointments in 2025, finishing 5-7. This year’s rematch is a neutral site game in Atlanta at the Aflac Kickoff Game. Auburn is favored, but they have a rookie head coach in Alex Golesh who is replacing the fired Hugh Freeze. Meanwhile, Baylor is still led by Dave Aranda, who has had a very up-n-down career over six seasons, finishing over .500 only twice so far. He went out and got D.J. Lagway from Florida to lead his Bears at quarterback. He has Dawson Pendergrass at RB, along with four returning starters on the O-Line. Gary thinks Baylor might win this game straight up. Getting over 7 points is huge. PICK: Baylor
Houston Cougars (-20.5) over Oregon St. Beavers – Houston was 10-3 last year. They have 19 returning starters! They are a really impressive up-n-coming team. The Beavers, well, they ain’t goin’ nowhere quick. They’re treading water. The Beavs are picked last in the new Pac-12 Conference. They have a new head coach. Overall, they don’t look very good. This is another rematch, as the Cougars won by only three points last year in OT in Corvallis. This year the Cougars should roll in Houston. PICK: Houston
Tulsa (+13.5) over Oklahoma St. Cowboys – Last year, Tulsa went into Stillwater, Oklahoma and beat the Cowboys at their place by a score of 19-12. So now they rematch at Tulsa, and the Cowboys are favored by 13.5 points, which seems odd because they went 1-11 last year, while Tulsa went 4-8. There’s a ton of hype at Oklahoma St. though, all because of new head coach Eric Morris and his patented incredible offense. He brought his top players from North Texas, who averaged over 45 points per game. However, this OK State team only averaged a whopping 14.2 ppg last year. Overall, that’s a huge disparity. Will the Cowboys get their offense rolling in Week 1, on the road, against an in-state rival? Gary is not sure. Here’s betting Tulsa can at least cover these 13.5 points………. PS Did you know that Tulsa only has 2,728 students, which is ranked dead last, 138th out of 138 FBS college football schools? I had no clue. Now that’s a small school. PICK: Tulsa
So let’s have a great opening weekend of football gambling! And never forget Gary’s motto:
“Whether rich or poor, thou shalt gamble more”
Dutch Lion Sports 