Last weeks picks stink it up - go 1 and 5.

11/20/09  We took a hit to our bankroll last week, and don't pretend otherwise. So we sharpened our pencils and look to get some of that back this week.  We have an A+ rated pick for this Sunday.

11/13/09  Big Al doesn't have a typical pounder A+ rated pick, but he has forecasted a dominating win for Boston College this Saturday.  We also have two B rated picks in the NFL this Sunday.

11/06/09  Last weeks A+ rated pick, the NY Giants, failed to show-up for the ball game.  However, we did cash in at a red hot 4-1 winning clip overall, posting a 80% record last week.  This week we're not feeling the vibes quite as strong, and have only 1 A-rated pick for the weekend. 

10/30/09  Dale's NFL office pool picks are in!  We have an A-rated College pick - Penn State, and an A+ rated pick in the NFL this week.  Check the Football Blog for all our rated picks!

10/25/09  Saturday's A rated pick - Oklahoma State, cashed in. Overall we went 2 for 4 on the day.  We have a late NFL update - CINCINATTI - in the Football Blog.

10/23/09  Saturdays College picks are up - we have a real strong Oklahoma State play, as well as 3 large dogs which we think will easily cover the numbers.  Please check back late Saturday morning for our NFL picks.

10/18/09  We have a late Sunday morning B rated pick update: Jacksonville - our source says they will "kill the Rams".  St. Louis defense is middle of the pack bad, and when faced with what should be a highly motivated Jags squad they'll get pushed around.  Couple that with the turf team playing on grass factor and you have a nice spot play / technical play combination - the Jags look like a nice wager if you can get them laying less than double digits.

10/15/09  Wanted to let everyone know I'll be posting our football picks a little later than usual tomorrow night - have to stay late at work, and won't get to the picks update till around 11:30pm EST.  It looks like this will be a tough week to handicap in the NFL. I'll tell you now that in the NCAA we're looking at Idaho and Houston; and in the NFL we're looking at Pittsburgh and New England.

10/09/09  Two solid A plays have been updated in the football blog for the weekends action!  Big Al hit with his late Thursday call - Nebraska - and he doesn't think the game would have been that tight if it hadn't been pouring.  Dale's been rolling with his office pool picks, which are updated to the Blog every Wednesday evening.

10/02/09  This weeks football picks are in the football blog!

09/22/09  Across the board our 3 handicappers felt the games were a bit more challenging to pick this week - but we've nailed it down to 5 that we not only feel comfortable plunking down on, but putting our reputations on the line that we have some solid picks to put action on this week. Including another A+ rated college pick - UNLV.  Remember, every pick we publish, I'm playing them according to my Money Management philosophy linked at the top of this page - and I'm all about winning. So check out the picks blog for this weeks action. And many thanks to Al and Dale for their insightful contributions. GL- Kurt.

One note on a game to stay away from:  Several media outlets, including NBC Sports, and one we like to read a lot, ProFootballTalk.com, are calling on the Detroit Lions to get their first win of the year at home against Washington.  Now if you don't mind supporting an underdog, and have some charitable change you can afford to lose, go ahead and throw it on the Lions. But, I'll tell you Washington will win this game. Not going to bet on it, but my forecast is the skins should win by 10 or so. And after you see the final results you will then understand why reporters are not prognosticators.

09/22/09  Last Saturday's A+ pick, ASU, nailed the win.  We were a little surprised BYU performed so poorly, but they just didn't handle FSU's speed.  On Sunday the only disappointment was our A play, Tennessee, outright lost after being up by 14 in the 2nd half - problems there in the secondary.

Check back Wednesday night for Dale's office pool picks, who went 12-4 SU this week, including 3 outright upset calls; and Friday night for our official betting opinions.  We've been solid with all our picks across the board - both in college and NFL football - hope everyone's profiting while the getting is good - lines usually tighten up around week 8.

09/18/09  Our first A+ rated college football pick of the year, Arizona State, has been updated in the football blog!  NFL picks have also been updated.

A quick word on what 5% of bankroll means:  If your "football bank", defined as the amount you can afford to lose, is for example $5,000 - then a 5% wager would be $250.  Using our money management model this is the maximum wager on any one pick. The base wager for this example is 4% (B-rated picks), or $200. 

GL, Kurt

09/14/09  A very small sample to be sure - nevertheless, 5 wins and 1 loss is a great way to start off the season.  For record keeping purposes, all wins and losses are logged ATS - just like we've done it every year.  That means even though our Money Line call didn't outright win, they still covered Against the Spread, so it's logged as a winning pick.  Many people do not have ML options available, so for most folks those are winning picks - and I don't have the time to track "unit" wins - which can vary greatly depending on individual bankrolls and betting styles.  Myself, I took UConn and North Texas straight-up at 3.5% of bankroll on the ML, which would have been very nice payoffs if they had come through.  Usually I will play a smaller portion of ML plays on a team parlay, and wager the balance SU with the points - but this week I didn't - guess I needed a little reminder why I like that strategy.  We'll keep a running log of our season win/loss total right here on the home page, and all the weekly picks can be reviewed in the blog section.  If you haven't done so already please be sure and read our "Money Management" strategy linked at the top of the page. Realistically we anticipate hitting between 55 to 62 percent of our total picks over the course of the football season - except for our A+ rated football picks, which we typically post 6-10 on the year - and typically hit at over a 70% clip.

Monday Night Football:  Don't really like the sides in these contests either way.  However, if I absolutely had to make a call I'd probably take the points with Oakland - if they can run the ball like they did late last year they'll give San Diego all they can handle.  In Buffalo I'm real concerned with that offensive line, and want to watch them a couple games before making an investment either way. Check back prior to kick-off just in case Big Al or Dale call in with new info at game time.

Please check back Wednesday evening with our office pool picks, and again late Saturday night for both college football picks and NFL picks (I'm married with children - and don't have anything else to do with my time Saturday nights).  Hey - don't forget to bang that "Donate" button!   Thanks to those who've already donated - we appreciate your support!  I might send out a personal email when we have an A+ opinion to those who've donated to the site - but the A+ picks will still be presented in the free blog a minimum of 1 hour prior to kick-off.

Your donations keep our site ad free.  To avoid the appearance of conflict of interest we do not advertise or endorse any sportsbooks.  When and if I am ever presented with an affiliate offer where we are guaranteed a small percentage of player rollover action, then we might entertain an affiliate offer.  All the books we're aware of offer affiliates (sites like ours) a straight up referral percentage, or worse - a percentage of losses! Including, much to my surprise, some very well known and reputable sites (like the Goldsheet for example). Just do yourself a favor and read the "affiliate agreement" on the referred site before "buying".

Peace from Kurt, Dale, and Big Al - Football Forecasters

09/11/09  Three solid dog plays this Saturday - check the Football Blog for picks. We especially like North Texas and UConn as Money Line plays.  We'll update again tomorrow afternoon with Sunday's NFL picks.

09/09/09  Thursday Night NFL Football:  Not much to get excited about this contest betting wise. However, if I had to pick a side it would be the Titans. Do think Pittsburgh should prevail, but that's a big number to give Tennessee. The contest looks to be lower scoring, as offenses generally are a bit sluggish at the start of the season - but 35 is a ridiculously low total - if I were to bet this one I'd feel better about taking the OVER than the dog. We're passing on this one because there's little betting value, and much better picks coming up this weekend. We'll call a 21-17 Steeler victory.

Dale has updated his week 1 NFL office pool picks in the Football Blog segment, while these are informative, please don't confuse them with our "money" picks.

We'll update Friday night with our rated College & NFL picks.  For those of you who jumped on our opening NFL weekend A play, (Baltimore) which we posted late August in the Blog segment, the line has moved from single digits to a whopping 13!

8/31/2008 NFL opening week A-play has been updated in the blog section!

7/26/2008 NFL training camps are opening up this week across the country.  The next month is when  we'll really start to get a feel for how team off-season moves will work out for them.  The game of football is more than just plugging in free agent acquisitions and draft picks - chemistry is a HUGE factor determining how successful a season any NFL team will have.  It's very early but Dale has an initial totals preview and picks for the AFC teams.  Will publish the NFC team totals and division winner picks later this week.  We'll also update those picks after the third week of pre-season games.

College Football Picks and NFL Picks

A+ rated football picks had a 64% winning percentage in 2006.  NFL football is the most wagered on of all the major sports. Thus, it is one of the hardest sports to handicap. We take great pride in consistently posting a 53-63% season winning percentage with our A rated Members Bulletin NFL picks - our A+ rated picks, including both college & NFL football picks, cashed in at a 64% clip - down a bit from previous seasons, but still a very high winning percentage.  We focus our picks on football - our interest, and passion is both NFL and college football. And frankly, we don't have the time (or desire) to research and track other sports.

College football actually presents a gold mine of betting opportunities for the knowledgeable bettor; our winning percentage with our college football picks is actually higher than our NFL picks!  This is partially because there typically are more college picks to choose from than in the NFL. Also, College football is more volatile, more emotional, and less scrutinized by the Vegas oddsmakers.

Free Football Picks 

The public loves to follow NFL football, so we lean to covering, analyzing and presenting NFL picks as our free football picks of the week - its what people want. Our free football NFL picks went 62%!  During the course of the football season we post 1 free NFL pick a week. Typically this will be our upset College or underdog NFL pick (a "moneyline" pick, sometimes it's a totals pick). There are typically more betting opportunities during the shorter college season (due to the higher number of college games every week); however, the vast majority of football betting occurs on the NFL, so we strive to emphasize the NFL on our free picks page. (Coming in 2007 we are looking at presenting 1 free college football pick and 1 free NFL pick weekly.)

NFL Picks  -  NFL Team Reports

We post our annual pre-season NFL team reports and division picks in August. In 2006 we went against the popular favorites and predicted the fall of the Bengals, and the rise of the Ravens (but we'll stop right there). We'll post our NFL team reports and NFL division picks on a weekly basis starting in July of 2007.

NFL Mock Draft

We follow the NFL year round, and track off-season player acquisitions, and coaching changes throughout the NFL.  We know each teams weakness and needs; and post these with our mock draft every year. Look for our 2007 NFL mock draft around the 1st week of April. The 2007 NFL mock draft is in.

Feature articles by Football Forecasters:

War in the trenches:

6/27/06 - Dale checks in with part 4 of 4 on his NFL Lineman series. The last installment from Dale's interview with Colt's Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday.

The basics of blocking:

6/20/06 - Dale checks in with part 3 of 4 on his NFL Lineman series. Based in part on Dale's interview with Indianapolis Colt's Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday.

The key to any offensive scheme is the strength of the offensive line:

6/13/06 - Dale checks in with part 2 of 4 on his NFL Lineman series.

The key to any backfield is the strength of the offensive line:

6/10/06 -  Dale Sims checks in with part 1 of his NFL Lineman series. We would like to thank Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday for his interview time, and insightful views of what it takes to man the line. This is part 1 of a 4 part series Dale is presenting on the intricacies of offensive line play in the NFL.

Kurt Schumacher sends his AP top 25 ranked College football picks and NFL picks to our local newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, every week for print in the pigskin prophets football picks column. However the selected opinions (the "cherries" so to speak) we put up on this site are the official football picks for record keeping purposes at TrackPicks.com. 

A+ NFL Football Picks

We present our best of the best football pick of the week in this members area football picks bulletin page. Typically there will be two football picks, sometimes there may not be a pick. No promises... no guarantees (if you need a 10 star guarantee there are plenty of other sites that offer em). We'll post a comprehensive analysis of what we like about best College football picks and NFL picks of the week. 

Welcome to Free NFL Picks and College Football Picks by Football Forecasters. Two football fanatics, but otherwise normal guys, presenting FREE College football picks & NFL picks opinions against the Vegas betting line. We claim that our free football picks are superior to the vast majority of "Insider" football picks found elsewhere on the web. All of our College football picks and NFL picks are independently produced. Allen and I strive to present a page free of corporate influences, no pop-ups, link traps, e-mail address harvesting, cookie trackers, or data-mining of any sort. It's just you and us - and the man. 

Peace,

Football Forecasters