College football picks for Week 9

Like the rest of the college football landscape, the Sun Belt Conference has been turned upside down in 2024.

Louisiana-Monroe, the best bet to win the Sun Belt (which reached 350/1 over the summer), is 5-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play, while the odds-on favorite, Appalachian State, is tied at the bottom of the standings with a 0-3 record against Sun Belt opponents.

Known colloquially as the “Fun Belt” among die-hard college football fans, the Sun Belt is delivering once again this season, and we're betting there will be even more chaos this week with our ugly underdog: the Golden Eagles of Southern Mississippi.

It was a difficult start to life in the Sun Belt for Southern Miss.

After establishing themselves as one of Conference USA's strengths from 1996 to 2019, the Golden Eagles moved up in class.

The decision hasn't paid off yet, as Southern Miss went 3-9 in its first year, 7-6 in 2023 and 1-6 overall in 2024 and has yet to win a conference game in three tries.

Facing the prospect of another down year, Southern Miss fired head coach Will Hall and replaced him on an interim basis with Reed Stringer, who has been at Southern Miss since 2018.

Stringer has a lot of work ahead of him as Southern Miss has yet to beat an FBS opponent this season.

In fact, their best result was a 10-point loss to Louisiana on Oct. 5 in Hattiesburg. It was ugly.

But a change at the top can often do wonders for a team, especially in the first game under a new head coach. It's always best to proceed with some caution when betting on narrative, but the “new coach push” is a real thing in every sport.

Southern Miss should have an awesome performance against James Madison on Saturday, and the best part is that we're not asking the Golden Eagles to pull off the upset, just keep this game within the 24.5 point range.

And as discouraging as this spread may be, it does seem to flatter James Madison a little.

Thanks to one of the strangest starts to the season we've ever seen, the Dukes were one of the early stories of the season.

JMU started with a 30-7 win over Charlotte in its opening game, but narrowly lost to Gardner-Webb 13-7 on September 7th. T

The Dukes then followed that performance with a 70-50 win (yes, you read that right) over North Carolina and a 63-7 win (you read that right) over Ball State.

That team scored 13 points against an FCS opponent and then scored 163 in three wins against FBS teams, including UNC.

College football is strange.

That inconsistency has continued to be an issue in recent games, as the Dukes are coming off an impressive win over Coastal Carolina with losses to Georgia Southern and UL-Monroe.

In other words, no one has any idea what to expect when James Madison takes the field, and the same can be said given the change on the sideline for Southern Miss this upcoming game.

Betting on college football?

This should (and I stress should) be the best performance you'll get from the Golden Eagles this season.

There is so much chaos in this game, and that should be good news for an underdog that only needs to lose by 24 points or less to get into the window.

Let's hope the Reed Stringer era gets off to a good start.

Recommendation: Southern Miss +24.5 (-110, ESPN BET)

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