Pick Management 
Jacob’s Above Average Plays is going to end the year right with three winners ready to go. Jacob’s Above Average Plays has picked two College Bowls games and a game in the NHL that are sure to stuff your pockets long into the new year.
Take Arizona State Sun Devils -3.5 versus Florida State Seminoles (2:00 pm EST, Tuesday 31 December, 2019)
This season both of these teams were mediocre. Arizona State winning just seven games and Florida State winning just six. Neither teams have been particularly good at covering the spread this year either. Florida State covered just two games in their last seven played while Arizona State did not cover in four of their last five games. The edge in this game is coming down to which players are playing and why.
Florida State led this season by above-average starting running back Cam Akers. Akers gained an above-average amount of yards per rush gaining five yards per attempt. He’s run for 1,144 yards this year scoring 14 rushing touchdowns, and four receiving touchdowns. He’s declared for the draft and announced he will be sitting out in this game and that kind of takes the air out of the locker room, especially for a team already in turmoil. Seminole Head Coach, Willie Taggart, was fired and is gone from the team, so it will be up to his remaining staff, including interim head coach, Odell Haggins Jr., to prepare the team. New Head Coach, Mike Norvell, and his staff will not be involved in prepping the team for this game, so it makes for an awkward situation.
Arizona State, on the other hand, hopes to play an above-average game today in an effort to use this as a positive jump-off point to next year. Arizona State has an above-average start to the year winning four of their first five games before losing the next four in a row. They did, however, finish the season with two great wins against above-average teams. The Sun Devils beat Oregon as 13.5 point underdogs and beat arch-rival, Arizona, by ten. Arizona State is led by freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels whose thrown for 2,748 yards, 17 touchdowns, and just two interceptions. Arizona State is missing players and their offensive coordinator in this game, so Florida State isn’t the only one missing people. The difference here is that Arizona State isn’t dependent on one player as I feel the Seminoles are.
Arizona State wants to finish the year playing an above-average game so they can carry a win to next year and have a positive start. I think if they play this game all out against a depleted, coachless Florida State team (with nothing to play for) the Seminoles won’t play well and Arizona will prevail. I think that the Seminoles just want the season to be over. Lay the points with the Sun Devils
Take Kansas State Wildcats +2.5 versus Navy Midshipmen (3:45 pm EST, EST, Tuesday 31 December 2019)
Here we have two teams who have above-average scores, above-average rushing, and are overall, above-average teams. They both score over 30 points and hold teams under 23 points a game. These teams are also above average cover teams. Navy and Kansas State both covered nine out of the twelve games they played this year, but I like Kansas State to cover this one.
Kansas State played a much tougher schedule than Navy and that’s part of the reason I really like them here. Their schedule ranks 40th in the nation in strength of schedule so most of the teams they played have been above average and they finished the season winning eight of the twelve games they played. Their defense held teams to an average of 21.5 points per game, and while their defense allows 152.33 rush yards per game, Navy allows over 100 yards rushing per game, too, so I’m not really worried about it. Kansas State is rushing for an above-average 189 yards per game and that is going to allow them to control the clock and keep the Navy offense off the field. Kansas State also beat some really tough, above-average teams this year including College Football Playoff team, number four ranked, Oklahoma. The line for this game opened with Navy as one-point underdogs and it has now moved to Navy as a two and a half point favorite but it’s been the public driving that number up with Navy having 55% of the bets but only 46% of the money.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Navy is a good team. The Midshipmen have one of the top rushing offenses this year and covered seven of the last ten games they played. The reason I don’t like them in this game is that they struggled versus high powered offenses this year. They lost to Notre Dame (13th ranked offense) 52-20 and they lost to Memphis (8th ranked offense) 35-25. Kansas State has a similar offense to those teams and the Navy will struggle against it. Take the points with Kansas State as their rushing attack will control the game.
Take Vegas Golden Knights -141 in regulation (3way line) versus Anaheim Ducks ( 3:00 pm EST, EST, Tuesday 31 December 2019)
The Vegas Golden Knights finally turned the corner and became one of the better teams in the NHL while Anaheim continues to flounder. The Ducks are headed to Vegas to take on the Knights, which is not a good thing for them as they have won just six of the nineteen road games played this year. Not to mention, Anaheim has won just six of the last eighteen games played overall and won just once versus Vegas in the last five games when playing them on the road. The Ducks are averaging 2.42 goals per game when playing on the road and are allowing an average of 3.47 goals. That’s a really bad thing when playing Vegas at home.
Vegas has played great lately, especially at home, winning four of the last five games played there. They averaged 3.33 goals when playing at home and rank second in shots on goal with an above-average 36.24 shots on goal per game. The Vegas defense stepped up recently too. Ranked in the top 15 in goals and shots on goal allowed, they hold teams to an average of just 2.93 goals per game and that spells trouble for a low scoring Ducks team.
Vegas used the Ducks as a punching bag for a while now and I see that continuing here today. The Knights are playing great hockey, especially at home, and Anaheim plays awful on the road, winning just six road games all year. Take the Knights to win in regulation at home.
( A bet to win in regulation means that the team you choose MUST win in the first 60 minutes. If the game goes to Over TIme, regardless if they end up winning, you lose.)
