Purple, don't let me down

Just for the record, I thought of this before reading my friend's blog. I placed my first sports wager yesterday. Even though I really don't care for sports in general (watching - I rather like playing), I think that betting on sports could help me with that problem. I never realized how fascinating sports betting was until I read a few pages about "point spreads", "moneylines" and "parlays", my interest piqued after seeing Northwestern kick the crap out of then-ranked Michigan State. That's when I first thought maybe my unsubstantiated optimism could pay off, literally.

As my friend mentioned, the line is +19.5 or so, depending on which book you're looking at. Even as I'm certain that Ohio State is going to kick Northwestern all over Columbus, I am pretty sure that we won't lose by more than 19 points - and there's even a chance we could win. I've placed the following bets (I know these are not huge sums, but it's four pizzas worth!):

$15 on Cal (vs. USC) (+19.5)

$5 on Michigan State (vs. Minnesota) (+185)

$5 on Wisconsin (vs. Iowa) (-3)

$5 on Navy (vs. Notre Dame) (+24)

and of course...

$26.72 on Northwestern (vs. Ohio State) (+19.5)

I hope today is profitable. Yes, I'm talking to you, NU. Don't let me down.