Welcome to JEM Football Service

Welcome and thank you for logging on to JEM Football Service. We have been handicapping college football for 8 years. Since our inaugural season of 2001 we have compiled a 214-166 record for 56.3%. Go to our history page to see a breakdown of how we did in 2008 and our overall record since 2001. All of our results this year will be certified with The Sports Monitor of Oklahoma.

All of us at JEM Football Service are driven by three core principles. Providing our customers with ...

• Solid Picks
• Low Cost
• Great Service  ...more about us

Please take a moment and go to our JEM News page. We've posted an article on a hot topic in college football..." home field advantage". We think you'll find it interesting and a little surprising. Feel free to go to our Contact Us page and give us your feedback. Let us know if you think we are right, wrong, or if nothing else brought up some good points. We look forward to hearing from you!

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2008 NCAA football season in review... 

   Before we review some of the top story lines of the 2008 season, Let's take a look at our season here at JEM Football Service and see how we performed compared to our '07 season. Our final record for 2008 was 62-56 which ranked our service 60th out of 127 of the top handicapping services in the country registered with The Sports Monitor of Oklahoma. We came out of the gate cold in Sept. and Oct. but as the temperatures outside dropped in Nov. and Dec., we heated up, including an 18-8 run in the final 3 weeks of the season. Coming off a 41-41 record and a 68th ranking out of 124 in 2007, we were happy to see improvement. With that said, we are far from satisfied and are looking forward to working harder than ever to get our service to the top of the rankings where it belongs. Finally, we would like to take a moment and thank all of our customers this season. We truly appreciate your business and hope you give us another opportunity next year. THANK YOU!

   In our 2007 Season in Review article we pointed out some of the top story lines to look for in 2008.

• Will the Trojans stay healthy and win it all? For the most part they did stay healthy, but a troubling pattern is beginning to develop for USC, dropping a game each season to a double digit dog. In 2006 USC lost to Oregon St. 31-33 as a 10pt favorite. At the end of the season, with a BCS title shot on the line, they lost as an 11pt favorite to a 7-6 UCLA team that would go on and lose their bowl game 27-44 to FSU. In 2007 no one will forget the embarrassing 23-24 loss to 41pt dog Stanford and this season it was a 21-27 loss again vs. Oregon St. as a 24pt favorite. All of these inexplicable losses cost the Trojans a shot in the BCS title game.

• Can Oklahoma win the Big XII again, and if so, will they show up for the bowl game? It looks like the answer is yes to the first part and still no to the second. The Sooners had a record setting season and captured their 3rd straight conference crown. The offense was beyond explosive averaging 51.1ppg and 547.9ypg. Unfortunately for Sooner fans they have a troubling pattern of their own developing...underperforming in BCS bowls. One thing should be made clear, Bob Stoops is one of the top college coaches in the country and his career 97-22 record speaks for itself. There are about 115 other division 1 teams that would love to have Oklahoma's "problem". With that said, the Sooners have lost 5 BCS bowls in the last 6 years and were the favorite in 3 of them. In this year's title game we feel Oklahoma did show up and could have put Florida away early. Repeated failures in the red zone doomed any chance they had. With Heisman trophy winning QB Sam Bradford returning, 2009 will be another great year but we feel Oklahoma will be judged by what they do in January.

• How would Kansas respond after posting a 12-1 record including a huge Orange Bowl win over Virginia Tech? The days of the Jayhawks sneaking up on people are over and the expectation level in Lawrence is on the rise. After opening the season 5-1 the schedule got brutal. In a 6 game stretch Kansas played Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Kansas St., Nebraska and Texas with their only win coming against Kansas St. The season ended with a convincing win over Minnesota in their bowl game and Kansas signed out in '08 with a 8-5 record. Not bad for a program that compiled a 32-50 record the previous 7 seasons.

• How long would it take Rich Rodriguez's system to take hold in Ann Arbor? We knew the first season would be tough...maybe not that tough! The second half efforts vs. Utah and Wisconsin were some bright spots among a season of disappointments, most notably the 10-13 home loss to Toledo and the 7-42 thrashing at Ohio St., their fifth loss in a row to the Buckeyes. Take heart Wolverine fans, Rodriguez went 3-8 in his first season at West Virginia and followed that with a combined 57-18 record.

•  June Jone's job may be a little more difficult in Dallas. Not only does Rodriguez have much better facilities and the Michigan brand, he is not battling every other Texas program for the top recruits in the that talent rich state. SMU was 1-11 in Jone's first season with the lone victory vs. Texas St. It won't be long before SMU becomes a dangerous offensive team and contends in CUSA.

• Notre Dame showed signs of life in the first half of the season and the Hawaii Bowl, but losses to Pitt, BC, Syracuse and USC brought back nightmares of '07. Weis will get '09 to prove himself thanks to his fruitful recruiting efforts, but anything less than dramatic improvement may cost him in '10.

• Finally, could anyone beat the SEC in the BCS title game?  Florida answered that question for us with their second title in 3 years sandwiched around LSU. It seemed it was finally time for the Big XII as Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech played "hot potato" with the #1 ranking throughout the season but Florida's big game defense and Tebow proved to be too much for the Sooners. With pretty much everyone returning for the Gators, we have a feeling the SEC will play a roll in the championship next year as well.

   With more and more parity in college football teams like Boise St., Utah, BYU and Tulsa are creating havoc on BCS teams. We can't wait to see what 2009 will bring us!    

2007 NCAA football season in review...

   WOW!...We think that pretty much sums up what was the most exciting, exhilarating and unpredictable seasons in college football history. From the casual fan's point of view you couldn't ask for more. From  the Appalachian St upset of Michigan to Stanford's conquest of USC. From Colorado kicking their way past Oklahoma to South Florida rising to #2 in the nation only to lose 4 of their last 7. Illinois knocking off undefeated Ohio St, Hawaii going 12-1 and Notre Dame going 3-9.   From Pittsburgh spoiling the title hopes of West Virginia to Kansas and Kentucky shocking their conferences. Only in a season like that could a team with 2 losses in LSU win a National Title, a first in college football history!

   From a handicapper's point of view, speaking for ourselves, it was a little frustrating. Many of our picks suffered from an inordinate amount of back door covers and a high amount of turnovers. For example, of the 82 games we picked our teams finished -3 or more in the turnover margin in 11 of those. Going into those 11 games our team had a substantial turnover advantage  in 7 of them...that hurt! We failed to win or push a game by 7 points or less 9 times and failed to win or push a game by 3 points or less 12 times. The close ones certainly didn't go our way in '07. With all of that being said, we were remarkably able to finish the regular season at 41-41 and a ranking of 68 out of 107 of some of the top handicappers in the country according to The Sports Monitor of Oklahoma. The bowl season didn't fair much better. We failed to win or push by 5 points in one game and by 1 point in two games. In two other games our teams combined for 7 turnovers when they both had the turnover advantage going in. 2007 was our 7th season and it was the first time we did not produce a profit for our customers. We believe transparency is important in a sports service and we will always show our record win or lose. If a handicapping service wouldn't, I would think twice before using them. 

   In closing the 2007 season we are eager and energized for what is sure to be another thrilling season of college football in 2008. Here are some of the top story lines to keep an eye on...

• Will Pete Carroll and the Trojans be able to stay healthy all season? If they can...look out!
• Can Oklahoma win the Big XII again? If they do will they ever show up for the bowl game?
• Kansas is loaded, but they go from the hunter to the hunted.
• How long will it take Rich Rodriguez's system to catch on in Michigan?
• Can June Jones turn around SMU?
• Will the Irish rebound and return to the nation's elite?
• Can anyone beat the SEC in the Championship game?

   We will be there as 2008 unfolds week by week and all of us at JEM Football Service hope you'll join us!