I've tried it a couple of times now, and in the end I was unable to get the fifth simulation done on NCAA Football 2011. For the second time in three years, I've been given a disc that has some sort of internal error with it and there's nothing I can do about it. Because of this, the game will just freeze up. I've had this problem for a while, but it not is just starting to really act up. I'm just going to hope that over the course of the season I'll be able to do simulations for the upcoming games.

With that being said, I do not have a simulation of the ILL-MIZZOU game done yet. I still wanted to give you guys enough time to come up with your own predictions before opening week, so that is why I'm going ahead and putting mine up here now.

Here's how the prediction game works:

All you do is make a score prediction for the upcoming game. I do the rest. I will keep track of how many you got right and how many you got wrong. I will also keep track of the difference in the score margins. For example, If you pick a score where Illinois wins by 10 (+10), and in the game they win by 7 (+7), the difference in the margin is three. The lower this number, the better off you are in terms of winning the tie breaker against someone else with the same prediction record as you. If you pick Illinois to win by 10, but they lose by 7 (-7), then the difference in the margin is 17. Hope that makes sense.

So, without further ado, I open up this season of predictions with what I think will happen next weekend when Illinois takes on Missouri. Hope I'm wrong.

MY PREDICTION

MISSOURI 35 ILLINOIS 17

According to the odds makers, the Illini are a 12-13 point underdog. If Illinois lost by that much, I would almost be happy with it. You got a freshman quarterback who's first ever snap at the college level is going to be in front of a crazy crowd in a dome. This will not be an easy environment to play in. On the other side, Missouri has Junior QB Blaine Gabbert, who's got experience in one of these games, and on top of that he has 5-star ability. He's coming off a year where he threw 24 TD's to only 9 picks, and you think he would only get better. Last year in a 37-9 win against the Illini, Gabbert went 25-33 for 319 yards, 3 TDs and no INTs. He also had a rushing TD, so four total touchdowns.

Also in last year's game, Illinois passed way too much; 37 times in fact. Let's hope this time around, knowing what we know about Leshoure and Ford, that we give the running game a chance to lead the offense. If they do, they definitely increase there chance of winning this game.

Oh yeah, we got to play defense too. Hmm...forget what I said about winning.

Let those score predictions rain in! Another football season is here, which is always exciting! Will the Illini pull the upset, or will they get crushed into oblivion? Give me your score prediction, and some thoughts on the upcoming game and season. I will go into more detail about how the prediction standings work, in case we have some new fans that join us. You're all welcome to participate. No prizes or anything, just something fun to do during the year. Talk to you guys soon.

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