Saskatchewan owns the CFL's best record at 8-2 to sit atop the West Division.  But the Roughriders could find the sledding tough this Saturday on the road at British Columbia.

Winnipeg (51) at Toronto (-3)
Fri, Sep 12, 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Anytime you get a major shake-up in a football organization and the new sheriff in town is the most winningest coach in CFL history, I’m anticipating the players will raise their level of play.

Under the Argos current “environment” former head coach Rich Stubbler created, there was no accountability and that’s why there was no success on the field. However, that will change with Don Matthews calling the shots and expect the Argos defense being more aggressive. Furthermore, can you expect more energy in the building this Friday, as this will be a home game for Toronto and they are 10-4 SU as a home favorite on Friday nights at the Rogers Centre.

As for the Blue Bombers, Winnipeg keeps finding ways to lose games and if there’s one thing I’ve noticed on offense, Kevin Glenn doesn’t look for Milt Stegall as he did last season. Not sure why! Furthermore, the Bombers will start Joe Smith this Friday, but I expect more of the same from the Bombers who are 4-15-1 SU in Toronto since ’96.

Blue Bombers at Argonauts History: 7-13-0 (ATS) 4-15-1 (SU) 10-10-0 (O/U/P)

Ron’s Forecast: Toronto-31 Winnipeg-20

ATSDatabase.com Stat of the Game: When Toronto plays at home during the month of September before a non-division game, the Argos are 15-1 SU in this role since 1996.

Montreal (58½) at Calgary (-3)
Friday, Sep 12, 10:00 p.m. (ET)
The Alouettes are on a five-game winning streak, but most of those wins were vs. teams that are having their own “in house” issues. Let’s face it, four of their five wins were against Toronto (2x), Hamilton and Winnipeg, three teams with eight combined wins!

The Stampeders have been a competitive team in a strong West Division and they are coming off an emotional home-and-home series with the Eskimos. In my opinion, this is a trap game for the Stamps, as they are coming off a Labor Day classic loss at home, but won the rematch the following week in Edmonton. Now they must come home to face the hottest team in the league, but the Als have a history of fading down the stretch.

As much as I love the Stamps to win and cover in this spot, the Under 58½ is the play!

Alouettes at Stampeders History: 7-5-0 (ATS) 7-5 (SU) 6-6-0 (O/U/P)

Ron’s forecast: Montreal-21 Calgary-29

ATSDatabase.com Stat of the Game: For any CFL road team, after a division game and coming off back-to-back SU home wins, the Under is 29-9-1 for the road team (Montreal) in this role since ’98.

Hamilton (55½) at Edmonton (-13)
Saturday, Sep 13, 7:00 p.m. (ET)
It was just a matter of time before Charlie Taaffe would be run out of town for his lack of producing wins and for his game time decisions in crucial situations. Hopefully, former Ottawa U. head coach and new Ticats bench boss Marcel Bellefeuille will give Reggie Williams the starting job at QB.

Secondly, get another running back who will play 80% or higher of the games during the season. Yes, this means trade Jesse Lumsden!

As for this game at Edmonton on Saturday night, this is a tough situation for the Tiger Cats who will be up against the top team in the CFL in my view. Ricky Ray is back to being the top gunslinger in the league, but when a team is coming off two high-tempo games vs. a division and provincial rival, there’s always a letdown.

Furthermore, it’s going to start getting cold in Edmonton, or out in Western Canada for that matter, so look for game time temperature to dip down to 4C by kickoff and even colder by the third and fourth quarter.

Tiger Cats at Eskimos History: 8-4-0 (ATS) 5-7 (SU) 6-6-0 (O/U/P)

Ron’s forecast: Hamilton-20 Edmonton-23

ATSDatabase.com Stat of the Game: When Hamilton plays as a road underdog after having allowed 35 points or more in their last game, the Under is 10-2-0 for the Tiger Cats. Play the Under.

Saskatchewan (54½) at British Columbia (-6)
Saturday, Sep 13, 10:00 p.m. (ET)
Good teams find ways to win and bad teams just find ways to lose games! That’s the difference between the Roughriders and Blue Bombers from last Sunday’s game, but the Roughriders are entering the Lions den this Saturday night and it will be tough for them to find ways to keep winning in the last minute of games.

Michael Bishop has looked decent in his last two games, but keep in mind those two wins were against the Blue Bombers. The Lions are coming off a disappointing loss in Montreal last weekend and couldn’t cash in a first and goal at the one in four or was it five attempts? Nevertheless, the Lions have been inconsistent all season long and it’s pretty obvious they have some in house issues that have not been made public, because why do you trade your best running back from last season in the middle of a season? Charles Roberts will get his first start for the Lions and look for BC to get the job done in a nail biter.

The Roughriders have a good history of covering the spread in Vancouver, but look for the Lions to escape with a narrow victory. If you’re considering the Under in this contest, here’s a nice CFL Betting system backing up that thought: When you have a CFL team as a home favorite, the total is 54½ or more and they are coming off a game where they scored 32-35 points in their last game, the Under is 13-4-0 for the home fave in this spot.

Roughriders at Lions History: 16-6-0 (ATS) 11-11 (SU) 9-13-0 (O/U/P)

Ron’s forecast: Saskatchewan-20 BC Lions-21

ATSDatabase.com Stat of the Game: When BC plays at home team with six days off and the total is 54½ or more, the Under is 12-3-0 for the Lions in this position since 2000.

The Smokeless Set runs  under the lights tonight at Phoenix International Raceway, with Jeff Gordon and Dale Earhardt Jr. a couple of drivers to watch.

Saturday night under the lights, the Car of Tomorrow gets its first shot at a track longer than a half-mile.

However, the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway is so shallowly banked -- 11 and nine degrees in the turns -- that it drives like a smaller track than it is. In fact, the heavy-braking, flat track is an awful lot like Martinsville, where the Smokeless Set ran just a few weeks ago in these very same CoTs. How very convenient.

Who's been strongest in the CoT so far? Well, the temptation is to say Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle Busch won at Bristol, and Jimmie Johnson won at Martinsville, with Jeff Gordon hot on his tail. But those results don't tell the whole story.

Tony Stewart easily had the best car at Bristol, and only a fluky mechanical problem that had nothing to do with the CoT itself caused him to lose. At Martinsville, Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the most laps and Stewart's teammate, Denny Hamlin, led the second-most. If you ask me, the best CoT team so far has been Joe Gibbs Racing. They clearly invested a lot of dough in these puppies, and it's showing. We'll see if that trend continues Saturday night.

Last Week: It was a frustrating day deep in the heart of Texas, as our two primary picks, Johnson and Stewart, suffered wrecks at the hands of other, less speedy drivers. Jeff Burton won the event and looked great doing it; he's going to be a threat at a whole lot of races this summer. Anyway, it was a lost day, which means 1.5 units down the tubes. Fortunately, we're still up 1.87 units on the season, on 10.5 units wagered, for a 17.8% return. (If you scrap the conservative betting system outlined below and simply bet one unit per wager, you'd be up 16.67 units so far this year on 28 units wagered, for a 59.5% return. Of course, there's a lot more risk on a weekly basis with that system; for instance, you'd have dropped four units last week.)

This week at the Subway Fresh Fit 500, take Jeff Gordon (+385), 1/6th unit: Gordon has never won at Phoenix, one of just three current Nextel Cup venues where he hasn't taken the checkers. Also, this race has never been won from the pole, and Gordon won the pole Friday afternoon. Still, he's a tough guy to ignore in this spot. As I mentioned above, Gordon was coming fast after Jimmie Johnson (+625) at Martinsville, and almost certainly would've won the race if Johnson wasn't his teammate; he didn't want to wreck the #48, so he had to console himself with second place. Gordon still leads in points, and has won four poles already this year, but hasn't won a race. I think that changes Saturday night.

Take Denny Hamlin (+950), 1/6th unit: Hamlin could've easily won both of the first two CoT events, and he qualified third for Phoenix. He was quoted telling reporters that racing at this flat one-miler reminds him of the late-model races he grew up on, and that running under the lights on Saturday will cinch the deal, and take him right back to the minor-league series where he made his bones. Phoenix events have been won from the third starting position on three occasions, which probably doesn't mean much to any but the numerologists among you, but still. The Gibbs CoT program is strong, Hamlin finished third here last fall, and he's due for a win.

Take Dale Earnhardt Jr. (+815), 1/6th unit: Lost amid the excitement of Burton (+1145) winning his late-race duel with Matt Kenseth (+1250) is the fact that Junior got royally screwed in the Texas event last week. He led the most laps, and obviously had the best car, but got wrecked by Stewart (+745) when Smoke probably shouldn't have even been on the racetrack. The racing gods haven't been kind to Little-E of late, but that could change Saturday night. He's won twice at this place, and ran really well for a time at Martinsville. Look for the #8 to excite some red-clad fans.

Ross explains his '33% Parlay System,' and how it can be profitable in the early part of the college football season when mismatches between I-A and I-AA schools are offered.

Wagering on parlays in any sport has always been something I have highly advised against with my clients. However, there is a huge difference when it comes to a betting system and professionally handicapped selections.

I have sometimes pounded my head up against the wall trying to get the novice to comprehend the difference between the two. Simply put, a betting system is arrived at by exposing a slight vulnerability in what a bookmaker allows us to do. These systems on most occasions are created and applied by mathematical calculations with no regards to the teams involved or conditions of the game itself. Contrarily, handicapped selections are the result of factors such as weather, past performance, injuries, trends, and statistics just to name a few.

College football, especially early in the season, gives us an opportunity to exercise a successful betting system. This is what I call my 33% parlay system. It involves wagering on a pair of two team parlays in the same game.

The first parlay is playing the favorite and over the total, while the other is to play on the underdog and under the total. Now to qualify the games we use a simple mathematical calculation. The point-spread must be 33% or greater than that of the total in a particular game, and then we would have a qualifier.

An example would have been last Saturday’s Vanderbilt at Michigan game. Michigan was -27 and the total 46.5. The point-spread of -27 was 58.1% of the total. This game far exceeded the 33%. The result was Michigan winning 27-17 and produced a winning parlay of Vanderbilt and the under. If you played 100.00 on each parlay, you would have lost 100.00 on Michigan and the over. You would have won 260.00 on Vanderbilt and the under. The net would be 160.00.

In order to accomplish this, you will need to find a sportsbook that has action on correlated parlays, and those are few.

You will also find as the season enters conference play the opportunities to apply this system will be greatly reduced. Early in the season you have more games involving schools from BCS conferences versus schools from non-BCS conferences. This is much due to the willingness of the non-BCS teams to play these games on the road solely for the purpose of collecting a huge revenue guarantee. These contests are more apt to produce the calculation that we are looking for.

You will also find that these types of situations rarely occur during the course of an NFL season. The simple reason is there are significantly less teams in the NFL and with the advent of the salary cap it has created more parity. In week one of the college football season we had 14 games that qualified under this betting system. We made a profit on 10 of the 14 games. Based on playing 100.00 per parlay and a 2.60 return you would have made a profit of 800.00.

The Winners: (+1600.00)
Vanderbilt +27 and under 46½ / Michigan 27 Vanderbilt 7
Penn St. -17½ and over 40½ / Penn St. 34 Akron 16
Idaho +29 and under 57 / Michigan St. 27 Idaho 17
West Virginia -21½ and over 45½ / West Virginia 42 Marshall 10
Nebraska -24½ and over 45½ / Nebraska 49 Louisiana Tech 10
UAB +24 and under 41½ / Oklahoma 24 UAB 17
Clemson -25½ and over 43 / Clemson 54 Florida Atlantic 6
Texas -40½ and over 53 / Texas 56 North Texas 7
LSU -30 and over 47 / LSU 45 Louisiana Lafayette 3
Louisville -22½ and over 59 / Louisville 59 Kentucky 28

The Losers: (-800.00)
Ohio State 35 Northern Illinois 12 (17½/49)
Washington 35 San Jose 29 (21/47)
Florida 34 Southern Miss 7 (20/46½)
Texas Tech 35 SMU 3 (24½/52½)