Colorado's Folsom Field.

I’ve worked at the Journal-World since July 2007 and been covering KU football, at least in some fashion, since 2008, which means I’ve been making picks on college football games — at least on the record — for the past five seasons.

During a couple of those years I finished with the best record of our entire staff and during the others I finished, well, without the best record.

Win or lose, it’s always been fun to put my picks down on paper for our KUsports.com readers to praise or mock and, until recently, I thought it was only a few readers who mocked my picks. Turns out, there’s a guy in our office, who sits a mere 8 feet away from me, who also thinks my picks are soft and always have been.

I learned this when we found out recently that our beloved KUSports.com picks were in jeopardy because the guy who usually runs them, Jesse Newell, is busy tracking our Pro Football picks contest (it’s new this year and you should totally sign up) and can’t keep tabs on both. That’s when sports editor Tom Keegan, a man who’s never backed away from a showdown or a dessert table, called me out and said we should do a one-on-one, battle of the generations picks challenge ourselves this year.

As we did before, we’ll keep a running tally of our records throughout the season and, because it’s just the two of us, we’ll pick 10 games each weekend (every Big 12 game and a few others) and report back each week with a little banter that should make it interesting, if not outright ridiculous. A bonus victory will be awarded for any game in which one of us picks the correct score.

We’ll inevitably wind up playing for something but we haven’t pinned that down just yet. Could be strokes on the golf course, desk cleaning duties at the office or dessert from any number of Lawrence eateries.

Regardless of what we settle on, it’s bragging rights we’re both after.

So, with KU set to kick off the 2013 season vs. South Dakota at 6 pm tonight, here’s the first installment of our teacher-vs.-pupil picks battle.

Week 1 Games:
Kansas vs. South Dakota
Oklahoma vs. West Virginia
BYU vs. Texas
Kansas State vs. Louisiana Lafayette
Texas Tech vs. Stephen F. Austin
Baylor vs. Buffalo
Oklahoma State vs. Texas-San Antonio
TCU vs. Southeastern Louisiana
Michigan vs. Notre Dame
Miami vs. Florida
Off the wall question: What’s the coolest sports venue you’ve ever been to?

Matt Tait:
Kansas 45, South Dakota 13
Oklahoma 33, West Virginia 14
Texas 42, BYU 20
Kansas State 27, Louisiana Lafayette 17
Texas Tech 48, Stephen F. Austin 28
Baylor 63, Buffalo 10
Oklahoma State 41, Texas-San Antonio 19
TCU 45, Southeastern Louisiana 7
Michigan 30, Notre Dame 21
Florida 24, Miami 23

Answer: I’ve enjoyed watching sports at a number of great places and feel like I could pick any one of the classics here and be safe. Wrigley Field. Yankee Stadium. Rosenblatt Stadium for the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., for a Nebraska football game. All of those, and many others, would be worthy picks, but I’m going with one that’s near and dear to my roots: Folsom Field in Boulder, Colo. The stadium is fantastic and I love the ramped end zone on the south side. But the setting behind it is what makes it my favorite. Boulder’s famed Flatirons mountains are visible from many parts of Folsom and they hover over the stadium in the distance, making this place as picture-esque as it gets.

Colorado's Folsom Field.

Tom Keegan:
Kansas 41, South Dakota 10
Oklahoma 41, West Virginia 17
Texas 31, BYU 24
Kansas State 31, Louisiana-Lafayette 24
Texas Tech 55, Stephen F. Austin 21
Baylor 56, Buffalo 14
Oklahoma State 48, Texas-San Antonio 14
TCU 49, Southeastern Louisiana 10
Notre Dame 28, Michigan 24
Florida 28, Miami 21

Answer: Since I refuse to pander to the audience, I won’t say Allen Fieldhouse. I’ll say Estadio Universitario in Caracas, Venezuela, home of the city’s popular baseball team, Leones del Caracas.” The Spanish I learned from Seniorita Hess at Marquette came flooding back to me on that 1994 day when I needed to ask what would be the safest way to walk from where the cab dropped me to the stadium entrance. Students protesting the city’s decision to hike bus fares were shooting bullets in the direction of the cops. I was told if I crossed the street I should be safe, so I crossed the street. The crowd was super into every pitch and it wasn’t long before I figured out why. Many of the spectators at the sold-out stadium that holds 25,690 were making ball-strike wagers on the pitches, as well as bets on whether the team on the field would get out of the jam without letting in a run, etc.

Estadio Universitario, in Caracas, Venezuela.