As I said earlier, this will be the final edition of regular season NFL picks courtesy yours truly, since there are far too many random variables in the final week of play. What team plays its starters? Who rests for the playoffs? And so on. I would NEVER take a Vegas trip during the final weekend of the season, and since it’s always close to New Year’s when Vegas is an overcrowded zoo, it works out just fine.

Since I’ll be only intermittently posting during the first part of my vacation next week, I’ll also put my college bowl game picks here, and tally them up after they’ve all over with.

Let’s start with the pros: I’ll go with the Packers to cover 9 points over the Bears. The Pack are healthy and playing stronger, and with the Jessica Simpson curse -Dallas loss last week, they might be tasting a chance at home field advantage. The Bears are only looking forward to hibernation at this point. I’ll also go with the Chiefs plus 5 against the Lions since the Lions are, well, the Lions. I think the Eagles are still thinking (wrongly) they can sneak into the playoffs and I’ll take them plus 3 1/2 points against the wobbly Saints. The Browns have a shot at the division title, and I’ll take them to cover 3 points over the wobblier Bengals. Since the ‘49ers had their fluke win last week, I’ll take the Bucs to cover 6 points over them this week, and also go with the Titans to cover 8 1/2 points over the Jets, who probably used their last gasp of energy to put a minor scare into the Pats last week. Finally, I’ll go with the Vikings to cover 6 1/2 points over the Redskins.

A ten-spot on each, guv’nor, with a parlay card of Packers-Eagles-Browns-Titans for a grand total of $80. There’s a good chap! Though if I was flying all the way to merry old England to bet, I suppose I could bet on damn near anything, from election results to snooker to how many eccles cakes Benny Hill ate in 1969.

But I digress. Onto the college bowl games:

I’d take Boise State -11 over East Carolina in the Hawaii Bowl on December 23

Boston College -4 over Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl on December 28

Maryland plus 5 1/2 against Oregon State in the Emerald Bowl on December 28

Alabama -3 1/2 over Colorado in the Independence Bowl on December 30

Florida State +3 against Kentucky in the Music City Bowl on December 31

Missouri – 3 1/2 over Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl on January 1

USC – 14 over Illinois in the Rose Bowl on January 1, in what looks to be the most lopsided mismatch

West Virginia +8 against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on January 1

Kansas +4 against Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl on January 1

Georgia -8 over Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl on January 1

And in the BCS Championship game on January 7, I’ll go with LSU to cover the 4 1/2 points over Ohio State.

Five bucks on each of those, with no parlay. I’m never sure about bowl games, since you never really know how college kids will react under that kind of pressure and attention. I think the guy who produced those “Girls Gone Wild” videos told me that once. Or it might have been someone else.