College Football Picks - Missouri vs. Illinois: The Missouri Tigers of the Big 12 and Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois will kick off their 2009 seasons in the battle ground of St. Louis, Mo., on Saturday Sept. 5 in the Edward Jones Dome. The College football picks Kickoff for the game is set for 3:30 pm ET with the game being televised live on ESPN.
 
College Football Picks experts at SBGglobal.com list the Illini as 6 1/2-chalk favorites with a 60 1/2 total.

This year is the fifth of six schedule meetings between the two schools in St. Louis, with the 2010 game marking the last one for the near future. Previous games in the Dome have all gone Mizzou's way, as the Tigers claimed a 33-20 win in 2002, a 22-15 win in 2003, a 40-34 win in 2007 and a 52-42 win in 2008.

In 2008 Illinois went through a rebuilding year after getting to the Rose Bowl the previous year. The shoe could be on the other foot in 2009 as the Tigers, who have had a successful run appear to be retooling.

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel would never offer up youth as an excuse for anything, the fact remains that this team is very young, with only 14 seniors on the roster. Of those, only seven are scheduled to start on offense/defense, with only eight total who are on the two-deep entering the season opener against Illinois.

llini coach Ron Zook begins his fifth season as the Illinois head coach this weekend. Zook was the 2007 Liberty Mutual National Coach of the Year after taking the Illini to the Rose Bowl. He has an overall record of 19-30 at Illinois and is 2-2 in season openers. Illinois returns 17 starters from a year ago, eight on offense, six on defense and three specialists.

College Football Picks: Today should be redemption day for the Fighting Illini -6 1/2 ATS.