After a two-week break, our prognosticators are gearing up for the home stretch of college and NFL playoffs. Maybe their luck will change?

JON GREENBERG (33-50-1): I live in a nice suburb so everyone goes somewhere over winter break. Some families go see the grandparents in Florida, plenty of others head to resorts in Mexico or grab the skis and head for Colorado. A handful even go to exotic places like Japan or Africa. I’m the Al Bundy of the neighborhood. The only thing I could afford to take a vacation from is our picks column. But after two weeks of not losing money, I’m back. We’re back.

So let’s start with the college playoff games, which begin on New Year’s Eve with Miami (Fla., not Ohio) against the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Hurricanes are coming off a rousing 10-3 win over Texas A&M and face the rested Buckeyes, who are giving 9.5 points. Ohio State lost its last game, 13-10, against Indiana in the Big Ten championship, but I don’t think that mattered much to them.

It’s a lot of points, but I’ll take Ohio State -9.5. They should win by 20. Get these ACC teams out of the playoffs.

Fun fact: I covered their national championship game back in January 2003. I picked the Buckeyes in a Cox Newspaper survey done by fellow Bobcat Kevin Van Brimmer. I believe the only people to pick OSU over the Hurricanes that day were me and The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd.

Back then, I was working for The Yuma (Ariz.) Sun and I had one of the worst seats in the stadium to watch that epic upset, literally on the roof of the press box sitting between a reporter from Germany and an ASU student writer who wrote down play-by-play stats for some reason, even though he wasn’t actually filing a story.

I’ve come so far. Now I’m writing a weekly betting column read by hundreds of people.

Next up: We’ll go with Oregon -2.5 over Texas Tech and Georgia -6.5 over Ole Miss. Lastly, while I’d like to bet Indiana, the official college football team of our house (no one else cares about the Bobcats), and I think they’ll win, but 7 points is too much for me. Give me Alabama +7 and don’t tell my wife.

ZAC JACKSON (40-41-1): I live in a rusted-out van down by a cold river, but I get a great deal on digital TV that allows me to watch all the MAC football I could want to watch.

Even I draw the line before some of these bowl games featuring fifth-string quarterbacks and temporary coaching staffs. So I’m more than glad to bring on the playoffs, and at my age, a New Year’s Eve game is a treat. I can have some buddies over to the van, share a toast, enjoy the games and still be asleep before midnight.

The Buckeyes are going to put Miami to sleep before 10 o’clock. I don’t think it’s a total laugher, but I can’t see Miami getting to 14 points. Play of the year on , and open your parlays with Ohio State -9 and even Ohio State moneyline, if you like something else strongly.