Saturday, January 8, 2011

Bowl Pool Update: January 8, 2011

Since last we blogged ... wha happen'?

Stanford 40, Virginia Tech 12
The ACC was terrible this year. They and the Big East should have been stripped of their BCS bids, which should have been handed over to Boise State and either Michigan State or Nevada.

Ohio State 31, Arkansas 26
The SEC bowl curse is over! I think it was an absolute joke that Pryor won game MVP. Cam Heyward was the best player on the field by a significant margin. I think he actually ate one of Arkansas's tackles.

Miami (Not That Miami) 35, Middle Tennessee State 21
Relatively even yardage and yards per play? What could be the difference? MTSU had five turnovers, including four picks, one of which was taken back for a TD. Austin Boucher, who spurned OSU to go to Miami, was named player of the game and got a smooch from the completely overrated Danica Patrick after the game.

LSU 41, Texas A&M 24
LSU was just better. A lot better, actually. Since 1989, TAMU is now 3-13 in bowl games. They are 1-13 against BCS conference teams, with the other two wins coming against TCU and BYU.


In the pick 'em, Di has inexplicably taken the lead on the strength of winning eight of her last ten and putting up 194 points in the process. Unfortunately, she's almost tapped out her points and pretty much has no chance of winning. Take a snapshot of the table as it stands today, Di. One entrant who does not have that problem is coworker Aaron, who has actually won his last nine and accumulating 224 points in those nine. Unlike Di, he still has over 80 points remaining in his incredibly back-loaded pick set (33 points on Miami (OH)?). Other backloaders who have jumped up quite a bit include Fred and, to a lesser extent, Ben. I think in the end it's going to come down to Aaron, Ben, and Joel, who has been top 5 pretty consistently this whole time.

At the other end of the table, Kat is bringing up the rear with a 14-18 record (but she's won her last three!) and 227 points, placing her in percentile 6.1 nationally. She is losing to The Other Snavely, who has an appalling 12-20 record, but more points and more possible points remaining. It's a slow, plodding race between those two. We'll see how that turns out.

Top 15 is below.



RankTeamOwnerPPRTOTAL
1god bless us everyoneDi6379
2Little Orphan AlyAly17378
2Silent VelcroJoel M.43378
4The D.E.N.N.I.S. SystemBen54373
5MarianneSharp 1Take a Guess6369
6aaronjw725 1 Aaron83364
7Shablagoo!BringTheCrunchMatt N.48361
8It's a Furry Pig!Fred60357
9JoannaTake a Guess23353
10I can haz Cam Newton?Todd28350
10Todd McShay's PicksTake a Guess68350
12Dantonios heart attackertsElliott35348
13Boogr, Boogr, & FartybuttAl6345
14Leave me alone JacksonMike N.11340
15katemunger aTake a Guess12333

Monday, January 3, 2011

Bowl Pool Update: January 3, 2011

So, as Big Ten fans ... that could have gone better. Quick change!

South Florida 31, Clemson 26
Whatever.

No-trah Dame 33, Miami (That Miami) 17
Not even that close.

Central Florida 10, Georgia 6
This one is gonna look great on George O'Leary's resume, right next to his victory over the Intergalactic All-Stars while he was at Georgia Tech.

Florida State 26, South Carolina 17
You are never, ever going to win anything at South Carolina, Steve Spurrier.

Texas Tech 45, Northwestern 38

Florida 37, Penn State 24
Matt McGloin just threw another TaINT on an out route.

Alabama 49, Michigan State 7
Well, that was embarrassing.

Mississippi State 52, Michigan 14
Probably wouldn't have made much of a difference in the outcome, but this game was 24-14 at halftime and Michigan forced a punt on the first possession of the third quarter. They then drove down the field and faced a 4th-and-five (I think) at (around) the MSU fifteen. Rodriguez chose to bring out one of Michigan's myriad incompetent kickers, who promptly shanked the approximately 30-yard field goal. At the time, at our bowl watching party, I said that that was the exact moment when Rodriguez was definitely getting fired.

TCU 21, Wisconsin 19
Neither team turned it over, but Wisconsin lost in spite of outgaining TCU by almost 100 yards. The difference was that TCU finished their drives and Wisconsin didn't. The Horned Frogs only really had three sustained drives in the game (the teams only got eight drives a piece), and they punched all three into the endzone. Wisconsin, meanwhile, settled for a couple of field goals and missed another, which would (in retrospect) have won the game.

Oklahoma 48, Connecticut 20
This was exactly what absolute everyone expected. Nine of the ten BCS teams are ranked in the top 13. UConn is the lone exception, and they are unranked. The result reflects that.


Todd and I had the following text message exchange the day after the Big Ten's New Year's Day Massacre:

Me: "Well, yesterday could have gone better."
Todd: "Shit Tyrone."




Obviously, the Big Ten as a whole is Tyrone. For the foreseeable future.

Top 15 is below.



RankTeamOwnerRecordTOTAL
1Silent VelcroJoel M.16-12352
2Todd McShay's PicksTake a Guess19-9350
3MarianneSharp 1Take a Guess15-13347
4Boogr, Boogr, & FartyButtAl16-14333
5Little Orphan AlyAly16-12317
6I can haz Cam Newton?Todd15-13316
7JoannaTake a Guess13-15314
8Leave Me Alone JacksonMike N.14-14309
9Dantonios Heart AttackersElliott15-13304
10katemunger 1Take a Guess15-13301
10god bless us everyoneDi15-13301
12Ampersanzenbacher!&&&!&!!Jeff15-13297
13Zoe's First Bowl Pick EmKristin15-13294
13It's a furry pig!Fred17-11294
15Shablagoo!BringTheCrunchMatt N.14-14292