After Day 1 - Inital Standings

So, when I left the football world to join the real world, the 2 games I had one were more or less laughers, then while I was waiting for my movie to start, I saw that somehow Washington State managed to pull out a last minute defeat.  Whaaaat?!?!?!  I guess that's why you stay until the end.  I just caught the highlights on SportsCenter.  That's a heartbreaking way to lose a game, especially if you had Washington State in the pool.  Ouch...  Personally, I think it's karmic retribution for hiring Mike Leach after he was fired from Texas Tech.  Anyone that locks players in a dark shed because they are complaining about concussion conditions deserves to lose as many games in as horrible a way as possible.

I watched exactly zero minutes of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.  I was glad to see that SDSU won, but it didn't look particularly compelling and the final score kind of bore that out.

The New Orleans Bowl, on the other hand, was pretty interesting for being the game that people really could have cared less about.  The fewest points were at stake in that game, and given that either team could have one, I can understand why people weren't wild about risking too much on it.

The upshot of all this is that after one day, we as a group won 2121 points (24.95 average) and lost 1750 points (20.59 average).  The average number of games won was 2.2.

Amazingly, after one day, we are down to only one entry that went 4/4.  Congratulations to Huki Julie.  You are the last perfect sheet.  On the flip side, we still have 4 people that have gotten 0 points.  I don't think that's a death blow to anyone, but it's going to be tough to recover from.  DesGru, Karl K., Mandi A., and Brett W. - better luck on Monday.

For those that are unfamiliar with my ranking system for these early games, it goes like this.  The rank is based on total points won so far.  After that, the tie breaker is the amount of points you have lost.  For example, if I won 50 points, but lost a game worth 10, I would be ranked higher than a person that also won 50 points, but lost 20 points.  It will look something like:

1. Klei R.: 50 (-10)

2. Person X: 50 (-20)

1. Sammie B.: 76 (-12)

2. Sally R.: 68 (-8)

3. Dennis R.: 66 (-29)

4. Bosun Ava: 61 (-35)

5. Huki Julie: 58 (0)

6. Brad R.: 54 (-12)

7. Jim W.: 53 (-26)

8. Marc R. #2: 52 (-18)

9. Miguel D.: 51 (-15)

10. Marc R. #3: 47 (-25)

11. Amy D.: 44 (-1)

12. Tony S.: 41 (-20)

13. Adam E.: 41 (-27)

14. Roth W. #2: 40 (-8)

15. Kevin F.: 39 (-16)

16. Greg F.: 38 (-1)

17. BAD: 38 (-7)

18. Roth W. #1: 38 (-10)

19. Matt N.: 38 (-43)

20. Easten S.: 36 (-20)

21. Abel R.: 35 (-13)

22. Michelle L. #1: 35 (-16)

23. Justin: 35 (-23)

24. Michelle L. #2: 34 (-13)

25. Becky H: 34 (-27)

26. Ben P.: 33 (-1)

27. Mike W.: 33 (-22)

28. Hutch H. #1: 31 (-16)

29. Jeff D.: 30 (-18)

30. Ally H.: 30 (-69)

31. Jay H. #3: 29 (-9)

32. Jeff W.: 28 (-12)

33. Sailor Dan: 28 (-17)

33. Carl B.: 28 (-17)

35. Chad L.: 27 (-5)

36. Erica A.: 27 (-11)

37. Amos W.: 27 (-22)

38. Larry G. #3: 26 (-3)

39. Brent S. #1: 26 (-36)

40. Jay H. #1: 25 (-17)

41. Shawn S.: 24 (-11)

42. Bruce G.: 24 (-22)

43. Scott Has.: 23 (-8)

44. Klei R. #1: 23 (-35)

45. Larry G. #2: 22 (-3)

46. Kevin W.: 21 (-13)

47. James G. #1: 21 (-18)

48. Chris L. #1: 20 (-6)

48. Chris L. #2: 20 (-6)

50. Brent E. #2: 20 (-13)

51. Larry G. #1: 19 (-6)

52. Steve D.: 19 (-16)

53. Mike L. #2: 19 (-20)

54. Klei R. #2: 19 (-36)

55. Scott Her. #1: 18 (-37)

56. Hutch H. #2: 17 (-30)

57. Andy M.: 16 (-20)

58. Max W.: 16 (-56)

59. Matt J.: 15 (-29)

60. Mike L. #1: 14 (-25)

61. Brent S. #2: 14 (-40)

62. Peter J. #1: 13 (-17)

63. Damien R. #2: 12 (-14)

64. Michelle R.: 11 (-29)

65. Scott Her. #2: 10 (-26)

66. Brent E. #1: 9 (-1)

66. Brent E. #3: 9 (-1)

66. Marc R. #1: 9 (-1)

69. CJ: 9 (-5)

70. James G. #2: 8 (-26)

71. Damien R. #1: 8 (-30)

72. Jackie S.: 7 (-41)

73. Daryl J.: 6 (-4)

74. Dre: 6 (-22)

75. Jay H. #2: 5 (-5)

76. Chad C.: 5 (-31)

77. Ben W.: 3 (-10)

78. Peter J. #2: 3 (-27)

79. Tim N.: 2 (-11)

80. Howard S.: 1 (-24)

81. Mike S.: 1 (-35)

82. DesGru: 0 (-41)

83. Karl K.: 0 (-53)

84. Mandi A.: 0 (-64)

85. Brett W.: 0 (-82)

So, there's that.  That's a good start for my Mom and my Dad.  I also am happy to see that Bosun Ava are near the top as they are dogs.  Literally dogs.  Something strikes me funny that dogs can pick football games better than the rest of us.  I hope that inspired people to not get too high or too low if they do good or bad.  I think one year, I entered a sheet that was based on ESPN "experts" and it finished in the middle of the pack.  There is no optimal path to winning this thing.  Whoever wins will say there is, but there isn't.

There isn't a game tomorrow in deference to the NFL.  That gives us a break until Monday's lone game - the Beef O'Brady's Bowl.

This is the 4th biggest point spread of any game this bowl season.  The Vegas line is East Carolina by 14 points.  It should come as no surprise that the majority of points are on East Carolina.  The distribution is East Carolina: 76, Ohio: 9.  The median pick is East Carolina for 23 points.  Amazingly, despite the large point spread, it's only the 13th most valuable game with 1682 points wagered.  Nobody has Ohio as a top 10 team.  32 people have East Carolina in their top 10.  That could mean that there is a lot of movement on Monday or it's a total bloodbath.  Personally, I prefer the bloodbath route.  It makes things more interesting.  That hasn't changed by me over the years.  I almost always root for big upsets.

Not that anyone was interested, but it was my birthday today, and my wife treated me very well.  We went for pizza at lunch and she got me a new pair of hiking boots, which I intend to use tomorrow.  But, the best gift I got this year was that my cat was alive.  I've had him for about 15 years and he's got a lot of "old cat" problems, so I was really happy that we didn't have to put him down.  Now, I think I'm going to spend some quality time away from the TV and with Supercat.

Good luck on Monday everyone!!!!!