2014-15 College Bowl Pool - Before New Orleans Bowl

Welcome everyone to my annual bacchanalia of College Football.  This is something like the 6th year in a row I've run this pool, and unfortunately marks the first time ever that we had fewer entrants than the previous year.  That's not entirely unexpected by me, since I switched jobs last year, and did virtually no lobbying at my new job for new people to enter.  That will probably change for the March Madness pool, but that's still a few months away.

This year I've received 54 entries, which is still pretty solid.  I think I said I'd pay out 3 spots if I got more than 50, so that seems like a done deal.  I entered 2 sheets for the "experts" at CBS.  I want to see how bad they do.  If they happen to win anything, I'll donate the money to charity.  I doubt that will happen.  Every year I'm more and more convinced that those guys don't really know what they are talking about (reference every Seth Davis entry in the MM pool).

I like the set up this year, with the extra game.  I arbitrarily chose 30 points for the last game, which looks like it's going to be a good number, as that makes it the game with the 2nd most points on it.  That seems appropriate.  I discovered something to keep in mind for next year:  More people need to NOT pick chalk in that game.  Of the 54 entries, only 3 people did NOT pick Alabama or Oregon.  Congratulations to perennial favorite Ally H. for being the only person with the guts to pick the undefeated and defending national champion Florida State to win.  I hope that works out for her.  I never thought I'd pull for Florida State, but if they are up against Alabama in the finals, I know who I am pulling for.

...but there's a game going on right now, and it seems like a good way to ease into the Bowl Season.  The New Orleans Bowl has the 2nd fewest points wagered on it.  That's probably because the line is only Nevada -2.  That didn't stop 30 people from picking Louisiana-Layette.

Here is the distribution of the picks:

For Louisiana-Lafayette:

Brent E. #1: 34

Brent E. #2: 27

Andrew D.: 26

CBS Fornelli: 24

CBS Hinnen: 23

Ally H.: 21

Sally R.: 21

Jim W.: 20

Mark N. #1: 19

Carl B.: 17

Becky H.: 15

Damien R. #1: 10

Hutch H. #1: 9

Klei R.: 8

Andrew O.: 7

Ray R.: 7

Ryan G.: 6

Michelle L. #1: 4

Brent S. #1: 3

Hal R. #2: 3

Hal R. #3: 3

Michelle L. #2: 2

Mike S.: 2

Pete J. #1: 2

Pete J. #2: 2

Ben W.: 1

Damien R. #2: 1

Dave M.: 1

Jay H. #1: 1

Scott H. #2: 1

.

..and for Nevada:

Brad R.: 24

Mike W.: 22

Scott H. #1: 19

Presley J.: 17

Amos W.: 16

Tim N.: 16

Mark N. #2: 15

Marc R.: 11

Chad L.: 10

Mandi A.: 10

Brent S. #2: 8

Daniel D.: 8

Dustin B.: 7

Dylan B.: 7

Sarah G.: 6

Adam E.: 5

Lance L.: 5

Matt N.: 5

Ryan W.: 4

Hal R. #1: 3

Kevin W.: 2

Chad C.: 1

Hutch H. #2: 1

Jay H. #2: 1

For those not scoring at home, the mean pick is Louisiana-Lafayette for 1.8 points, with the median pick being Louisiana-Lafayette for 1 point.  It really can't get much closer than that.

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but I really like the matchups this year.  No less than 29 of the 38 games have point spreads of less than a TD.  That means that everyone is forced to put a ton of points on a game that is pretty close to a toss up.  I love that.

I'll be back with more updates and stats later today.  There's 5 games today, not the least of which is the all-important Famous Idaho Potato Bowl featuring my beloved WMU Broncos.  Good luck to everyone!!!!