Bowl Pool - After Day 1

I finally got an interesting finish to a Bowl game.  I figured that South Alabama had a chance to win the Camellia Bowl tonight when they took the lead with about 1:27 to go.  1 play and 78 yards later, Bowling Green took back the lead, and I joined the ranks of the 2-win sheets.

I hope everyone enjoyed the opening day of the Bowl Pool.  It might be a quirk of the schedule, but there won't be another single day with more games than today.  There are a few days with 5 games, but none with 6 or more.  That actually is good, since the games are more spread out this year.

Despite 5 games, there really weren't all that many points up for grabs today.  4 of the 5 games were in the bottom half of games in terms of points, and 3 of the bottom 7 games for points were today.  So, despite 13% of all the games being played today, only 11% of all points were available.

As a group, I'd say we did pretty decent on the picks for the day as well.  There was only one game today where the majority of sheets did NOT pick the winner of the game, and that was my lowly WMU Broncos.  Despite that, the average number of correct games picked today was 3.11.  As I mentioned earlier, no one was shut out after game 2.  Sadly, there was one sheet that managed only 1 win (Sarah G.).  Everyone else won at least 2 games.   And Sarah G. is still ahead of me in the standings.  Ouch...  On the other end of the spectrum, there are still 3 perfect sheets:

CBS Hinnen

Ray R.

Brent S. #1

I derided the "experts" on-line, but I have to say that I've been pretty impressed with how they have done so far.  I still don't think that they will win anything, but it's an interesting experiment so far.  Maybe the football guys are better than the basketball guys.  I remember everyone picking MSU to make the Final 4 last year on ESPN, and I don't remember that actually happening.

So, here's the standings so far:

1. CBS Hinnen: 128 (0)

2. Ray R.: 120 (0)

3. Andrew D.: 120 (-14)

4. Brent E. #1: 99 (-20)

5. CBS Fornelli: 97 (-26)

6. Mark N. #2: 82 (-31)

7. Bruce G.: 82 (-43)

8. Brent S. #1: 81 (0)

9. Matt N.: 80 (-13)

10. Brent E. #2: 80 (-20)

11. Ally H.: 80 (-31)

12. Adam E.: 69 (-5)

13. Brett W.: 67 (-89)

14. Mike S.: 66 (-1)

15. Ryan W.: 65 (-4)

16. Ryan G.: 64 (-16)

17. Pete J. #2: 64 (-24)

17. Pete J. #1: 64 (-24)

19. Jim W.: 63 (-5)

20. Scott H. #2: 63 (-8)

21. Brent S. #2: 62 (-8)

22. Daniel D.: 62 (-24)

23. Hal R. #3: 62 (-26)

24. Mike W.: 62 (-45)

25. Mandi A.: 61 (-47)

26. Kevin W.: 60 (-7)

27. Damien R. #1: 60 (-34)

28. Hutch H. #1: 59 (-4)

29. Dave M.: 59 (-14)

30. Mark N. #1: 59 (-20)

31. Lance L.: 58 (-9)

32. Ben W.: 58 (-27)

33. Presley J.: 57 (-18)

34. Damien R. #2: 55 (-18)

35. Hal R. #2: 55 (-33)

36. Hal R. #1: 52 (-36)

37. Carl B.: 49 (-5)

38. Brad R.: 49 (-59)

39. Becky H.: 49 (-81)

40. Marc R.: 48 (-30)

41. Dustin B.: 47 (-18)

42. Scott H. #1: 47 (-22)

43. Chad L.: 46 (-28)

44. Hutch H. #2: 44 (-9)

45. Dylan B.: 38 (-8)

46. Michelle L. #1: 37 (-23)

47. Sarah G.: 36 (-44)

48. Tim N.: 34 (-39)

49. Sally R.: 33 (-51)

50. Amos W.: 33 (-55)

51. Klei R.: 33 (-71)

52. Jay H. #2: 30 (-21)

53. Andrew O.: 29 (-20)

54. Michelle L. #2: 24 (-21)

55. Chad C.: 18 (-6)

56. Jay H. #1: 12 (-3)

... and the net points standings:

1. CBS Hinnen: 128

2. Ray R.: 120

3. Andrew D.: 106

4. Brent S. #1: 81

5. Brent E. #1: 79

6. CBS Fornelli: 71

7. Matt N.: 67

8. Mike S.: 65

9. Adam E.: 64

10. Ryan W.: 61

11. Brent E. #2: 60

12. Jim W.: 58

13. Scott H. #2: 55

13. Hutch H. #1: 55

15. Brent S. #2: 54

16. Kevin W.: 53

17. Mark N. #2: 51

18. Ally H.: 49

18. Lance L.: 49

20. Ryan G.: 48

21. Dave M.: 45

22. Carl B.: 44

23. Pete J. #2: 40

23. Pete J. #1: 40

25. Bruce G.: 39

25. Mark N. #1: 39

25. Presley J.: 39

28. Daniel D.: 38

29. Damien R. #2: 37

30. Hal R. #3: 36

31. Hutch H. #2: 35

32. Ben W.: 31

33. Dylan B.: 30

34. Dustin B.: 29

35. Damien R. #1: 26

36. Scott H. #1: 25

37. Hal R. #2: 22

38. Marc R.: 18

38. Chad L.: 18

40. Mike W.: 17

41. Hal R. #1: 16

42. Mandi A.: 14

42. Michelle L. #1: 14

44. Chad C.: 12

45. Jay H. #2: 9

45. Andrew O.: 9

45. Jay H. #1: 9

48. Michelle L. #2: 3

49. Tim N.: -5

50. Sarah G.: -8

51. Brad R.: -10

52. Sally R.: -18

53. Brett W.: -22

53. Amos W.: -22

55. Becky H.: -32

56. Klei R.: -38

Well, that's pretty sobering.  I put a whopping 5 minutes of research into this thing, and I am having a hard time coming to terms that that 5 minutes doesn't seem to be paying off for me.  At least I have a day off tomorrow to digest that truth.

Speaking of which, the next game is the inaugural Miami Beach Bowl on Monday.  Did anyone notice the time this Bowl game is going to be played?  It is at 2:00 in the afternoon.  That means 11:00AM on the West Coast.  I don't know about all of you, but I am going to be at work at that time, and really, the entire length of the game, assuring that I see exactly zero minutes of this game.  That seems like a strange decision.  It's the only college game on that day.  My guess is that they had some kind of non-compete clause with ESPN and MNF, because otherwise, this schedule makes no sense.  Unless it's some kind of elaborate ruse a la "Spingtime for Hitler" in "The Producers".

Vegas has this game as Memphis -1.5.  Our little group has picked BYU more often.  31 people took BYU (Average pick: 14.26 points) and 25 people took Memphis (average picks: 11.24 points).  Bucking the Vegas trend seems to have worked pretty well so far, especially for these early toss up games.  Maybe this game won't be any different.  The average pick is BYU for 2.88 points.  The median is BYU for 3 points.

Here is the distribution of the BYU picks:

Brent S. #1: 34

Scott H. #1: 32

Ben W.: 29

Mandi A.: 27

Brett W.: 27

Brad R.: 26

Bruce G.: 25

Becky H.: 23

Ray R.: 22

Presley J.: 19

Damien R. #1: 15

Sally R.: 15

Ally H.: 14

Amos W.: 13

Damien R. #2: 13

Matt N.: 13

Chad L.: 12

Dylan B.: 12

Daniel D.: 10

Lance L.: 10

Jay H. #2: 8

Adam E.: 6

Brent S. #2: 6

Jay H. #1: 6

Kevin W.: 6

Scott H. #2: 6

Dustin B.: 4

Chad C.: 3

Dave M.: 3

Carl B.: 2

Pete J. #1: 1

...and the Memphis picks:

Ryan W.: 32

Andrew D.: 30

Jim W.: 29

Klei R.: 22

CBS Hinnen: 18

Mark N. #2: 18

Mike W.: 17

Mark N. #1: 16

Mike S.: 14

CBS Fornelli: 12

Marc R.: 12

Hal R. #1: 8

Hal R. #2: 8

Hal R. #3: 8

Hutch H. #1: 8

Hutch H. #2: 5

Michelle L. #2: 4

Ryan G.: 4

Sarah G.: 4

Brent E. #1: 3

Brent E. #2: 3

Tim N.: 3

Andrew O.: 1

Michelle L. #1: 1

Pete J. #2: 1

The fact that I am on the same side as the CBS guys on this game should bode well for me.  Either that, or it proves that the demise of the CBS experts picks is imminent.  Either way, I win.

So everyone take a breather until Monday, and we'll start up again in earnest.  Until then, good luck to everyone!!!!