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Here are the winners of the pool:
1. Dustin B.
2. Mark N. #2
3. Ryan W.
For the first time in 3 years, one person didn't win 2 of the 3 places, so I won't have to enlist my consolidated payment rule. That makes me happy.
As it turns out, tonight's game had even less riding it when you consider that only 2 people actually picked Ohio State to win, so the standings were largely unaffected. The two people that predicted Ohio State would be the first National Champion were Tin N., who moved from 40th to 29th and Jim W., who moved from 38th to 25th.
One thought about the actual game. Does Ohio State get into the Final 4 if the Big 12 has a Championship game? I mean TCU and Baylor were the other contenders for the 4th spot, and my guess is that if they had a title game in that conference, the winner might have wound up as the 4th team. Food for thought, Big 12 conference heads..... (I'm sure they are reading this)
Here are the final rankings:
| 1. Dustin B.: 506 (-265) |
| 2. Mark N. #2: 505 (-266) |
| 3. Ryan W.: 482 (-289) |
| 4. Kevin W.: 479 (-292) |
| 5. CBS Hinnen: 477 (-294) |
| 6. Damien R. #1: 470 (-301) |
| 7. Scott H. #2: 469 (-302) |
| 8. Adam E.: 459 (-312) |
| 9. Daniel D.: 445 (-326) |
| 9. Ryan G.: 445 (-326) |
| 11. Michelle L. #2: 444 (-327) |
| 12. Mike S.: 441 (-330) |
| 12. Pete J. #1: 441 (-330) |
| 14. Chad C.: 440 (-331) |
| 15. Sarah G.: 439 (-332) |
| 16. Scott H. #1: 436 (-335) |
| 16. Mark N. #1: 436 (-335) |
| 18. Carl B.: 434 (-337) |
| 18. Hutch H. #2: 434 (-337) |
| 20. Ray R.: 433 (-338) |
| 21. Brent E. #1: 431 (-340) |
| 22. Pete J. #2: 430 (-341) |
| 23. Mike W.: 429 (-342) |
| 24. Matt N.: 425 (-346) |
| 25. Jim W.: 424 (-347) |
| 26. Amos W.: 422 (-349) |
| 27. Jay H. #2: 421 (-350) |
| 28. CBS Fornelli: 420 (-351) |
| 29. Tim N.: 419 (-352) |
| 29. Brent S. #2: 419 (-352) |
| 31. Brett W.: 417 (-354) |
| 32. Hal R. #2: 416 (-355) |
| 33. Hutch H. #1: 415 (-356) |
| 34. Brent E. #2: 413 (-358) |
| 35. Chad L.: 410 (-361) |
| 35. Hal R. #3: 410 (-361) |
| 37. Andrew O.: 409 (-362) |
| 38. Becky H.: 405 (-366) |
| 39. Hal R. #1: 399 (-372) |
| 40. Marc R.: 391 (-380) |
| 41. Lance L.: 383 (-388) |
| 42. Andrew D.: 382 (-389) |
| 43. Klei R.: 378 (-393) |
| 43. Brent S. #1: 378 (-393) |
| 45. Damien R. #2: 371 (-400) |
| 46. Ally H.: 369 (-402) |
| 47. Dave M.: 366 (-405) |
| 48. Michelle L. #1: 364 (-407) |
| 49. Presley J.: 359 (-412) |
| 50. Jay H. #1: 345 (-426) |
| 51. Bruce G.: 340 (-431) |
| 52. Ben W.: 339 (-432) |
| 53. Sally R.: 338 (-433) |
| 54. Brad R.: 336 (-435) |
| 55. Mandi A.: 324 (-447) |
| 56. Dylan B.: 320 (-451) |
As a group, we only managed to get 53.58% of available points, which is actually pretty awful considering some of the bigger point spreads. Based on our pick distribution, underdogs won outright in 21 of the 39 games, which may explain the poor picking by the group. The 4 biggest upsets of the pool were:
Sugar Bowl: Median pick (Alabama for 32 points)(4th highest)
Music City Bowl: Median pick (LSU for 31 points)(5th highest)
Orange Bowl: Median pick (Mississippi State for 26.5 points)(11th highest)
Outback Bowl: Median pick (Auburn for 25 points)(12th highest)
Notice a pattern? For anyone adopting a plan of picking against the SEC West, it looks like that would've worked very well for you. For those scoring at home, only 2 people even went 3/4 in those games, and both did well, but finished out of the money (Chad C. and Damien R. #1). 26 people went 0/4, proving that most of us bought the SEC West hype.
Overall, the person that actually picked the most correct games was CBS Hinnen, who just missed 3rd place. He got 25/39 games correct. 4 people managed 23, so it wasn't close for the overall picks title (Chad C., Dustin B., Kevin W., Scott H. #2).
The person that made the most effective use of their picks was Mark N. #2. He only managed to correctly guess 21 games, but still finished 2nd because he had a pool best average 24.05 points per win. Sadly, my Mom was on the other end of that spectrum. She guessed 20 games correctly, but only won 16.90 points per win - proving once again that it's not entirely about picking who will win, but about getting the points correct as well.
As for our Champion, it appears as though he adopted a modified late-weighting strategy, pitting 7 of his top 10 points picks at the end of the season. He managed to go 8/10 on those top 10 picks, only losing Kansas State and Auburn. He bottomed out after the San Diego State loss in the Poinsettia Bowl at 51st place, but then slowly climbed up to 14th after the Belk Bowl. In a rare misstep, he took Maryland in the Foster Farms Bowl for 3 points when the median was Stanford for 37. That 3 point loss dropped him all the way back to 33rd. A further setback in the Citrus Bowl (Minnesota) dropped him from 20th to 36th, but a late charge finally brought him into the top 10 after 34 points on Oklahoma State in the Cactus Bowl took him from 17th to 6th. 38 on Florida in the Bimingham Bowl took him all the way to 2nd and he took 1st for good with the Toledo win in the GoDaddy Bowl. Good job Dustin. It shows that those throwaway bowls mean quite a bit if you can pick them correctly.
We had 7 people who were in first or tied for first after at least one bowl game. CBS Hinnen was in first after 16, but still finished out of the money. Brett W. was in 1st after 7 games between the Heart of Dallas Bowl and the Pinstripe Bowl before fading to 31st by the end of the pool. That's still better than Jay H. #1 who adopted the dreaded 1-39 point strategy, only to see him drop to 55th after the 2nd game (New Mexico Bowl) and never make it out of the 50s for the entirety of the pool. Ouch....
Anyway, it's getting late and I want to wrap up this Bowl pool. I hope everyone enjoyed it. IT was fun for me, even though I watch entirely too much football. Amazingly for me, this is not even my favorite pool. I hope everyone can get into my annual March Madness pool. This one is really just an appetizer for that one. This year looks especially interesting as Kentucky could be undefeated, and a lot of top ranked teams have been upset by also rans already. Good times for upset-loving people like me.
Congratulations to everyone, especially the winners!!! See you in March!!!!!
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