Bowl Pool Recap

The Championship game is finally over, and I believe this might have been the best of the former BCS bowl games.  Both Alabama and Clemson had a shot at the title.  I, obviously, was rooting for Clemson.  Unfortunately for me (and Clemson), they played some pretty shoddy defense on the biggest plays of the game.

So, with the 30 points for Alabama, we wound up with a tie for the top spot in the pool.  Normally I don't like tie-breakers, and I'm not in love with it this time either.  The only good news is that both people in the tie breaker get some money.

Bret E. chose a tiebreaker score of 50, and Michelle L. chose 64.  Since there were roughly 682 points scored in this game, Michelle L. wins 1st place and $165.  Brett E. will have to settle for the $55 for second place.  I finished 1 point behind them in 3rd, so I'll have to settle for kick in the "man zone" compliments of both Arizona State and Clemson.

Since I am married to Michelle L., I was privy to some insight into her selection of such a high tie-breaker score.  I know that she rarely, if ever, watches any college football.  It can safely be said that the only time she probably ever watches it is if I have it on.  Her logic was, "Every game I watch, I never see anyone playing any defense".  There you go.  Seems like no truer words were ever spoken about the current state of college football.

In an interesting piece of trivia, I went back and looked at the initial probabilities of winning for the sheet that actually wound up winning, and with 14 games left to play, Michelle L. #2 had less than 1/10 of 1% chance to win the whole pool.  She actually had 0.0854% chance.  But, she kept staying alive and (very) slowly moving up in the standings to where she's the only sheet standing today.  It actually took her 8 games to even eclipse the 1% chance of winning barrier.  That's a pretty good run to the title.  That's a good reminder for everyone that unless I tell you that you are eliminated that you always have a chance to win.

Here are the final standings:

1. Michelle L. #2: 692 (-199)

1. Brent E. #1: 692 (-199)

3. Klei R.: 691 (-200)

4. Matt N.: 656 (-235)

5. Scott H. #2: 647 (-244)

6. Michelle L. #1: 642 (-249)

7. Jay H. #1: 637 (-254)

8. Brent S. #2: 636 (-255)

9. Dustin B.: 631 (-260)

10. Mike W.: 627 (-264)

11. Craig G.: 626 (-265)

12. Brent E. #2: 624 (-267)

12. Chris L.: 624 (-267)

14. Pete J. #2: 619 (-272)

15. Brett W.: 608 (-283)

15. Dan D.: 608 (-283)

17. Dave M.: 605 (-286)

18. Brent S. #1: 595 (-296)

19. Mike S. #2: 590 (-301)

20. Marc R. #2: 581 (-310)

21. Scott H. #1: 575 (-316)

22. Jim W.: 570 (-321)

23. Damien R. #1: 565 (-326)

24. Marc R. #1: 564 (-327)

25. Brad R.: 551 (-340)

26. Roth W. #1: 550 (-341)

27. Ray R.: 537 (-354)

28. Roth W. #2: 534 (-357)

28. Dylan B.: 534 (-357)

30. Becky H.: 528 (-363)

31. Mike S. #1: 526 (-365)

32. Damien R. #2: 525 (-366)

33. Sally R.: 511 (-380)

34. Pete J. #1: 501 (-390)

34. Adam E.: 501 (-390)

36. Jay H. #3: 499 (-392)

37. Ryan W.: 493 (-398)

38. Ashley D.: 474 (-417)

39. Jay H. #2: 469 (-422)

39. Nichole W.: 469 (-422)

41. James R.: 451 (-440)

42. Mindi W.: 437 (-454)

43. Ally H.: 364 (-527)

44. Tim N.: 343 (-548)

Some other fun stats:

Best finish for someone that was eliminated initially: Scott H. #2 (5th).

Worst finish for someone that was alive initially: Jay H. #2 (T40th)

Most games picked correctly:  30 (Michelle L. #2, Klei R.)

Most points per pick: Jay H. #1 (637 points / 25 wins = 25.48 points per win)

Least amount of points per pick:  Jay H. #2 (469 point / 25 wins = 18.76 points per win)

Most correct picks amongst top 10 point games: 9 (8 sheets)

Average of top 10 picks won:  6.97

Average correct picks:  25.18  (59.95%)

I think that's about it.  I'm like college football, but as you all probably know, my true love is really college basketball, so I'm really happy to start focusing my attention on that for the next few months.  I have tickets to the Final 4 in Houston again this year, so I'm hoping that that we get better games that that dumpster fire of a final between Butler and Connecticut that last time I was there.

I'll be back in March for the March Madness pool.  Start studying up.  I want as big as pool then as I can get, so feel free to start recruiting people to join.  IT makes everything more fun the more people play.

Thanks everyone for playing and congratulations to the winners!!!!!