After Gasparilla Bowl

Well, it seems like the nonstop parade of uninteresting Bowl games continued tonight.  If you remember yesterday’s post, I mentioned that the average final score differential was around 19 points.  Tonight did that one point better – 18 points.  It actually could’ve been even worse, but Marshall knelt on the ball in the red zone to run out the clock.  So, that’s 9 games in, and still only 2 games decided by <10 points.  That makes it really hard to look forward to the next games.  The bad thing about these games is that the Vegas line for the last five games was about 3 points each, and they still were terrible games.

Another thing – The Vegas favorites are still perfect.  9/9.  The last perfect entry is still perfect, and much like yesterday, the reward for Hutch H. to go from 8/8 to 9/9 is drop another spot in the points standings 3-4.  As I mentioned yesterday, there weren’t a ton of points up for grabs in this game, so there wasn’t a ton of movement.  Here are the top movers based on Marshall:

1.       Harrell R. #2 – 22^nd place to 12^th place on 20 points for Marshall.

2.       Scott Has. – 36^th place to 26^th place on 28 points for Marshall.

3.       Sally R. – 45^th place to 36^th place on 37 points for Marshall.

4.       Michelle L. #1 – 40^th place to 32^nd place on 28 points for Marshall.

5.       Jim W. – 48^th place to 40^th place on 25 points for Marshall.

That’s a pretty good showing for my Mom, and also my wife (Michelle L.).  There’s still a lot of games left.  The average entry has only used 16.55% of all the total points available, despite 21.95% of the games having been played.  That means that a lot of people were weighting these early games less than average.  I guess that makes sense.  There are people that do the 1-40 route, but there are a lot of people that didn’t put much on these games because Vegas said they’d be close, and no one knows anything about any of them.  Most of them aren’t ranked, and aren’t really showcased on ESPN unless you seek them out.  That means that there’s plenty of big point swings to come.  I look forward to it.

Here are the points only rankings:

1. Andrzej R.: 202 (-5)

2. Nick S.: 197 (-112)

3. Dylan B.: 177 (-3)

4. Hutch H.: 175 (0)

5. Tim N.: 168 (-120)

6. Josiah T. #4: 154 (-27)

7. Ben S. #2: 153 (-5)

8. Pete J. #1: 152 (-5)

9. Marc R.: 147 (-56)

10. Josiah T. #2: 146 (-15)

11. James P.: 141 (-22)

12. Harrell R. #2: 139 (-11)

13. Nichole W.: 139 (-104)

14. Jim D.: 136 (-1)

15. Pete J. #2: 136 (-21)

16. Matt N.: 135 (-17)

17. Scott Her. #2: 134 (-1)

18. Josiah T. #1: 133 (-28)

19. Grant F.: 132 (-38)

20. Josiah T. #3: 128 (-46)

21. Harrell R. #1: 126 (-11)

22. Jay H. #1: 126 (-16)

23. Ben S. #1: 125 (-17)

24. Adam E.: 124 (-3)

25. Brent E. #4: 124 (-46)

26. Scott Has.: 121 (-10)

27. Peter F.: 121 (-36)

28. Emily J.: 119 (-1)

29. Dan Du.: 116 (-9)

30. Jason S.: 115 (-58)

31. Mike S.: 114 (-44)

32. Michelle L. #1: 108 (-40)

33. Klei R.: 108 (-84)

34. Brent E. #1: 106 (-43)

34. Brent E. #2: 106 (-43)

36. Sally R.: 106 (-102)

37. Brent E. #3: 103 (-46)

38. Eric V.: 101 (-12)

39. Ryan W.: 99 (-57)

40. Jim W.: 93 (-41)

41. Ally H.: 91 (-32)

42. Becky H.: 90 (-37)

43. Damien R. #1: 88 (-80)

44. Bosun S.: 84 (-16)

45. Kevin W.: 83 (-40)

46. Michelle L. #2: 83 (-71)

47. Brad R.: 80 (-89)

48. Dustin B.: 76 (-13)

49. Justin H.: 72 (-23)

50. Craig G.: 72 (-77)

51. Jay H. #3: 68 (-26)

52. Amos W.: 68 (-35)

53. Dan Dz.: 65 (-25)

54. Damien R. #2: 55 (-43)

55. Brett W.: 52 (-37)

56. Ava S.: 50 (-50)

57. Scott Her. #1: 50 (-103)

58. Eric L.: 45 (-6)

59. Julie S.: 44 (-56)

60. Ashley D.: 42 (-64)

61. Mike W.: 30 (-15)

61. Jay H. #2: 30 (-15)

63. Dan S.: 30 (-70)

64. Max W. #2: 19 (-26)

65. Mike N.: 18 (-50)

66. Max W. #1: 9 (-51)

…and the net points rankings:

1. Andrzej R.: 197

2. Hutch H.: 175

3. Dylan B.: 174

4. Ben S. #2: 148

5. Pete J. #1: 147

6. Jim D.: 135

7. Scott Her. #2: 133

8. Josiah T. #2: 131

9. Harrell R. #2: 128

10. Josiah T. #4: 127

11. Adam E.: 121

12. James P.: 119

13. Matt N.: 118

13. Emily J.: 118

15. Pete J. #2: 115

15. Harrell R. #1: 115

17. Scott Has.: 111

18. Jay H. #1: 110

19. Ben S. #1: 108

20. Dan Du.: 107

21. Josiah T. #1: 105

22. Grant F.: 94

23. Marc R.: 91

24. Eric V.: 89

25. Nick S.: 85

25. Peter F.: 85

27. Josiah T. #3: 82

28. Brent E. #4: 78

29. Mike S.: 70

30. Michelle L. #1: 68

30. Bosun S.: 68

32. Brent E. #1: 63

32. Brent E. #2: 63

32. Dustin B.: 63

35. Ally H.: 59

36. Jason S.: 57

36. Brent E. #3: 57

38. Becky H.: 53

39. Jim W.: 52

40. Justin H.: 49

41. Tim N.: 48

42. Kevin W.: 43

43. Ryan W.: 42

43. Jay H. #3: 42

45. Dan Dz.: 40

46. Eric L.: 39

47. Nichole W.: 35

48. Amos W.: 33

49. Klei R.: 24

50. Brett W.: 15

50. Mike W.: 15

50. Jay H. #2: 15

53. Michelle L. #2: 12

53. Damien R. #2: 12

55. Damien R. #1: 8

56. Sally R.: 4

57. Ava S.: 0

58. Craig G.: -5

59. Max W. #2: -7

60. Brad R.: -9

61. Julie S.: -12

62. Ashley D.: -22

63. Mike N.: -32

64. Dan S.: -40

65. Max W. #1: -42

66. Scott Her. #1: -53

There are two more games tomorrow, and given that the games with close Vegas lines were all pretty much blowouts, I’m a little scared to see how these games will turn out.  Honestly, the only merciful thing about these 2 games are they both might be over by the time people get home from work (on the West Coast).

The first is the Bahamas Bowl.

Picks:

Toledo: 53 (17.49 pts average)

Florida International: 13 (15.77 pts average)

Median Pick: Toledo for 10 points.

Mean Pick: Toledo for 10.9 points.

Total points wagered: 1,132 (31^st overall).

Vegas Line: Toledo (-7)

Seems appropriate for Florida International to be playing in this game, since I believe it’s the only one that is not played on American soil.  I’ve never really understood what Florida International was all about?  Do they specialize in international relations / business?  It’s not like a directional school like Florida Atlantic or Florida Gulf Coast.  I legitimately don’t know where the name comes from.  Anyway, not a lot of love for them.  If the results so far are any indication, that seems entirely warranted.

The second game of the day is arguably the most important game of the entire Bowl Season:

The Potato Bowl:

Picks:

BYU: 53 (28.23 pts average)

Western Michigan: 13 (16.62 pts average)

Median Pick: BYU for 27.5 points.

Mean Pick: BYU for 19.4 points.

Total points wagered: 1,712 (10^th overall).

Vegas Line: BYU (-12)

So, this is the game that will have the most points wagered on it so far.  BYU has the 9^th most points wagered on it overall, compared to Western Michigan who comes in at 68^th.  The reason this game is so important is not just because so many people have put a bunch of points on it, but a ton of the people in this pool went to Western Michigan.  Right now, I am wearing my WMU sweatshirt.  I am a total homer for WMU, although seeing that they were almost 2 TD dogs, I only put 1 point on them.  I give total props to Becky H. who put 35 on them.  That’s dedication!  God bless her.  I hope we win.  It would be especially nice to win given that no underdog has won yet, and this would throw things into disarray.

Interesting aside:  I worked at a bar on campus through most of my time at WMU, and the worst nights working would be the nights when Tim Lester would come in.  He was the QB at WMU at the time, and he was a total drunk who had a pension for starting fights.  He also would travel with members of the O-Line.  I remember the owner of the bar telling me explicitly not to let him in.  That’s how big of a known a-hole he was.  Now he’s the head coach.  I get that he’s an alumnus, but I don’t have too fond of memories of that guy.

Anyway – go Broncos!  If you have to go to the worst location for a Bowl game, you might as well win!!!!