WTF!, Gasparilla Bowl organizers?!

I was actually planning on watching some of the Gasparilla Bowl.  I figured since it was the only game today that they would play it some time in the afternoon.  I may miss some of the first half, but catch the bulk of the game.  Then I went on line to see exactly when the game started, and much to my surprise, the game was already over.  That sucked.  Did they really not to compete with Monday Night Football that bad?  Why schedule a bowl game in the middle of the afternoon on a workday?  Did anyone get to watch this game?  It doesn’t look like it was a very good game, so maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world.

This was the game with the 2^nd biggest Vegas line.  If you remember the graph from yesterday, you’ll recall that everyone was really heavy on one side.  91% of entries picked UCF, so it really just mattered how many points you put on it if you want to see any changes in the standings.  If you were one of the 6 people that took Marshall, I’m sure you took quite a tumble in the standings.  Heck, if you took UCF for 25, I bet you took a tumble in the standings.  That’s how lopsided the picks were.

Here’s the updated point standings:

1. Klei R.: 201 (-54)

2. Brett W.: 181 (-92)

3. Harrell R. #2: 156 (-15)

4. Dave M.: 156 (-59)

5. Pete J. #1: 155 (-57)

6. Scott Herd. #2: 153 (-75)

7. Dylan B.: 149 (-95)

8. Greg McE. - ESPN: 147 (-105)

9. Jason S.: 144 (-96)

10. Jim W.: 143 (-60)

11. Josiah T. #1: 141 (-42)

12. Pete J. #2: 141 (-71)

13. Matt N.: 140 (-90)

14. Harrell R. #1: 137 (-38)

15. Brent S.: 135 (-81)

16. Josiah T. #2: 134 (-52)

17. Michelle L. #1: 134 (-72)

18. James P.: 133 (-84)

19. Jonathan J.: 132 (-38)

20. Pete J. #3: 132 (-80)

21. Brian K.: 131 (-79)

22. Marc R.: 130 (-45)

23. Hutch H.: 128 (-78)

24. Andrew D.: 127 (-102)

25. Ben W.: 126 (-83)

26. Matt M.: 124 (-14)

27. Max W. #2: 124 (-46)

28. Grant F.: 121 (-34)

29. Peter F.: 119 (-75)

30. Andrzej #1: 118 (-98)

31. Andrzej #2: 117 (-99)

32. Ryan W.: 116 (-58)

33. Jay H. #2: 112 (-78)

34. Michelle L. #2: 112 (-94)

35. Mason A.: 108 (-74)

36. Brad R.: 108 (-80)

37. Jay H. #1: 107 (-83)

38. Cory R.: 107 (-125)

39. Mike N.: 106 (-45)

40. Nikki W.: 106 (-57)

41. Ryan G.: 104 (-61)

42. Mike W.: 104 (-70)

43. Damien R. #1: 102 (-84)

44. Adam E.: 99 (-61)

45. Dustin B.: 99 (-69)

46. Mike S.: 98 (-52)

47. Shawn M.: 96 (-45)

48. Scott Herd. #1: 96 (-113)

49. Bryan G.: 95 (-18)

50. Tim N.: 95 (-19)

51. Josiah T. #3: 94 (-63)

52. Emily T.: 93 (-101)

53. Becky H.: 88 (-56)

54. Kirt R.: 83 (-114)

55. Scott Has. #1: 82 (-116)

56. Max A. #2: 76 (-34)

57. Damien R. #2: 74 (-121)

58. Ally H.: 72 (-139)

59. Steve Dz.: 72 (-144)

60. Scott Has. #2: 70 (-63)

61. Dan Du.: 68 (-104)

62. Rich P.: 67 (-76)

63. Nick B.: 52 (-3)

64. Max A. #1: 50 (-60)

65. Max W. #1: 38 (-17)

66. Jaxon S.: 36 (-36)

67. Mike Smith: 34 (-71)

68. Nichole W.: 23 (-63)

…and the updated net points standings:

1. Klei R.: 147 (Clemson)

2. Harrell R. #2: 141 (LSU)

3. Matt M.: 110 (Clemson)

4. Josiah T. #1: 99 (LSU)

4. Harrell R. #1: 99 (LSU)

6. Pete J. #1: 98 (LSU)

7. Dave M.: 97 (LSU)

8. Jonathan J.: 94 (LSU)

9. Brett W.: 89 (LSU)

10. Grant F.: 87 (LSU)

11. Marc R.: 85 (Clemson)

12. Jim W.: 83 (LSU)

13. Josiah T. #2: 82 (Clemson)

14. Scott Herd. #2: 78 (LSU)

14. Max W. #2: 78 (LSU)

16. Bryan G.: 77 (Clemson)

17. Tim N.: 76 (Ohio State)

18. Pete J. #2: 70 (LSU)

19. Michelle L. #1: 62 (LSU)

20. Mike N.: 61 (Ohio State)

21. Ryan W.: 58 (LSU)

22. Dylan B.: 54 (LSU)

22. Brent S.: 54 (LSU)

24. Pete J. #3: 52 (Clemson)

24. Brian K.: 52 (LSU)

26. Shawn M.: 51 (Ohio State)

27. Matt N.: 50 (Clemson)

27. Hutch H.: 50 (LSU)

29. James P.: 49 (LSU)

29. Nikki W.: 49 (Ohio State)

29. Nick B.: 49 (LSU)

32. Jason S.: 48 (Ohio State)

33. Mike S.: 46 (LSU)

34. Peter F.: 44 (Ohio State)

35. Ben W.: 43 (LSU)

35. Ryan G.: 43 (LSU)

37. Greg McE. - ESPN: 42 (LSU)

37. Max A. #2: 42 (Clemson)

39. Adam E.: 38 (Clemson)

40. Jay H. #2: 34 (Ohio State)

40. Mason A.: 34 (LSU)

40. Mike W.: 34 (Ohio State)

43. Becky H.: 32 (LSU)

44. Josiah T. #3: 31 (Ohio State)

45. Dustin B.: 30 (Ohio State)

46. Brad R.: 28 (LSU)

47. Andrew D.: 25 (Ohio State)

48. Jay H. #1: 24 (LSU)

49. Max W. #1: 21 (Ohio State)

50. Andrzej #1: 20 (LSU)

51. Andrzej #2: 18 (LSU)

51. Michelle L. #2: 18 (Clemson)

51. Damien R. #1: 18 (LSU)

54. Scott Has. #2: 7 (LSU)

55. Jaxon S.: 0 (LSU)

56. Emily T.: -8 (LSU)

57. Rich P.: -9 (Ohio State)

58. Max A. #1: -10 (Clemson)

59. Scott Herd. #1: -17 (LSU)

60. Cory R.: -18 (Ohio State)

61. Kirt R.: -31 (Clemson)

62. Scott Has. #1: -34 (LSU)

63. Dan Du.: -36 (Clemson)

64. Mike Smith: -37 (Clemson)

65. Nichole W.: -40 (Ohio State)

66. Damien R. #2: -47 (LSU)

67. Ally H.: -67 (Ohio State)

68. Steve Dz.: -72 (Oklahoma)

Tomorrow is another one of those days with only one game, which is fantastic.  Unfortunately, it’s not a game most people care all that much about.  It has the 5^th fewest points wagered on it.  Only 3 people have it as a “Top 10” game.  It’s the Hawaii Bowl, which features Hawaii for about the 1,000,000^th year in a row.  I seriously can’t recall too many Hawaii Bowls that haven’t featured the University of Hawaii.  It makes sense, I guess.  They are guaranteed a fan base.  I think the Potato Bowl would love to have this kind of team wiring, but Boise State is usually too good to take a bid to the Potato Bowl, so it’w never really worked out (or at least it hasn’t recently).  Live and dream, Potato Bowl representatives….

Here are the particulars:

Vegas Line: BYU -1.5

Picks for BYU: 24 (14.21 pick average)

Picks for Hawaii: 44 (14.32 pick average)

Median pick: Hawaii for 5.5.

This is another one of those games where we went against the Vegas line.  To our defense, when the games were unveiled, Hawaii was a 2 point favorite.  It’s only been recently that the line flipped to BYU.  That’s pretty odd.  Whoever is favorite, they aren’t favored by all that much, which puts this one in the toss up zone.  I always like people that bet big on games like this.  If you get it right, you can really rocket up the standings.  It’s quite a risk / reward proposition.  That’s what I feel like I did on the SDSU / CMU game.  I put 40 on San Diego State as a slight favorite, and they won.  That certainly helped, although it’s really risky.

Anyway, I may watch some of this game if they don’t schedule it at some time when I’m at work.  I’ll probably be wrapping presents or hopefully driving around looking at Christmas lights if it doesn’t rain.  Whatever you are doing, I hope you have a good time.  Good luck to everyone!!!!!