Bowl Pool Final Wrap Up

 Well, we are finally done with the pool, and it all came down to the final game, which doesn’t always happen.  Honestly, it may not have happened this year either, but everyone lost points due to matchups getting changed and bowl games getting cancelled. 

The average sheet lost 141.5 points because of COVID-related games.  I was on the low end, with only 108 points lost in those games, while my Dad topped out the list with 204 points lost.  That clearly skewed the results, although the three people that won money were pretty close to the average.

The take away for me with this data is that there are too many bowl games.  I particularly don’t like when there are so many that they have to play more than one at the same time.  That just makes my job harder.  I propose one or two games a day during the week, and 4 games on weekends.  One game at a time.  That will never happen, but I would like it.  I also may actually watch more of them if that were the case, but it’s hard to say.  I was pretty dead set against watching many of the bowl games and I still watched all or part of easily 15 of the games.

We also needed the Championship game to decide the winner of this thing.  We all knew Hutch was going to get either 1^st or 2^nd, but every other place was up for grabs.  So, there was something on the line in the last game.

So, here are the final standings of the 2021-22 Bowl Pool:

1. Matt N.: 587 (-394)

2. Hutch H.: 577 (-404)

3. Chad L.: 552 (-429)

4. Becky H.: 551 (-430)

5. Dan D.: 545 (-436)

6. Klei R.: 535 (-446)

7. Mark A.: 534 (-447)

8. Cam L.: 533 (-448)

9. Scott H. #2: 530 (-451)

10. Dylan B.: 523 (-458)

11. Josiah T. #2: 521 (-460)

12. Brian K.: 507 (-474)

13. Adam O. #3: 503 (-478)

14. Mike W.: 500 (-481)

15. Josiah T. #1: 494 (-487)

16. Mike N.: 492 (-489)

17. Daniel E.: 484 (-497)

18. Brent S.: 483 (-498)

19. Adam O. #2: 482 (-499)

20. Dylan L.: 481 (-500)

21. Jay H. #2: 480 (-501)

22. Adam O. #1: 478 (-503)

23. Michelle L. #1: 477 (-504)

24. Jason S.: 474 (-507)

25. Marc R.: 472 (-509)

25. Ben S.: 472 (-509)

27. Ryan W.: 462 (-519)

28. Adam O. #4: 456 (-525)

29. Damien R.: 448 (-533)

30. Michelle L. #2: 441 (-540)

31. Stefan K.: 440 (-541)

32. Larry G. #2: 436 (-545)

33. Pete J. #2: 435 (-546)

34. Brad R.: 425 (-556)

35. Scott H. #1: 423 (-558)

36. Lee K.: 416 (-565)

37. Amy L.: 415 (-566)

38. Pete J. #1: 409 (-572)

39. Dustin B.: 402 (-579)

39. Jay H. #1: 402 (-579)

41. Brett W.: 398 (-583)

42. Tom B.: 395 (-586)

43. Matt M.: 393 (-588)

44. Adam E.: 390 (-591)

45. Larry G. #1: 380 (-601)

46. Weston T. (Shane): 370 (-611)

47. Emily T.: 367 (-614)

48. Doug L.: 357 (-624)

49. Ally H.: 354 (-627)

50. Grant F.: 333 (-648)

51. Creighton H.: 304 (-677)

Congratulations to Matt N.  He is the big winner this year.

Matt N. was always lurking at the top of the % chance rankings from the start.  In my initial calculations, he was 4^th with a 7.7% chance to win.  He dropped down as low as 5^th after the Tennessee loss in the Liberty Bowl with a 4.7% chance to win.  His odds almost doubles after Pitt lost to Michigan State and he survived a must-win game with Georgia over Michigan.  All in all, he 8-3 over the last 11 games, picking up 251 points and only dropping 43 (with 22 coming in the LSU / Kansas State game, when his odds couldn’t change).

However, he wasn’t the person that picked the most games correctly.  That honor goes to 2^nd place finisher, Hutch H.  Hutch H. picked 27 games correctly to beat the field by 2 games.  Matt N. had 25 to come in 2^nd.  The average # of correct guesses was 19.27, so these two really separated themselves from the field.  Hutch, I know has won this pool before.  I’m not sure what his secret is, but it’s not easy to even place in these pools, so to get money in more than one is very impressive.

Some more fun facts:

Highest points per win: Adam O. #4: 26.82 (456 points / 17 wins)

Lowest points per win: Emily T.: 19.32 (367 points / 19 wins)

Most Top 10 wins: 5 people tied with 8

Least Top 10 wins: 2 people tied with 2 (Emily T., Grant F.)

Best finish for someone who was dead for 1^st when I first calculated odds: Josiah T. #2 (11^th place)

Best finish for someone who was totally dead when I first calculated odds: Dylan L. (20^th place).

# of people knocked out of all 3 payouts by the same team: 6 (Adam O. #3, Josiah T. #1 – Pitt, Ben S. – Tennessee, Stefan K. – Cincinnati, Pete J. #2, Brad R. – Michigan)=

I hope everyone enjoyed the pool this year.  It was pretty stressful as we were doing it complements of COVID.  Here’s hoping that next year is smoother and that March Madness goes better (it went OK last year).

Thanks!!!!!!