2 games in on Mega-Football Saturday

 Two games in, and by the Vegas lines, we have had 2 upsets.  That makes 4 upsets in a row.  The Birmingham Bowl now takes the lead as the biggest upset so far.  It had the 14^th most points wagered on it, and only 17.26% of those wagered points were handed out.  In the Camellia Bowl, it took a 2-point conversion stop and a veeeeeery questionable offsides penalty on the onsides kick to salt away a win in the other game.

Because there were 2 upsets, it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that only 7 people (10%) went 2/2.  4 of them netted over 40 points, including Amber the Beast (44) and my Mom, Sally R. (42).  The average entry has netted -14.13 points today so far, so if you’ve done better than that, you probably moved up in the net points standings.

Because of those results, we have a slight change at the top of the standings.  Moochi the Man takes over the top spot in both the points and net rankings.  Ally H. only drops back one place.  If you looks at the net points, it’s a bit of a 2-person race for now.  Moochi the Man has a net of +201 points and Ally H. has +181.  Then there’s a 41 point gap before you get to 3^rd place.  Still a long way to go though….  Only about 22.5% of points have been accounted for so far.

Here are the rankings:

1. Moochi the Man: 226 (-25)

2. Ally H.: 214 (-33)

3. Sally R.: 214 (-87)

4. Steve M. #2: 208 (-131)

5. Amber the Beast: 197 (-82)

6. Mike S.: 189 (-118)

7. Jay H. #2: 187 (-114)

8. Dennis R.: 182 (-42)

9. Brian K.: 176 (-51)

10. Hutch H. #2: 175 (-81)

11. Josaih T. #1: 169 (-59)

12. Dylan B.: 169 (-108)

13. Steve Dz.: 169 (-119)

14. Matt N.: 167 (-106)

15. Jason S.: 164 (-116)

16. Matt Mal.: 159 (-89)

17. Michelle L. #2: 159 (-110)

18. Larry G.: 153 (-71)

19. Jon F.: 150 (-105)

20. Brent E. #1: 149 (-43)

21. Charlotte N.: 145 (-79)

22. Slave to Trends: 145 (-113)

23. Brent E. #4: 144 (-118)

24. Brent E. #2: 144 (-129)

24. Brent E. #3: 144 (-129)

26. Marc R. #1: 142 (-38)

27. Klei R.: 141 (-81)

28. Josaih T. #2: 138 (-90)

29. Sports Illustrated: 132 (-102)

30. CAAT #1: 132 (-111)

30. CAAT #3: 132 (-111)

30. CAAT #4: 132 (-111)

33. Steve M. #1: 131 (-84)

34. Hutch H. #1: 129 (-127)

35. Scott H. #2: 125 (-99)

36. Max A. #1: 124 (-118)

37. Mike N.: 120 (-94)

38. Daniel E.: 120 (-144)

39. CAAT #2: 118 (-111)

40. Michelle L. #1: 118 (-115)

41. Howard S.: 114 (-118)

42. Damien R.: 112 (-71)

43. Rich F.: 111 (-127)

44. Jim W.: 110 (-112)

45. Jay H. #1: 107 (-59)

46. Pete J. #1: 107 (-107)

47. Max A. #2: 107 (-135)

48. Ryan W.: 104 (-107)

49. Matt Mei.: 103 (-154)

50. Andrew D.: 102 (-67)

51. Mario M.: 102 (-111)

52. Scott H. #1: 101 (-50)

53. Jim D.: 101 (-58)

54. Faye N.: 99 (-132)

55. Pete J. #2: 97 (-117)

56. CAAT #5: 97 (-145)

57. Adam E.: 93 (-91)

58. Becky H.: 90 (-86)

59. Carrie F.: 88 (-91)

60. Brett W.: 86 (-107)

61. Paul Kr.: 82 (-63)

62. Kirt R.: 82 (-127)

63. Mike W.: 76 (-77)

64. Brad R.: 72 (-120)

65. Henry A.: 63 (-54)

66. Tim N.: 58 (-39)

67. Eric G.: 57 (-44)

68. Dan Du.: 53 (-100)

69. Marc R. #2: 51 (-40)

70. Jaxon S.: 49 (-42)

…and the net points:

1. Moochi the Man: 201

2. Ally H.: 181

3. Dennis R.: 140

4. Sally R.: 127

5. Brian K.: 125

6. Amber the Beast: 115

7. Josaih T. #1: 110

8. Brent E. #1: 106

9. Marc R. #1: 104

10. Hutch H. #2: 94

11. Larry G.: 82

12. Steve M. #2: 77

13. Jay H. #2: 73

14. Mike S.: 71

15. Matt Mal.: 70

16. Charlotte N.: 66

17. Dylan B.: 61

17. Matt N.: 61

19. Klei R.: 60

20. Scott H. #1: 51

21. Steve Dz.: 50

22. Michelle L. #2: 49

23. Jason S.: 48

23. Josaih T. #2: 48

23. Jay H. #1: 48

26. Steve M. #1: 47

27. Jon F.: 45

28. Jim D.: 43

29. Damien R.: 41

30. Andrew D.: 35

31. Slave to Trends: 32

32. Sports Illustrated: 30

33. Brent E. #4: 26

33. Scott H. #2: 26

33. Mike N.: 26

36. CAAT #1: 21

36. CAAT #3: 21

36. CAAT #4: 21

39. Paul Kr.: 19

39. Tim N.: 19

41. Brent E. #2: 15

41. Brent E. #3: 15

43. Eric G.: 13

44. Marc R. #2: 11

45. Henry A.: 9

46. CAAT #2: 7

46. Jaxon S.: 7

48. Max A. #1: 6

49. Becky H.: 4

50. Michelle L. #1: 3

51. Hutch H. #1: 2

51. Adam E.: 2

53. Pete J. #1: 0

54. Mike W.: -1

55. Jim W.: -2

56. Ryan W.: -3

56. Carrie F.: -3

58. Howard S.: -4

59. Mario M.: -9

60. Rich F.: -16

61. Pete J. #2: -20

62. Brett W.: -21

63. Daniel E.: -24

64. Max A. #2: -28

65. Faye N.: -33

66. Kirt R.: -45

67. Dan Du.: -47

68. CAAT #5: -48

68. Brad R.: -48

70. Matt Mei.: -51

There are 2 more games going on right now.  Let’s take a look at those two games:

Armed Forces Bowl

Vegas Line: James Madison -2.5

Median Pick: James Madison for 10 points.

Average Pick: James Madison for 5.4 points.

Picks for James Madison: 42 (Average Pick: 19.10)

Picks for Air Force: 28 (Average Pick: 15.21)

I feel like if you’ve followed college football much this season, you may know the story of James Madison.  They have this somewhat ridiculous and arbitrary rule that says if you are a school that plays in a lower division and move up to division 1, then you can’t play in the post-season for something like 3 years.  Why?  I really don’t know.  Anyway, I think this is James Madison’s first year in Division 1, so they weren’t eligible to play in a bowl even though they had a gaudy 11-1 record.  The only reason they got into this bowl game was because there is another rule that says that you need to have at least 6 division 1 wins to play in a bowl.  Well, there weren’t enough teams with 6 wins to fill all the spots in all the bowls, so they had to pick some other teams, and that is where James Madison comes in.

So, it’s a long walk through the minutiae of NCAA rules, but we are left with the Armed Forces Bowl.  It seems appropriate that Air Force is playing in this game.  I feel like this bowl should give it’s automatic bid to whatever service academy has the best record.  They may actually do that for all I know.

The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

Vegas Line: Utah State -1

Median Pick: Utah State for 11.5 points.

Average Pick: Utah State for 9.2 points.

Picks for Utah State: 52 (Average pick: 16.23 points)

Picks for Georgia State: 18 (Average pick: 10.28 points)

I say this every year – this bowl sucks.  Nobody wants to travel to Idaho and freeze to watch this game.  The game itself might be entertaining, but you’d have to go to Idaho to watch it.  Pass….

I know nothing about either of these teams, and I’m guessing most of you don’t either.  If I had to play mass psychologist, I would bet that most people picked Utah State because they are slight favorites and their fans live close enough to actually go to this game.  I’m guessing the Georgia State section of the stands is pretty sparsely populated.

Enjoy the games!  I’ll be back later.