4 Games into "Moving Day".

 Woo Hoo!!!!  It’s all coming together for me.  My plan of wagering big points on mild upsets seems to be paying off so far this year.  I had a great couple of games as the upset streak extends to 6 straight games.  If this was a golf tournament, this would probably be considered “moving day”.

Once again, we have a change at the top of one of the rankings.  There is a new leader in points won, and that leader is my Mom.  She also moved into 3^rd in net points.  That means we currently have a “Big 3”, since the top 3 places are the same people in both rankings, just in different orders.

How did she do it?  Well, she had 38 points on Air Force.  She lost 4 points on Utah State, but a lot more people lost a lot more points on Utah State, so even that probably helps.

Shout out to Ally H’s mom Becky H.  She is the lone person to go undefeated so far today.  The downside is that she only got 36 points to show for it.  Still, beats losing.

For fun, the average net points won/lost so far today is -28.91.  Only 15 people have won more points than they have lost so far today.  That’s fun.  I love that – and not just because I am one of those people.  It makes things interesting.

Here are the top 10 rankings for today only so far:

1. Charlotte N.: 82 (-40)

2. Sally R.: 80 (-4)

3. Klei R.: 80 (-37)

4. Slave to Trends: 67 (-10)

5. Steve M. #2: 49 (-28)

6. Damien R.: 49 (-35)

7. Matt Mal.: 47 (-21)

8. Amber the Beast: 44 (-68)

9. Dan Du.: 39 (-17)

10. Mario M.: 38 (-30)

…and net points:

1. Sally R.: 76

2. Slave to Trends: 57

3. Klei R.: 43

4. Charlotte N.: 42

5. Becky H.: 36

6. Matt Mal.: 26

7. Dan Du.: 22

8. Steve M. #2: 21

9. Moochi the Man: 15

10. Damien R.: 14

10. Dennis R.: 14

I’m not sure who “Slave to Trends” is (which is why I dislike “cute” names like this), but at least 3 of the top 5 people in net points are women, which is pretty impressive.  If you look at the overall points rankings, 4 of the top 10 entries right now are women.  That’s is disproportionally good.

Speaking of which, here is the updated points standings:

1. Sally R.: 252 (-91)

2. Moochi the Man: 237 (-38)

3. Ally H.: 225 (-36)

4. Steve M. #2: 214 (-159)

5. Mike S.: 205 (-133)

6. Jay H. #2: 201 (-129)

7. Amber the Beast: 197 (-150)

8. Charlotte N.: 192 (-79)

9. Klei R.: 192 (-81)

10. Dennis R.: 190 (-45)

11. Slave to Trends: 177 (-113)

12. Brian K.: 176 (-89)

13. Hutch H. #2: 175 (-104)

14. Matt N.: 174 (-123)

15. Josaih T. #1: 169 (-82)

16. Steve Dz.: 169 (-134)

17. Dylan B.: 169 (-136)

18. Brent E. #1: 168 (-60)

19. Matt Mal.: 164 (-110)

20. Jason S.: 164 (-148)

21. Jon F.: 163 (-124)

22. Marc R. #1: 161 (-74)

23. Josaih T. #2: 161 (-90)

24. Michelle L. #2: 159 (-141)

25. Brent E. #4: 155 (-131)

26. Larry G.: 153 (-117)

27. Steve M. #1: 150 (-120)

28. Brent E. #2: 146 (-137)

28. Brent E. #3: 146 (-137)

30. Mario M.: 140 (-111)

31. Damien R.: 139 (-81)

32. Matt Mei.: 135 (-172)

33. Sports Illustrated: 132 (-125)

34. CAAT #1: 132 (-155)

34. CAAT #3: 132 (-155)

34. CAAT #4: 132 (-155)

37. Hutch H. #1: 129 (-150)

38. Scott H. #2: 127 (-125)

39. Michelle L. #1: 124 (-140)

40. Max A. #1: 124 (-188)

41. Mike N.: 120 (-121)

42. Rich F.: 120 (-137)

43. Daniel E.: 120 (-160)

44. Becky H.: 118 (-86)

45. CAAT #2: 118 (-155)

46. Jay H. #1: 117 (-70)

47. Jim W.: 116 (-125)

48. Howard S.: 115 (-135)

49. Pete J. #2: 112 (-147)

50. Scott H. #1: 110 (-55)

51. Pete J. #1: 107 (-152)

52. Max A. #2: 107 (-205)

53. Ryan W.: 105 (-137)

54. Faye N.: 105 (-166)

55. Andrew D.: 104 (-79)

56. Jim D.: 101 (-71)

57. CAAT #5: 97 (-189)

58. Brett W.: 93 (-112)

59. Adam E.: 93 (-126)

60. Carrie F.: 88 (-129)

61. Brad R.: 86 (-158)

62. Paul Kr.: 82 (-86)

63. Kirt R.: 82 (-153)

64. Mike W.: 76 (-106)

65. Dan Du.: 68 (-117)

66. Marc R. #2: 65 (-55)

67. Jaxon S.: 64 (-56)

68. Henry A.: 63 (-96)

69. Tim N.: 58 (-66)

70. Eric G.: 57 (-73)

…and the net points:

1. Moochi the Man: 199

2. Ally H.: 189

3. Sally R.: 161

4. Dennis R.: 145

5. Charlotte N.: 113

6. Klei R.: 111

7. Brent E. #1: 108

8. Brian K.: 87

8. Josaih T. #1: 87

8. Marc R. #1: 87

11. Mike S.: 72

11. Jay H. #2: 72

13. Hutch H. #2: 71

13. Josaih T. #2: 71

15. Slave to Trends: 64

16. Damien R.: 58

17. Steve M. #2: 55

17. Scott H. #1: 55

19. Matt Mal.: 54

20. Matt N.: 51

21. Amber the Beast: 47

21. Jay H. #1: 47

23. Jon F.: 39

24. Larry G.: 36

25. Steve Dz.: 35

26. Dylan B.: 33

27. Becky H.: 32

28. Steve M. #1: 30

28. Jim D.: 30

30. Mario M.: 29

31. Andrew D.: 25

32. Brent E. #4: 24

33. Michelle L. #2: 18

34. Jason S.: 16

35. Marc R. #2: 10

36. Brent E. #2: 9

36. Brent E. #3: 9

38. Jaxon S.: 8

39. Sports Illustrated: 7

40. Scott H. #2: 2

41. Mike N.: -1

42. Paul Kr.: -4

43. Tim N.: -8

44. Jim W.: -9

45. Michelle L. #1: -16

45. Eric G.: -16

47. Rich F.: -17

48. Brett W.: -19

49. Howard S.: -20

50. Hutch H. #1: -21

51. CAAT #1: -23

51. CAAT #3: -23

51. CAAT #4: -23

54. Mike W.: -30

55. Ryan W.: -32

56. Adam E.: -33

56. Henry A.: -33

58. Pete J. #2: -35

59. Matt Mei.: -37

59. CAAT #2: -37

61. Daniel E.: -40

62. Carrie F.: -41

63. Pete J. #1: -45

64. Dan Du.: -49

65. Faye N.: -61

66. Max A. #1: -64

67. Kirt R.: -71

68. Brad R.: -72

69. CAAT #5: -92

70. Max A. #2: -98

But we are not finished with the day yet.  As a matter of fact, we are only slightly past half way on the day.

68 Ventures Bowl

Vegas Line: South Alabama -16

Median Pick: South Alabama for 36 points

Average Pick: South Alabama for 27.6 points

Picks for South Alabama: 60 (Average Pick: 35.47 points)

Picks for Eastern Michigan: 10 (Average Pick: 18.20 points)

So, the 68 Ventures Bowl has the 4^th most points wagered on it.  Everybody loves South Alabama, and why not?  16 point favorites?  Playing the game in Mobile, Alabama?  Seems like the recipe for a pretty lopsided game.  This feels like a game to make their picks seem a little less bad – assuming South Alabama wins.

I think this is a new bowl game this season.  I don’t remember a 68 Ventures Bowl prior to this year.  I have no idea what 68 Ventures is.  There must be some kind of sweet spot for companies that sponsor bowl games where you are just big enough of a company to be able to afford sponsorship, but not too big where it seems like maybe you are slumming it.  Apparently 68 Ventures is in that zone.

Las Vegas Bowl:

Vegas Line: Utah -6.5

Median Pick: Utah for 26 points

Mean Pick: Utah for 19.8 points.

Picks for Utah: 60 (Average Pick: 26.13 points)

Picks for Northwestern: 10 (Average Pick: 18.20 points)

This graph looks a little like the previous graph.  The distribution is pretty heavily skewed, meaning most people took one side for a lot of points.  The Las Vegas Bowl is the game with the 13^th most points wagered on it, making it the 3^rd most so far.

It’s hard to know who is in what conference anymore, but I think this is maybe only the second game so far where both teams are from Power 5 conferences (Cal v. Texas Tech in the Independence Bowl was the other).  Given all the realignment, I have no idea who is going where next season.  I was watching the UCLA/Maryland basketball game last night, and thinking about how silly it is going to be next year when that will be a conference game – in the Big 10.  I still sometimes think of Maryland as an ACC school.  At some point, we are going to be down to 4 total conferences.  I don’t think it much matters for the bowl pool, but it’s a weird trend, and as a fan of college sports, I’m not sure I love it.

Good luck everyone!!!