Things tightened up considerably in the second group of games that ended last night. There are now 16 players within 4 games of the lead. As a group, we did much better, picking 58% of the games correctly, compared with 50.5% before Christmas Eve.

Here are the standings as of last night:

Gamecock.............17
lofi.......................17
RutgersGuy...........17
Wilkie01...............17
ChrisLords............16
copycat................15
IWokeUpLikethis....15
tcufrog86.............15
Cyniclone.............14
dbackjon..............14
GTFletch..............14
TerpsNPhoenix......14
billybobby777.......13
chargeradio..........13
TerryD.................13
TyBull..................13
4x4hokies............12
BadgerMJ.............12
Bigtexnole............12
Huskypride...........12
Erictelevision........11
MWC Tex..............11
quo vadis.............11
TripleA.................11
RandomFan............9

So far, the oddsmakers have picked the winner 14 times, so 8 of our players are doing better than they have. Let's see if we can improve on that in the homestretch. There are 14 games to go before we declare our champion. Good luck.

Today's rooting interest:

12/29 Texas A&M
12/29 Arizona State
12/29 Northwestern
12/29 New Mexico State
12/29 Ohio State

What to watch for in the next few days:

Among our top 8 players on the leaderboard, there are three games in which a team was picked by only one player. Those are Kentucky (copycat), Iowa State (copycat) and Washington (RutgersGuy). If both Kentucky and Iowa State win, copycat could completely close the gap between himself and the four leaders.

In three other games, only two players picked the same team: Southern Cal (Gamecock and RutgersGuy), UCF (Gamecock and Chris Lords) and Wisconsin (the favorite, picked only by Gamecock and lofi). These games could produce big swings in the standings.

Gamecock's picks are the boldest of the top 8, including 7 underdogs and only 7 favorites. The most conservative picker in this group is lofi, who has picked all 14 favorites (though he correctly picked 6 out of 9 underdogs in the first two weeks). Will one of these strategies prove to be the winner, or will someone else emerge? That's why we watch the games, folks!

Stay tuned.

I started off so well....


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(12-29-2017 01:39 PM)Huskypride Wrote:  I started off so well....


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Indeed. You were one of only two of 25 players to get both Georgia State and Marshall correct.

After tonight's games, could you post the full leaderboard?

Thanks for doing this, ken!

I think I have 16 though (post #5).
1 Troy
2 Boise
3 FAU
4 Temple
5 Wyoming
6 USF
7 Fresno
8 Duke
9 Kansas State
10 Florida State
11 Iowa
12 Texas
13 Navy
14 Oklahoma State
15 Michigan State
16 TCU

(12-29-2017 04:30 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Thanks for doing this, ken!

I think I have 16 though (post #5).
1 Troy
2 Boise
3 FAU
4 Temple
5 Wyoming
6 USF
7 Fresno
8 Duke
9 Kansas State
10 Florida State
11 Iowa
12 Texas
13 Navy
14 Oklahoma State
15 Michigan State
16 TCU

You are correct. Somehow I managed to delete that pick of Texas (for you only) from my spreadsheet. It is fixed now. Thanks for calling it to my attention, and my apologies. And since you also picked Wake Forest's cakewalk win this afternoon (evening?) you are very much in contention.

(12-29-2017 04:04 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  After tonight's games, could you post the full leaderboard?

IWokeUpLikeThis...21
lofi......................21
RutgersGuy..........21
Wilkie01..............21

ChrisLords...........20
Gamecock...........20

Cyniclone.............18
GTFletch..............18
tcufrog86.............18
TerpsNPhoenix......18

copycat................17
dbackjon..............17

4x4hokies............16
chargeradio..........16
TyBull..................16

BadgerMJ.............15
billybobby777.......15
Erictelevision........15
TerryD.................15

Bigtexnole............14
Huskypride...........14
quo vadis.............14

RandomFan..........13
TripleA.................13

MWC Tex..............12

Thanks! I'm middle of the pack, hopefully I move up.

(12-29-2017 12:49 PM)ken d Wrote:  What to watch for in the next few days:

Among our top 8 players on the leaderboard, there are three games in which a team was picked by only one player. Those are Kentucky (copycat), Iowa State (copycat) and Washington (RutgersGuy). If both Kentucky and Iowa State win, copycat could completely close the gap between himself and the four leaders.

In three other games, only two players picked the same team: Southern Cal (Gamecock and RutgersGuy), UCF (Gamecock and Chris Lords) and Wisconsin (the favorite, picked only by Gamecock and lofi). These games could produce big swings in the standings.

Gamecock's picks are the boldest of the top 8, including 7 underdogs and only 7 favorites. The most conservative picker in this group is lofi, who has picked all 14 favorites (though he correctly picked 6 out of 9 underdogs in the first two weeks). Will one of these strategies prove to be the winner, or will someone else emerge? That's why we watch the games, folks!

Stay tuned.

Well Kentucky missed a 2pt conversion with under a minute to go, but Iowa State won!

With only five games yet to be decided, our leaders faltered a bit in the 12/30 games, with the top 6 players going a combined 7-17. But while that tightened things up behind them in the standings, those six are still on the first page of the leaderboard, joined by dbackjon, who was the only player in the 25 man field to post a perfect 4-0 yesterday.

Here's where the leaders stand:

lofi......................23
Gamecock............22
IWokeUpLikeThis...22
Wilkie01..............22
ChrisLords...........21
dbackjon.............21
RutgersGuy..........21

This list includes all the players who still have a mathematical chance of getting their name(s) engraved on our magnificent (virtual) trophy as Bowl Pickem Champion(s). Only lofi controls his own destiny at this point, and it will be no surprise if we have co-champions with so many players bunched at the top. Chances are, it will come down to the final game.

(12-31-2017 01:54 PM)ken d Wrote:  With only five games yet to be decided, our leaders faltered a bit in the 12/30 games, with the top 6 players going a combined 7-17. But while that tightened things up behind them in the standings, those six are still on the first page of the leaderboard, joined by dbackjon, who was the only player in the 25 man field to post a perfect 4-0 yesterday.

Here's where the leaders stand:

lofi......................23
Gamecock............22
IWokeUpLikeThis...22
Wilkie01..............22
ChrisLords...........21
dbackjon.............21
RutgersGuy..........21

This list includes all the players who still have a mathematical chance of getting their name(s) engraved on our magnificent (virtual) trophy as Bowl Pickem Champion(s). Only lofi controls his own destiny at this point, and it will be no surprise if we have co-champions with so many players bunched at the top. Chances are, it will come down to the final game.

Well, wrong on both counts! There will be no co-champs, and we don't have to wait for Bama-Clemson III.

With an improbable surge, correctly picking all three upsets in this afternoon's games, Gamecock has built an insurmountable lead, and is the 2017-18 Bowl Pickem Champion! With 2 games to go, he has a two game lead over IWokeUpLikeThis, lofi and ChrisLords, but none of those picked differently on both of tonights games.

Congratulations Camecock, and savor that win that kept the B1G from an unbeaten bowl season.

In addition to your unrestrained praise and adulation for Gamecock's victory, feel free to shower him with rep points as well. He earned them.

Here are the final standings for the 2017-18 Bowl Pickem. Thanks to everyone who participated, and may 2018 turn out for you the way you want it to. As a group, we picked correctly 53% of the time, compared with Las Vegas, which had the favorite right 56% of the time.

1 Gamecock.............26
2 lofi.......................25
3 IWokeUpLikeThis....24
3 RutgersGuy............24
5 ChrisLords.............23
6 4x4hokies..............22
6 chargeradio............22
6 TerpsNPhoenix........22
6 Wilkie01................22
10 copycat................21
10 Cyniclone.............21
10 dbackjon..............21
10 Erictelevision........21
10 tcufrog86.............21
15 billybobby777.......20
15 GTFletch..............20
15 TyBull..................20
18 BadgerMJ.............19
18 Huskypride...........19
18 quo vadis.............19
18 TerryD.................19
22 RandomFan..........18
23 Bigtexnole............16
23 TripleA.................16
25 MWC Tex..............15

Thanks for hosting this ken d, and congrats to Gamecock on the victory!

(01-02-2018 11:40 AM)RandomFan Wrote:  Thanks for hosting this ken d, and congrats to Gamecock on the victory!

Ditto.

This was fun, let's do it again next year.

January 1 was a good day for me on several levels