The essence of college football fandom is to revel in the theft of someone else’s joy. It’s a nice bonus when you can commandeer that joy for yourself, but it’s not totally necessary to consider an afternoon a success.
From that standpoint, there are worse things than Tennessee being winless in the SEC. Georgia spanked the Vols in Sanford Stadium this past Saturday, true. But since the Vols entered the game with a dismal record against meager competition and no reasonable expectation of victory, there was no joy remaining for Bulldog Nation to steal from the Tennessee faithful.
That, Russell, explains your malaise when the book was closed.
Once you factor in UGA’s red zone blunders and subsequent inability to translate yardage into points, it wouldn’t be outlandish to describe the game as a karmic wash.
Plus, there was Eric Berry’s immensely-satisfying (and perhaps dirty) hit on Knowshon Moreno:
Bon appétit.
Housekeeping notes
- I’m having surgery Monday and will likely sleep through Monday and Tuesday thanks to some prescription narcotics. Fortunately, a couple of (little v) volunteers have offered to enter the betting lines in the comments section. Those hopefully will be in place Monday night for you to base your picks on.
- You may have noticed the ridiculous lead rugbyfan just opened up in the overall standings. This is due to a well-placed side bet with Archibald, whose drop in the rankings is equally as stunning aesthetically. Obviously, we will all be expected to place some side bets as the contest progresses to close this gap. If you don’t remember how side bets works, read this comment.
- The I’s have spoken by a margin of 6 to 4 (including poll results and Alyssa’s comment), and Reggie wins last week’s tiebreaker. Moving forward, we will go with margin of victory over total points scored in counting Game of the Week tiebreaker scores.
Results
| Player | Points |
|---|---|
| Carl Lindecrantz | 11 |
| Jen | 10 |
| rugbyfan | 8 |
| Alyssa | 7 |
| Archibald Throngbow | 7 |
| Ben K | 7 |
| Griftdrift | 7 |
| Rusty | 7 |
| Tony | 7 |
| Garrett | 6 |
| Reginald | 6 |
| Sara | 5 |
| Tony Ventry | 5 |
The full results spreadsheet for week 7 is here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.
| Player | Points |
|---|---|
| rugbyfan | 98 |
| Rusty | 67 |
| Carl Lindecrantz | 63 |
| Ben K | 61 |
| Griftdrift | 59 |
| Tony | 59 |
| Garrett | 58 |
| Tony Ventry | 58 |
| Jen | 55 |
| Reginald | 55 |
| Sara | 55 |
| Alyssa | 49 |
| Archibald Throngbow | 8 |
The full overall standings with week-by-week scores and side wager results can be found here.
Week 8 schedule
| Time | Game | Line |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 PM ET | Brigham Young (8) at Texas Christian (24) | See comments section Monday night * |
| Time | Game | Line |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 PM ET | Hawaii at Boise State (16) | See comments section Monday night * |
| Time | Game | Line |
|---|---|---|
| 12:30 PM ET | Vanderbilt (23) at Georgia (9) | See comments section Monday night * |
| 2:00 PM ET | Colorado State at Utah (13) | See comments section Monday night * |
| 3:00 PM ET | Baylor at Oklahoma State (10) | See comments section Monday night * |
| 3:30 PM ET | Mississippi at Alabama (2) | See comments section Monday night * |
| 3:30 PM ET | USC (4) at Washington State | See comments section Monday night * |
| 3:30 PM ET | Ohio State (11) at Michigan State (17) | See comments section Monday night * |
| 3:00 PM ET | North Carolina (21) at Virginia | See comments section Monday night * |
| 4:30 PM ET | Michigan at Penn State (3) | See comments section Monday night * |
| 8:00 PM ET | Missouri (12) at Texas (1) | See comments section Monday night * |
| 8:00 PM ET | LSU (14) at South Carolina | See comments section Monday night * |
| 8:00 PM ET | Virginia Tech (18) at Boston College | See comments section Monday night * |
| 10:00 PM ET | California (22) at Arizona | See comments section Monday night * |
| TBA | Kansas (15) at Oklahoma (6) | See comments section Monday night * |
* – In my absence, either Alyssa or Tony Ventry will enter the odds in the comments section when they become available Monday evening. Make your picks against those.
Game of the Week
Missouri vs. Texas.
Previous number three Mizzou was upset by Okie State last week (this Tennessee fan wishes Cowboy co-offensive coordinator Trooper Taylor was still wearing the right shade of orange).
Texas pulled off an emotionally-charged win against hated rival and previous number one Oklahoma, good for their own number one ranking this week.
Conventional wisdom says both teams will start sluggish after last week’s draining contests. If that holds, which one will snap out of it in time to pull off the win? Could be a classic or a clunker, but there’s no shortage of intrigue here.
How to enter your picks
You read the rules, right?
The short version:
- You’re picking which teams won’t cover their spread. You must choose at least one team not to cover unless there is only one game being played that week.
- You’re also entering a predicted score for the Game of the Week, which cannot be the same as a predicted score another player enters.
Example:
Florida and Clemson don’t cover. Alabama wins the GOTW 19-14.
If I entered that, that means I think Florida and Clemson either would lose or not cover their spreads, and you then wouldn’t be able to predict a 19-14 win for Alabama.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Nothing else need be said.
WTF? I don’t like these side bets. I like seeing how my picks line up with everyone else’s, not with someone’s side bet. I mean, this is basically all about pride anyway. Can you at least keep a tally of “just picks points” or something?
Pre-side wager results are in the overall standings spreadsheet.
It’s an experiment this year, and if there’s overwhelming revolt against it, it won’t be brought back next year.
Archibald by text message:
“Sometimes when you win you actually lose, sometimes when you lose you actually win, and sometimes when you win or lose you actually tie.”
Calm down Ben. Just because your Wolverines suck worse than UT doesn’t mean you have to cry about losing on the picks.
As you can see, Ben, winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs.
I do like the additional interest that side bets can add. However, I’m with Ben on keeping a pre-side wager tally. Not everyone has the guts to put their points where their mouth is (or something like that). At the end of the year, there could be a straight-up champion and a all-bets-included champion. If that sounds confounded, then it would be appropriate for college football and its three sets of rankings.
If the processing time is too cumbersome, you might want to put it up for vote on whether bets (or large bets like 45 pts.) are allowed. I just’ cant recognize RF as a legitimate #1 . . . just like Texas.
Rusty, I hope the surgery goes well.
Interesting theory Tony. I have similar feelings, I can’t recognize you as a legitimate #1. Oh wait, that’s me in the lead, never mind then.
Actually, I will say this: suppose I do happen to win, and I do it because of this bet and always picking no teams cover. I wouldn’t feel like a real winner, because I won by luck and not by any sort of “skill”…if that makes sense.
I will, however, drop the allegations that this game is rigged.
That said, no teams cover (and yes I make that bet without the spreads being posted). Anyone want to place a bet?
With a whopping five points last week, I can barely take myself seriously these days.
I’m up for a bet . . . we’ll figure out the specifics later this week.
If your interpretation of my tweet is some of the only joy you’ll receive this football season, then far be it from me to take that away from you. And for the sake of SEC football, I certainly hope UT football becomes relevant again someday.
*****ODDS FOR THIS WEEK*****
Thursday, Oct. 16 Time Game Line
8:00 PM ET Brigham Young (8) at Texas Christian (24)
BYU by 2
Friday, Oct. 17 Time Game Line
8:00 PM ET Hawaii at Boise State (16)
Boise State by 24
Saturday, Oct. 18 Time Game Line
12:30 PM ET Vanderbilt (23) at Georgia (9)
UGA by 15.5
2:00 PM ET Colorado State at Utah (13)
Utah by 23
3:00 PM ET Baylor at Oklahoma State (10)
Oklahoma State by 17.5
3:30 PM ET Mississippi at Alabama (2)
Bama by 13.5
3:30 PM ET USC (4) at Washington State
USC by 42
3:30 PM ET Ohio State (11) at Michigan State (17)
Ohio State by 3
3:00 PM ET North Carolina (21) at Virginia
UNC by 5
4:30 PM ET Michigan at Penn State (3)
Penn State by 24
8:00 PM ET Missouri (12) at Texas (1)
Texas by 6.5
8:00 PM ET LSU (14) at South Carolina
LSU by 3
8:00 PM ET Virginia Tech (18) at Boston College
Boston College by 2.5
10:00 PM ET California (22) at Arizona
Cal by 1
3:30 PM Kansas (15) at Oklahoma (6)
Oklahoma by 18
They were being generous when they spotted UGA 15.5 points.
Not to cover: UGA, OK St, Bama, UNC, Penn St, and BC.
Won’t Cover: Georgia and USC.
GOTW: Missouri 0, Texas 7
Georgia and Oklahoma don’t cover. GOTW Texas 30, Missouri 23.
This betting thing really sucks the fun out of it all, IMO.
My completely meaningless picks: Georgia, USC, Texas and Boston College won’t cover.
oops, forgot GOTW. Texas 31, Missouri 28.
Oklahoma State and Penn State do not cover.
GOTW: Texas 31, Missouri 13
Although I think they are interesting, I agree in principle with Sara: bets shouldn’t factor into the standings.
Won’t cover
Utah
USC
Ohio State
Oklahoma
GOTW: Texas 35 – Mizzou 24
Cal, USC, and BC don’t cover.
GotW: Texas 30, Missouri 10
I agree that the spread for UGA/Vandy seems kinda high, especially considering Bama and LSU get more reasonable spreads against SEC teams with worse records and worse rankings.
Gambling is the backbone of America. Of course I am actually rugbyfan part 2. I suckered you all into this betting thing. Once it got started I simply bet the house against myself. First place! Please don’t let this ruin the controversy of betting though. Talk amongst yourselves.
Texas 104, Missouri 89
Teams that WILL NOT cover: Boise St.; Georgia; Utah; LSU; Boston College; Oklahoma. GOTW: Texas 31 Missouri 24
I would also like to add that I have to agree with the comments about the side betting thing when it comes to deciding a overall winner. I understood that the pool winner at the end of the pool, would be the person who tallied the highest score, based on how well he/she has made correct predictions, not based upon any side bets. This is something that should definitely not be considered, in my opinion.
It appears we have almost universal hatred for side wagers. Will anyone other than rugby and Archibald speak in defense of them, or should we just throw all the side wagers out?
Toss em out
I will actually come out in favor of side wagers. It would be nice if at the end of the season, you show the tally for both the “real” scores and the scores including the wagers. As long as everyone knows who “really” won, I don’t think it’s all that bad.
I agree with Garrett. If it isn’t a pain in the ass to calculate, then I’m all for two tallies.
If we are going to get rid of them, do it next year.
However, wagers are a good way of knowing how confident you are in your picks. If you are truly good at this, you would put a high number of points behind your picks, and as said earlier, everyone knows that I am not doing 30% better than Rusty.
Of course every now and then you will have some jerk come along and go all in just for the hell of it. With that in mind, a ceiling to how much you can wager might be a good idea, say, five points every round. That way, you can still say I am confident in my bets but likely not shoot so far ahead of everyone else that everyone else should quit because any attempt to catch up to the current leader will be futile.
BYU, USC and UGA do not cover.
GOTW: Texas 41 Missouri 31
Crap, I’m already down a point.
Okay, UGA, USC, and Oklahoma won’t cover.
GotW: Texas 35, Missouri 28
Boise State, Utah, USC, and (ahem) LSU.
GOTW – Texas 24-17