Rusty’s Blog

Has Michigan-Ohio State always been a noon game? Because that would be embarrassing if it’s scheduled then because nobody cares about it.

Almost as embarrassing as it will be when Tennessee closes out the season losing to Vandy and Kentucky, thereby sealing its fate as the worst team in UT history.

WTF 2008?

Here, have a poll:

Results

Week 12

Player	Points
Sara	11
Ben K	9
Carl Lindecrantz	9
Jen	9
Reginald	9
Tony	9
Tony Ventry	9
Alyssa	8
Garrett	8
Griftdrift	8
Rusty	8
Archibald Throngbow	7
rugbyfan	7

The full results spreadsheet for week 12 is here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Overall standings

Player	Points
Rusty	115
Carl Lindecrantz	109
Ben K	104
Griftdrift	104
Tony	101
Garrett	99
Archibald Throngbow	98
Jen	97
rugbyfan	97
Sara	97
Tony Ventry	95
Alyssa	93
Reginald	87

The full overall standings with week-by-week scores can be found here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Week 13 schedule

Wednesday, Nov. 19

Time	Game	Line
7:00 PM ET	Ball State (16) at Central Michigan	Ball State by 7

Saturday, Nov. 22

Time	Game	Line
12:00 PM ET	Michigan at Ohio State (10)	Ohio State by 20.5
3:30 PM ET	Michigan State (15) at Penn State (8)	Penn State by 14.5
3:30 PM ET	Air Force at Texas Christian (17)	Texas Christian by 18.5
3:30 PM ET	Mississippi at Louisiana State (18)	Louisiana State by 5
3:30 PM ET	Illinois at Northwestern (24)	Illinois by 2.5
3:30 PM ET	Boston College (25) at Wake Forest	Wake Forest by 2
4:05 PM ET	Boise State (9) at Nevada	Boise State by 6
6:00 PM ET	Brigham Young (14) at Utah (7)	Utah by 6.5
7:00 PM ET	Pittsburgh (19) at Cincinnati (20)	Cincinnati by 5
7:00 PM ET	Oregon State (21) at Arizona	Arizona by 3
7:45 PM ET	Florida State at Maryland (23)	Maryland by 1.5
8:00 PM ET	Texas Tech (2) at Oklahoma (5)	Oklahoma by 6

Game of the Week

Texas Tech at Oklahoma. Renowned weirdo Mike Leach is Texas Tech’s coach. Here’s why he’s awesome, according to former Tech lineman Daniel Loper:

Coach’s motivational speeches are always the same. He tells very long stories, and you’re never sure what they mean. But he’s a genius. When we leave the locker room, we all know that we’ll have three receivers wide open every play.

Speaking of candidates for the Tennessee job, I was tempted to make the GOTW Pitt-Cincy. Cincy coach Brian Kelly refused to shake hands with Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpeafter he beat the hapless Cardinals last week. Nice. Maybe we need someone in Knoxville who can be a bigger dickhead than Urban Meyer.

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.

I was giggling like an idiot when Wyoming beat Tennessee, because if I couldn’t laugh about this season then I’d be crying.

With another loss, the Vols would set the school record for losses at eight. You’ll read a lot of news articles that will breathlessly describe this team as the worst ever if that happens. Most of these people won’t mention that there are more games on the schedule now than there used to be, and therefore more opportunities to lose.

As I lay out in a post on Rocky Top Talk, I do think another loss cements this team as one of the three worst Tennessee teams of the modern era (which I’m marking as 1926 and after, when General Neyland was first hired). But, I think for this team to be indisputably the worst Tennessee team ever would require it to lose both games.

But what do I know? Let’s turn this over to the wisdom of crowds.

Either way, this is a bad football team we’re talking about here.

Results

Week 11

Player	Points
Archibald Throngbow	13
Carl Lindecrantz	10
Ben K	9
rugbyfan	9
Rusty	9
Jen	9
Sara	8
Tony	8
griftdrift	8
Alyssa	8
Reginald	7
Tony Ventry	6
Garrett	6

The full results spreadsheet for week 11 is here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Overall standings

Player	Points
Rusty	107
Carl Lindecrantz	100
Griftdrift	96
Ben K	95
Tony	92
Archibald Throngbow	91
Garrett	91
rugbyfan	90
Jen	88
Sara	86
Tony Ventry	86
Alyssa	85
Reginald	78

The full overall standings with week-by-week scores can be found here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Week 12 schedule

Note: 16th-ranked Ball State has a game on Tuesday. Including it is not worth giving people less than 24 hours notice to get their picks in. Besides, I can’t take a team that schedules games on Tuesdays seriously, even if they are ranked and even if they would beat Tennessee this year.

Friday, Nov. 14

Time	Game	Line
8:00 PM ET	Cincinnati (22) at Louisville	Cincinnati by 3.5

Saturday, Nov. 15

Time	Game	Line
12:00 PM ET	Indiana at Penn State (8)	Penn State by 34
12:00 PM ET	Ohio State (10) at Illinois	Ohio State by 10
12:30 PM ET	Texas (5) at Kansas	Texas by 13.5
12:30 PM ET	Georgia (12) at Auburn	Georgia by 8
3:30 PM ET	Brigham Young (14) at Air Force	Brigham Young by 4
3:30 PM ET	North Carolina (17) at Maryland	North Carolina by 3
3:30 PM ET	California at Oregon State (25)	Oregon State by 3
3:30 PM ET	South Carolina (23) at Florida (3)	Florida by 21.5
6:30 PM ET	Missouri (11) at Iowa State	Missouri by 26.5
7:00 PM ET	Southern Cal (6) at Stanford	Southern California by 23.5
7:45 PM ET	Mississippi State at Alabama (1)	Alabama by 20
8:00 PM ET	Utah (7) at San Diego State	Utah by 28.5
8:00 PM ET	Oklahoma State (13) at Colorado	Oklahoma State by 17.5
8:00 PM ET	Boston College at Florida State (19)	Florida State by 7
8:00 PM ET	Troy at Louisiana State (20)	Louisiana State by 20
8:00 PM ET	Tulsa (24) at Houston	Tulsa by 6

Game of the Week

This might be the weakest slate of games the entire year. I’m defaulting to Florida vs. South Carolina because of the Spurrier facing his old team angle, and because South Carolina might be good enough to give Florida a little trouble. But only a little.

The only other good news is that a weak slate of games like this sometimes makes for wildly inaccurate lines, which ought to at least make the picks fun.

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.

We all knew this day would come eventually, but that doesn’t make it any less sad. Ultimately, Phillip Fulmer was crushed by the weight of expectations created by his own success during 30 years as a player, assistant and head coach at Tennessee. He is a class act who gave more to the school than most of us will ever realize, and I hope history remembers him well.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel has a good retrospective on his career here.

Unless something changes between now and 5 p.m., Coach Fulmer will be allowed to coach the Vols for the rest of the season. I’m planning to take a road trip to Knoxville Nov. 29 to catch his last home game if anyone wants to come with me.

Results

Week 10

Player	Points
Archibald Throngbow	10
Griftdrift	10
Rusty	10
Ben K	9
Garrett	8
rugbyfan	8
Tony	8
Sara	7
Tony Ventry	7
Alyssa	6
Carl Lindecrantz	6
Jen	5
Reginald	5

The tiebreaker this week is refreshingly uncomplicated compared with last week. Archibald, Griftdrift, and I each scored ten points. Archibald was the only one of us to correctly pick Texas Tech to win, so he is this week’s winner.

The full results spreadsheet for week 10 is here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Overall standings

Player	Points
Rusty	98
Carl Lindecrantz	90
Griftdrift	88
Ben K	86
Garrett	85
Tony	84
rugbyfan	81
Tony Ventry	80
Jen	79
Archibald Throngbow	78
Sara	78
Alyssa	77
Reginald	71

The full overall standings with week-by-week scores can be found here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Week 11 schedule

Wednesday, Nov. 4

Time	Game	Line
8:00 PM ET	Northern Illinois at Ball State (18)	Ball State by 9.5

Thursday, Nov. 5

Time	Game	Line
8:00 PM ET	Texas Christian (11) at Utah (9)	Texas Christian by 2.5

Saturday, Nov. 7

Time	Game	Line
12:00 PM ET	Georgia Tech (20) at North Carolina (19)	North Carolina by 4
12:30 PM ET	Georgia (14) at Kentucky	Georgia by 11.5
12:00 PM ET	Ohio State (12) at Northwestern (25)	Ohio State by 11
12:00 PM ET	Purdue at Michigan State (17)	Michigan State by 10
2:00 PM ET	Utah State at Boise State (10)	Boise State by 31.5
2:00 PM ET	San Diego State at Brigham Young (16)	Brigham Young by 31.5
3:30 PM ET	Alabama (1) at Louisiana State (15)	Alabama by 3
3:30 PM ET	Penn State (2) at Iowa	Penn State by 7.5
3:30 PM ET	Oklahoma (4) at Texas A&M	Oklahoma by 25
3:30 PM ET	Clemson at Florida State (24)	Florida State by 6.5
7:00 PM ET	Cincinnati at West Virginia (23)	West Virginia by 8
7:00 PM ET	Kansas State at Missouri (13)	Missouri by 26
8:00 PM ET	California (22) at Southern California (6)	Southern California by 17.5
8:00 PM ET	Oklahoma State (8) at Texas Tech (3)	Texas Tech by 3
8:00 PM ET	Florida (5) at Vanderbilt	Florida by 24
TBA	Baylor at Texas (7)	Texas by 26

Game of the Week

Oklahoma State at Texas Tech. No commentary this week.

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.

I procrastinated getting these out this week. It’s way past my bedtime now. Enjoy. Oh, and here is a poll for you:

Results

Week 9

Player	Points
Alyssa	13
Carl Lindecrantz	13
Garrett	12
rugbyfan	12
Rusty	12
Jen	11
Reginald	11
Tony	11
Ben K	10
Griftdrift	10
Sara	10
Tony Ventry	9
Archibald Throngbow	7

Remember the tiebreaker rules we discussed in week 7? We get to use them now.

Alyssa picked Penn State to beat the Ohio State University 28-21, a margin of 7. Carl also picked PSU to beat tOSU 31-24, also a margin of 7. So we have to go to the second tiebreaker of closest to the point total.

Alyssa’s score totals 49, Carl’s score totals 55.

The actual final score of the game was 13-6, a total of 19 points. So Alyssa wins the tiebreaker and is the week 9 winner.

The full results spreadsheet for week 9 is here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Overall standings

Player	Points
Rusty	88
Carl Lindecrantz	84
Griftdrift	78
Ben K	77
Garrett	77
Tony	76
Jen	74
rugbyfan	73
Tony Ventry	73
Alyssa	71
Sara	71
Archibald Throngbow	68
Reginald	66

The full overall standings with week-by-week scores can be found here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Week 10 schedule

Thursday, Oct. 30

Time	Game	Line
7:30 PM ET	South Florida (23) at Cincinnati	South Florida by 3

Saturday, Nov. 1

Time	Game	Line
12:00 PM ET	Northwestern at Minnesota (20)	Minnesota by 6.5
12:00 PM ET	Wisconsin at Michigan State (21)	Michigan State by 5
2:00 PM ET	Tulsa (18) at Arkansas	Tulsa by 7
3:00 PM ET	Arkansas State at Alabama (2)	Alabama by 24
3:00 PM ET	Missouri (14) at Baylor	Missouri by 20
3:30 PM ET	Florida (7) vs. Georgia (8)	Florida by 6
3:30 PM ET	Iowa State vs. Oklahoma State (10)	Oklahoma State by 31
3:30 PM ET	Florida State (16) at Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech by 1.5
3:30 PM ET	Oregon (24) at California	California by 3
6:00 PM ET	Brigham Young (17) at Colorado State	Brigham Young by 14.5
6:30 PM ET	Washington at Southern Cal (6)	Southern Cal by 44
7:00 PM ET	Boise State (11) vs. New Mexico State	Boise State by 20.5
8:00 PM ET	Texas (1) at Texas Tech (5)	Texas by 6
8:00 PM ET	Nebraska at Oklahoma (4)	Oklahoma by 22
8:00 PM ET	Texas Christian (12) at UNLV	Texas Christian by 14
8:00 PM ET	Tulane at Louisiana State (15)	Louisiana State by 25.5
9:30 PM ET	Utah (9) at New Mexico	Utah by 7.5

Game of the Week

I thought about making the World’s Greatest Cocktail Party Civil Christian Gathering for Wholesome Fun the Game of the Week, but the Texas-Texas Tech match-up of undefeateds looks too good to pass up. So let it be said.

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.

I made an executive decision this week that will displease at least one of you: all side wagers are being tossed out.

There wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm for them, and the idea of keeping a tally on something that doesn’t count seems stupid to me. So, you’ll actually have to pick well if you want to win.

My decision is final. Accusations of a rigged game will not sway me otherwise, no matter how pathetic and/or amusing they are. You can take out your agression on me in this poll if you’d like:

Results

Week 8

Player	Points
Rusty	10
Griftdrift	9
Alyssa	9
Archibald Throngbow	8
Jen	8
Carl Lindecrantz	8
Garrett	7
rugbyfan	7
Sara	6
Tony Ventry	6
Ben K	6
Tony	6
Reginald	0

The full results spreadsheet for week 8 is here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Overall standings

Player	Points
Rusty	76
Carl Lindecrantz	71
Griftdrift	68
Ben K	67
Garrett	65
Tony	65
Tony Ventry	64
Jen	63
Archibald Throngbow	61
rugbyfan	61
Sara	61
Alyssa	58
Reginald	55

The full overall standings with week-by-week scores can be found here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Week 9 schedule

Friday, Oct. 24

Time	Game	Line
9:00 PM ET	Boise State (13) at San Jose State	Boise State by 7

Saturday, Oct. 25

Time	Game	Line
12:00 PM ET	Texas Tech (6) at Kansas (18)	Kansas by 2.5
12:00 PM ET	Eastern Michigan at Ball State (22)	Ball State by 24
12:00 PM ET	Northwestern (24) at Indiana	Northwestern by 9.5
12:00 PM ET	Minnesota (25) at Purdue	Minnesota by 1.5
12:30 PM ET	Oklahoma (5) at Kansas State	Oklahoma by 19
12:30 PM ET	Kentucky at Florida (7)	Florida by 23
2:00 PM ET	UNLV at Brigham Young (17)	Brigham Young by 23
3:30 PM ET	Oklahoma State (8) at Texas (1)	Texas by 12.5
3:30 PM ET	South Florida (14) at Louisville	South Florida by 4.5
3:30 PM ET	Rutgers at Pittsburgh (20)	Pittsburgh by 10
3:30 PM ET	Virginia at Georgia Tech (21)	Georgia Tech by 12
3:30 PM ET	Virginia Tech at Florida State (23)	Florida State by 5
3:30 PM ET	Georgia (9) at LSU (11)	LSU by 2
6:00 PM ET	Wyoming at Texas Christian (15)	Texas Christian by 32
6:30 PM ET	Colorado at Missouri (16)	Missouri by 21.5
7:45 PM ET	Alabama (2) at Tennessee	Alabama by 6.5
8:00 PM ET	Penn State (3) at Ohio State (10)	Ohio State by 2.5
10:15 PM ET	Southern Cal (4) at Arizona	Southern Cal by 15

Sunday, Oct. 26

Time	Game	Line
8:00 PM ET	Central Florida at Tulsa (19)	Tulsa by 21

Game of the Week

Penn State at Ohio State. Not only do we get to find out if Penn State is for real, but there’s a 50-50 chance that Joe Paterno will lose control of his bowels on national television. Always worth watching.

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.

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

Week 7

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.

Overall standings

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

Thursday, Oct. 16

Time	Game	Line
8:00 PM ET	Brigham Young (8) at Texas Christian (24)	See comments section Monday night *

Friday, Oct. 17

Time	Game	Line
8:00 PM ET	Hawaii at Boise State (16)	See comments section Monday night *

Saturday, Oct. 18

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.

I haven’t been in much of a blogging mood lately beyond NCAA Picks. It is worth noting that — barring another mishap of some sort — I’ll be having my wisdom tooth surgery for real on Monday. More on that in my original post about it.

Other items:

There’s a presidential election in less than a month. I have not written much about it here. Maybe not anything actually. If you can look at the last eight years and say, “oh yeah, gimme some more of that!” there’s probably not much I could say to you that’s going to change your mind.

I did have some fun with Photoshop the other night as I was waiting for the second presidential debate to start though, my friend:

Perhaps I’m a masochist, because I bought tickets to the Tennessee-UGA game this weekend. I’ll be traveling with Alyssa, who is good people even if she is a UGA fan.

UGA is a 13-point favorite despite losing the last two games by a combined score of 84-47. Even though history tells us anything can happen in this game, I picked UGA to cover in my picks. The tickets weren’t expensive, fortunately, and they do sell alcohol in Athens the last time I checked.

My 30th birthday is coming up in just over a month. I have no idea how I want to go about marking the occasion. Any ideas?

Firstly

Does someone have a UT-UGA ticket they’d let go for something close to face value? I’d still sort of like to go to the game in Athens this weekend, but I don’t really want to pay the price brokers apparently can still demand for the tickets.

Since that probably won’t happen, is anyone interested in attending a local viewing party for the game? I’ll organize something if there’s interest (or defer to someone who has already organized something and help promote it).

Nevermind, bought a couple of tickets.

Secondly

I’m having wisdom tooth surgery next Monday. I should be able to take care of NCAA Picks results and the schedule for next week before this happens, but odds won’t likely be available until after I’m in a two-day pill coma. Can I get a volunteer to enter the odds in the comment section of next week’s post? You can get them from Covers, I would just need them translated into something like the format you see in the schedule below.

Thirdly

We have our first tie! Remember the tiebreaker section in the rules?

If two or more players finish with the same number of points in a given week, whichever player is closest to guessing the exact score of the Game of the Week will be declared winner for the week.

In retrospect, this isn’t as clearly-defined as it should have been. Vandy beat Auburn 14-13. Carl guessed a final score of Auburn 19-Vandy 17, and Reggie guessed Vandy 24-Auburn 14. Carl’s guess is closer in terms of total points scored (36 vs. 38 that Reggie guessed), but he picked the wrong winner. Reggie picked the correct winner and was therefore closer to picking the correct margin of victory.

So, we need to clarify the tiebreaker rules. I’m going to put two proposals to a vote in this week’s poll and declare a winner for this week after we vote on the new rules. If at least seven people don’t vote, I will pick one and you’ll just have to live with it.

• Weekly Tiebreaker Proposal 1: Total points scored by both teams - the sum of both team’s scores. If scores are still tied, then go by closest to picking margin of victory for the winning team. Under this scenario, it would be possible for someone who picked a winning team to lose to someone who picked a losing team.
• Weekly Tiebreaker Proposal 2: Margin of victory - the margin of victory for the winning team. If scores are still tied, then go by closest picking the sum of both team’s scores. Under this scenario, someone who picked a winning team would never lose to someone who picked a losing team.

Results

Week 6

Player	Points
Carl Lindecrantz	13
Reginald	13
Ben K	12
Rusty	12
Tony	12
Alyssa	11
Jen	11
Sara	10
Tony Ventry	10
Archibald Throngbow	9
Garrett	9
Griftdrift	9
rugbyfan	8

The full results spreadsheet for week 6 is here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Overall standings

Player	Points
Rusty	60
Ben K	54
Tony Ventry	53
Carl Lindecrantz	52
Garrett	52
Griftdrift	52
Tony	52
Sara	50
Reginald	49
Archibald Throngbow	46
Jen	45
rugbyfan	45
Alyssa	42

The full overall standings with week-by-week scores can be found here.

Week 7 schedule

Thursday, Oct. 9

Time	Game	Line
7:30 PM ET	Clemson at Wake Forest (21)	Wake Forest by 2.5

Saturday, Oct. 11

Time	Game	Line
12:00 PM ET	Texas (5) at Oklahoma (1)	Oklahoma by 7
12:30 PM ET	Colorado at Kansas (15)	Kansas by 14
2:00 PM ET	Utah (13) at Wyoming	Utah by 23.5
2:30 PM ET	Vanderbilt (14) at Mississippi State	Vanderbilt by 2.5
3:00 PM ET	Nebraska at Texas Tech (7)	Texas Tech by 21
3:30 PM ET	Arizona State at Southern California (9)	Southern Cal by 25
3:30 PM ET	Tennessee at Georgia (10)	Georgia by 13
3:30 PM ET	Purdue at Ohio State (11)	Ohio State by 19
3:30 PM ET	Michigan State (19) at Northwestern (22)	Michigan State by 3
5:00 PM ET	Arkansas at Auburn (23)	Auburn by 19
6:00 PM ET	New Mexico at Brigham Young (8)	Brigham Young by 23.5
8:00 PM ET	Oklahoma State (17) at Missouri (2)	Missouri by 13.5
8:00 PM ET	LSU (3) at Florida (12)	Florida by 4
8:00 PM ET	Penn State (6) at Wisconsin (24)	Penn State by 5
8:00 PM ET	Boise State (16) at Southern Miss	Boise State by 12

Game of the Week

Texas vs. Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout. Hype courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Red River Rivalry has given rise to a great deal of negative stereotyping on the part of both fanbases: Texans often portray Sooners as ignorant country yokels envious of the state of Texas while Oklahomans portray Longhorns as fake, self-glorifying wannabe cowboys.

Tennessee fans never partake in such nonsense. When we say the Nashville streets were littered with lost monocles and broken champagne flutes after Vanderbilt’s upset win over Auburn, we’re just stating facts*.

* - probably not Tennessee fans who said that actually, but I can’t up and plagiarize someone’s joke either

How to enter your picks

You read the rules, right?

The short version:

• You’re picking which teams won’tcover 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.

If you ever get discouraged by a seemingly-insurmountable points deficit, remember the example Garrett set this week: anybody with a lead can totally hose their picks at any time and open the door for everyone else.

Bravo sir, that was almost as bad as the Georgia Bulldogs played this weekend. Almost.

Then there was my alma mater’s “football team,” which put up 67 passing yards against Auburn. Not in a quarter, but during the entire game. The Tennessee Vols are again the subject of this week’s poll:

S-E-C! S-E-C!

Results

Week 5

Player	Points
rugbyfan	10
Rusty	9
Carl Lindecrantz	9
Tony Ventry	8
Ben K	7
Archibald Throngbow	7
Sara	6
Griftdrift	6
Jen	5
Reginald	5
Tony	4
Alyssa	4
Garrett	3

The full results spreadsheet for week 5 is here. If you find an error, let me know and I’ll adjust the results.

Overall standings

Player	Points
Rusty	48
Garrett	43
Griftdrift	43
Tony Ventry	43
Ben K	42
Sara	40
Tony	40
Carl Lindecrantz	39
Archibald Throngbow	37
rugbyfan	37
Reginald	36
Jen	34
Alyssa	31

The full overall standings with week-by-week scores can be found here.

Week 6 schedule

Wednesday, Oct. 1

Time	Game	Line
8:00 PM ET	Louisiana Tech vs. Boise State (18)	Boise State by 23

Thursday, Oct. 2

Time	Game	Line
7:30 PM ET	Pittsburgh at South Florida (10)	South Florida by 14
9:00 PM ET	Oregon State at Utah (15)	Utah by 12.5

Friday, Oct. 3

Time	Game	Line
8:00 PM ET	Brigham Young (7) at Utah State	Brigham Young by 29.5

Saturday, Oct. 4

Time	Game	Line
12:00 PM ET	Penn State (6) at Purdue	Penn State by 13
12:30 PM ET	Oklahoma (1) at Baylor	Oklahoma by 27.5
12:30 PM ET	Florida (13) at Arkansas	Florida by 24
12:30 PM ET	Kansas (16) at Iowa State	Kansas by 13.5
1:30 PM ET	Western Kentucky at Virginia Tech (24)	Virginia Tech by 28.5
3:30 PM ET	Kentucky at Alabama (4)	Alabama by 17
3:30 PM ET	Texas Tech (8) at Kansas State	Texas Tech by 7.5
6:00 PM ET	Auburn (14) at Vanderbilt (19)	Auburn by 5
7:00 PM ET	Texas A&M at Oklahoma State (22)	Oklahoma State by 25
7:00 PM ET	Connecticut (23) at North Carolina	North Carolina by 7
8:00 PM ET	Texas (5) at Colorado	Texas by 14
8:00 PM ET	Oregon (20) at Southern California (9)	Southern California by 17
8:00 PM ET	Ohio State (12) at Wisconsin (17)	Ohio State by 3
9:00 PM ET	Missouri (3) at Nebraska	Missouri by 11
10:00 PM ET	Hawaii at Fresno State (21)	Fresno State by 22.5

Game of the Week

The most intriguing match-up to me is actually among unranked Duke and Georgia Tech. But we’re going to stick with ranked teams for this purpose, so I’ll go with… Auburn at Vanderbilt.

For serious, Vandy is ranked 19th and owns the SEC East lead with two league wins. Bet you didn’t see that one coming.

Auburn has a stout defense, but also an offense that wouldn’t be able to move the ball against Bugs Bunny’s Carrot Patch at Six Flags:

The Commies might be able to pull this one off.

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.