Welcome to the first installment of our Picks Race blog. I was going to go back and put the first five weeks in here as well, but then I realized just how pathetically useless that would make my life look. It's one thing for it to actually be pathetically useless; it's quite another for everyone to see it.
And speaking of pathetically useless, that sums up most of us for last week as we pretty much got our collective asses handed to us. Except for one ass, that is, which remains firmly but gently cupped by its owner. Dad pulled out a, shall we say, somewhat unexpected victory with a dominant 32-15 that would have been ever more dominant had be not neglected to include Mississippi State-LSU and Alabama-Georgia in his selections or let anyone know that he was picking UConn to beat Louisville BEFORE UConn beat Louisville.
Yet those three giveaway losses were still not enough for anyone else to get closer than two games, making Ed the fifth winner in five weeks. Now that's parity, right? And are you seven people who still haven't managed to win feeling like losers yet? Don't worry about it - we'll be giving away as many coveted Sportsmanship Ribbons as necessary when this is over in February.
The Monday night game was pivotal when it came to deciding second and third as the Steelers' OT victory gave Chip a 30-17 and sole possession of the runner-up spot while Rob took third at 29-18. After that, it was fugly for the third straight week. Cullen, Bob and Lonnie tied for the worst showing at 26-21, though I, Cheryl and Lane weren't much better at 27-20. I, Cullen, Amy, Bob, Lane and Lonnie all dropped the week, but when you're trading your raw sewage for plain old shit it doesn't help all that much (incidentally, I pondered for some time which a person would rather have, raw sewage or shit, and decided on the shit. I'll be interested to hear any counter-arguments, however).
One thing I've concluded is that I've got to start giving us some easier games. Scratchers are a, pardon my German, fucking bitch, and winning scratchers pretty much always gives you the week. Ed was a mind-boggling 9-2 in this category (really 10-1 if he'd turned UConn in before Saturday morning), and to give you an idea how messed up it was to do that well nobody else was better than 5-6 and five people were 3-8 or worse (actually, the only one worse than 3-8 was Cullen's equally astonishing 2-9 showing, but I didn't want to embarrass him by singling him out).
There was little change in the overall standings. Dad is going to need a lot more 9-2 performances in scratchers to get out of the cellar, while the log jam at the top got a little bit tighter. I'm still a game ahead of Chip, who is two games ahead of Chris, who is two games ahead of Cullen, who is a game ahead of Amy, who is a game ahead of Bob, who is a game ahead of Kristy - you get the picture.
Finally, let me know what you think of this blog idea for the picks race. I'll still be sending this out in e-mail form, but I'll encourage you to leave your picks (as well as your sarcastic comments) under the comments section of this blog. Once we get used to it, I think it'll be more fun and easier.
Week 6
ACC
Duke at Georgia Tech
Boston College at North Carolina State
Western Kentucky at Virginia Tech
Florida State at Miami
Connecticut at North Carolina
Maryland at Virginia
SEC
Florida at Arkansas
South Carolina at Mississippi
Kentucky at Alabama
Auburn at Vanderbilt
Northern Illinois at Tennessee
SoCon
Samford at Western Carolina
Furman at Elon
Citadel at Appalachian State
Georgia Southern at Chattanooga
Pac 10/Big 12 headliners
Oregon State at Utah (Thursday)
Texas Tech at Kansas State
Texas at Colorado
Missouri at Nebraska
Stanford at Notre Dame
Arizona State at California
Oregon at Southern California
Head-scratchers
Memphis at Alabama-Birmingham
Cincinnati at Marshall
Nevada-Las Vegas at Colorado State
Illinois at Michigan
Akron at Kent
Ohio State at Wisconsin
NFL
Kansas City at Carolina
Chicago at Detroit
Atlanta at Green Bay
San Diego at Miami
Seattle at New York Giants
Washington at Philadelphia
Tennessee at Baltimore
Indianapolis at Houston
Tampa Bay at Denver
Buffalo at Arizona
New England at San Francisco
Cincinnati at Dallas
Pittsburgh at Jacksonville
Minnesota at New Orleans (Monday)
Overall standings
(Weekly win in bold; worst week in red)
- Ron 33-9, 38-13, 37-11, 29-18, 27-20 (137-51, .729)
- Chip 33-9, 41-10, 32-16, 28-19, 30-17 (136-52, .723)
- Chris 34-8, 37-14, 35-13, 28-19, 28-19 (134-54, .713)
- Cullen 35-7, 38-13, 31-17, 28-19, 26-21 (132-56, .702)
- Amy 32-10, 40-11, 29-19, 30-17, 28-19 (131-57, .697)
- Bob 31-11, 34-17, 31-17, 34-13, 26-21 (130-58, .691)
- Kristy 30-12, 39-12, 27-21, 31-16, 28-19 (128-59, .684)
- Rob 31-11, 37-14, 31-17, 29-18, 29-18 (128-60, .681)
- Cheryl 29-13, 35-16, 33-15, 26-21, 27-20 (124-64, .660)
- Lane 30-12, 34-17, 30-18, 28-19, 27-20 (122-66, .649)
- Lonnie 30-12, 37-14, 28-20, 27-20, 26-21 (122-66, .649)
- Dad 28-14, 0-51, 30-18, 25-22, 32-15 (115-69, .625)
