Tuesday, December 30, 2008

College Bowls Update

The day after Christmas my prognosticator was still broken as seen by Florida Atlantic defeating Central Michigan 24-21 but I’ve gotten it fixed since then.

In fact though I started the 34-game bowl season with a mere 1-7 record, I’ve reeled off 6 straight correct picks to get back to .500. Luckily, I’m not picking against a spread because several of my winners didn’t cover the spread.

I picked West Virginia to defeat North Carolina and they did—by a single point 31-30 in one very exciting game.

I had Florida State over Wisconsin and I thought it might be a blowout. It was as FSU rolled 42-13 as the FSU defense scored more points than the Badgers' offense (14 points came off fumble returns).

I figured Cal's Golden Bears would spank Miami on the west coast by more than the 24-17 they managed.

And that Louisiana Tech would triumph (24-17) over Northern Illinois down in Shreveport should not have been a surprise to anyone.

Rutgers made me sweat a bit as the NC State quarterback (Russell Wilson) did a fine job in the first half. Thank goodness Teel and Co. came out to play in the second half and NC State’s Wilson did not (injured knee). RU pulled it out coming from behind in the fourth quarter for the first time since 2006. The final: 29-23.

Who would have expected Northwestern to play Missouri as tough as they did last night? The Wildcats played the Tigers to a draw in regulation but finally succumbed 30-23 in OT.

So with 14 games played I’ve got a 7-7 record in picking the winners. Not great, but after starting 1 and 7 not bad either. And it seems that I'm doing as well as some "professionals" at ESPN.

(It irks me no end that they still 1-mispronounce "Rutgers" There is a "t" in the middle gentlemen! There is no "d" and, for crying out loud, there's definitely not a "gg"! "Rut-gers" Got it? 2-call it the "University of Rutgers" when it is "Rutgers University." 3- at one point immediately after the game said they had just seen NC State win! Okay, both teams wore red and white uniforms but still.... The birth place of college football and it still gets treated like Rodney Dangerfield: No respect.)

There are twenty more games to go with the bulk (13) of those in the next three days.

BTW. If you're keeping track based upon Conference affiliation...The Big East is currently 3-0 with South Florida, West Virginia and Rutgers winners in their games. We still have Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Cincinnati coming up. (Six of eight teams were bowl eligible with only Louisville and Syracuse staying home.)

2 comments:

GUYK said...

I watched Oregon outgun my alma mater last night..looked like the Cowboys just fell apart the second half

joated said...

Of the three games playd yesterday, only Rice seemed to have packed its defense for the trip. None of the other teams (OK State, Oregon, Western Michigan, Maryland, or Nevada) seemed to realize there are two sides to the line of scrimmage. Scores of 42-35, 38-14 and 41-32 are indicative of the showcasing of offense over defense.