P6 2012: Crowning a Winner

I guess it's fitting that today is the birthday of the King, the only royalty it is acceptable to worship here in the United States, because it's time to crown a champ. (I mean, we ain't Canadians.)

Any excuse to run this photo. ANY excuse.

Five months ago you were invited to pick six schools at semi-random, and now that the games are over and the Associated Press voters have filled out their polls, I'm here to reveal the winner of the Pick Six game for 2012.

First the usual statistics.

Biggest gainers: Louisville had the biggest upset win of the bowl season, running over Florida in the Sugar Bowl. They jumped up nine spots. Texas moved back into the poll on the strength of an Alamo Bowl win over Oregon State. Nobody else moved up much.

Biggest losers: Nobody lost more than five points, but those minus fives (not that Minus Five) all fell flat: Florida, Kansas State (lost to Oregon), LSU (should have beat Clemson) and Michigan (lost to South Carolina in the season's most exciting game).

Hey let's look at Jadeveon Clowney's awesome hit on that Michigan RB again.



Best week: Technically the bowl season lasted three weeks, but whatever. Two pets, "Four legs and a cloud of dust" and Tippy, made hay with their picks: they shared Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Louisville. Add up those four gainers and you have a 22-point improvement from the end of the regular season.

Here at TMMPF HQ: Bragging rights go to Franklin "The F-Bomb", in only his second year of competition (and life). He had a less than stellar finish, tied for 29th, but that still beat me, TinaMarie, 2010 champ Quigley and the baby.

Enough jibber jabber, who won the game?

"Thomas the Train" hadn't seen the lead since Week 10, but he'd been loitering in the top the whole time. Former leader "Flying Cougars" had four teams lose, and  No. 2 "I Hate Caillou" had three of those same teams. Meanwhile, Thomas had Ohio State (no bowl), plus four winners (and Notre Dame, who fell only three spots).

This means the last three winners have been a housecat, my father-in-law and a 1-year-old in suburban Cleveland. People: ANY ONE CAN WIN THIS GAME. The final scores are here. For your convenience, I've color coded the bowl winners and losers. The points for each school are here.

Congrats to "Thomas" and his mommy who likely made the picks, and to runner-up "Liars, Gastropods, Normads, D-bags, Enablers, and Jimbo Fisher". Your prizes will be revealed in a future post, and mailed out shortly.

Thanks again to everyone who played. I hope you found enjoyment in cheering for your six teams.