P62013: Week 9 Isn't Complaining

Games watched: Tues, some Louisiana Lafeyette-Western Ky (yes I know I need help); Fri, some Boise-BYU. Sat: Wake-Miami (end); Iowa-just Northwestern (2nd half); Nebby-Minny (2nd TV); Duke-Va. Tech (end); Michigan State-Illinois (end); ND-Air Force (parts); South Carolina-Missouri (most); UCLA-Oregon; Stanford-Oregon St (til asleep).

Let's start with this: the week started with attending a funeral in my hometown on Monday. The week ended with: Iowa won, Notre Dame won, Ohio won. Hell, even Drake won. Iowa State lost and Michigan didn't win (they had a bye). I can't complain.



Looking at the AP Poll: Co-host "QBKatt" points out that this week's poll has four Tigers in a row: #8 Auburn, #9 Clemson, #10 Missouri, #11 Lousiana State. That is awesome. Newcomers: Michigan State, who lost to Notre Dame, and Arizona State, who lost to Notre Dame. NOT in the Top 25: Notre Dame. Who by the way beat Sparty and Sparky. Also not in the Top 25: Nebraska, who inexplicably lost to an awful Minnesota team that might be the worst bowl eligble team right now, and Virginia Tech, who lost to Duke at home. If Pat Haden were VT's AD, he would probably drive Frank Beamer to an airport, just to fire him there.

Undefeated watch: Here's what happened to last week's list of 10:
ACC: Florida State and Miami. They play this Saturday night in the featured ABC game.
Big Ten: Ohio State.
Big XII: Texas Tech (lost to Oklahoma) and Baylor.
Mountain West: Fresno State.
Mid-American: Northern Illinois.
SEC: Missouri (lost at home to South Carolina) and Alabama.
Pac 12: Oregon.

So we are down to eight total, and seven conferences that can still produce an undefeated team.

Ups and downs: South Carolina had the best week, knocking off a previously undefeated Missouri squad in Columbia. Yeah no kidding! It frustrated me all week when I heard radio announcers say "Missouri plays South Carolina in Columbia." They are BOTH in Columbia! We wouldn't have this problem if Missouri would have just stayed in the Big XII where they belong. Anyway, the game was at Mizzou, and Sakerlina moved a little closer to where they were two weeks ago before losing to Tennessee.

Worst week was Va Tech (losing to Duke will do that to you, even if Duke is better these days), -10 and out, and UCLA -5, for getting blown out by Oregon just like everyone else this year. Mizzou also down -5.

Best week: It helped to have South Carolina, and perhaps one of those schools that lost to Notre Dame. So congrats to "Liars, Gastropods, Normads, D-bags, Enablers, and Jimbo Fisher" for a +11 week, moving into sixth place.

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning? Ninth verse, same as the first:

"Dirty Diapers" maintains that strangehold on the lead. Wife "No F'n Clue" still in second. "QBKatt" retakes the household lead with 67 points, but I'm lurking at 64 points. I really need Miami to beat FSU on Saturday, but that's a tall order. The Clemson-South Carolina game is lurking on the horizon too.

Top child: "Lightning McQueen" in 7th place (tied). Top kitty: Tigger, in 10th. Top dog: "Quarter Dog" in 15th.

Los linques:

P62013 Scoreboard
Points for each team
AP Top 25 Poll

Next week: Big game is Florida State vs. Miami in a top ten matchup. Okie State plays Texas Tech. Florida and Georgia are unranked, facing off in the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Closer to home, it's the battle of the mitten when Mitten faces Mitten State. I think a great T-shrt for this rivalry would say "The Gloves Are Off (And The Mittens Are On)."

P62013: Week 8 Is Still Bleeding From All The Carnage

Games watched: Western Kentucky-Louisiana Lafayette (Tues); Miami-N.Carolina (Thurs); UCF-Louisville (Fri); South Carolina-Tennessee; Florida-Missouri (flip); UCLA-Stanford (2nd TV); USC-Notre Dame, Florida State-Clemson (2nd TV); Wash St.-Oregon (a little); Utah-Arizona (a little).

I was all ready to write about what an exciting bunch of games we watched on Saturday. Upsets left and right.

And then I ran the math on the P6 game and saw this:

Geez, when I saw all the carnage represented by that red, all I could think of was this scene (start at 1:55):

I thought I was alone in my P6 pain. On Saturday I only had one win (Oregon). UCLA and South Carolina lost on the road, Texas and Nebraska bye'd, and Miami won on Thursday night. But clearly, misery loves company. ("Mizzery" loves winning. More on them in a second.)

Nebrask ... Abide.

Here's the tally: Georgia: -11 and out. Louisville: -10. South Carolina: -9. Texas A&M: -7. LSU: -7. Clemson: -6. Washington: -6 and out. Florida: -3 and out. There's a 100% you have at least one of those teams, because the entire Group "B" quartile lost yesterday. The average score fell this week from 60.3 to 54.3. I can't remember an average six-point drop as long as I've been running this game. Georgia earns the ignominy of being the first Group "A" team to fall out of the Top 25.

While most of those teams deserved their demotions, I must say this "SEC rulez" mentality among the voters is bullshit. I highly doubt Auburn is the 11th best team in the country, just because they beat John "Football" Manziel and his teammates.

As for Mizzou ... wow. I was very wrong when I teased "sadandbritish" that they'd enjoy a one-week stay in the Top 25 with Georgia on deck. All they did was curbstomp the 'Dogs last week and then cruise past Florida yesterday ... all with their backup QB. They might not deserve to be #5, but they have had a nice run. As a mea culpa, here is a somewhat sad and British song from the godfather of sad and British, Stephen Morrissey.

It is a little known fact that MPF004 likes some Smiths and Morrissey. This song was on the "Bona Drag" record that came out while I was in high school. It's also the same record that David Rawlings and Ryan Adams argued about. Somebody out there knows what I'm talking about.

Undefeated watch: Here's what happened to last week's list of 14:
American: Louisville (lost to Central Florida). Houston (lost to BYU).
ACC: Florida State, Clemson (lost to FSU) Miami. FSU and Miami will play on Nov. 2.
Big Ten: Ohio State.
Big XII: Texas Tech and Baylor. They play on Nov. 16.
Mountain West: Fresno State.
Mid-American: Northern Illinois.
SEC: Missouri (still!) and Alabama. They would play each other in the conference championship game.
Pac 12: Oregon and UCLA (lost to Stanford).

Four down, so the new total is 10.

Best week: Not many options here. "Prince of the Potty" and and Boots were up +6. You know what, I'm just going to go ahead and call out the other players in positive territory: "Will.i.am" +4, "Stanzi City Chiefs" +1. That's it. If your name isn't listed, you either pushed or lost ground.

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning? You would think that with all that losing going on, that maybe we'd have a shakeup at the top. Somebody new has to have that 103 score we saw above. Right? Right .... ?

Nope. "Dirty Diapers" had enough winners to stay in first. The top two stay the same, with some minor movement below them. The only two players with Missouri move into the Top Ten.

Top kitty: Tigger, in 9th  Top child: "Lightning McQueen" in 10th. Top dog: "Quarter Dog" down at 15th. I'm in 12th, claiming the household lead for the first time all season.

Update: Here are the links:

P62013 Scoreboard
Points for each team
AP Top 25 Poll

P62013: Week 7 Finally Saw Some Upsets

Games watched: can't remember. Mostly watched Texas A&M-Ole Miss at night.

It was a bye week here at TMMPF. Both Iowa and Notre Dame didn't play, so we took advantage of the chance to visit some Pick Sixers in the city. "Violas Rock" and "The Champagne Room" introduced us to "Lifelong Football Fan." "sodeh" was back from California, making seven Pick Six players in one room. That might be a non-Christmastime record.

After Stanford and Oklahoma got upset, an announcer mentioned there are 14 undefeated teams left in Divison I-A. That's a pretty good number for seven weeks in. But there are actually eight conferences that can produce an undefeated conference champion. Here's the list of the 14 current undefeated teams and how we can get to a max of eight:

American: Louisville and Houston. They play on Nov. 16.
ACC: Florida State, Clemson, Miami. FSU and Clemson play this Saturday. Miami would play that winner in the conference championship game.
Big Ten: Ohio State.
Big XII: Texas Tech and Baylor. They play on Nov. 16.
Mountain West: Fresno State.
Mid-American: Northern Illinois.
SEC: Missouri (I know!) and Alabama. They would play each other in the conference championship game.
Pac 12: Oregon and UCLA. They play on Oct. 26, a fact I neglected when I picked both for my Pick Six slate.

None of the teams above play each other, so eight total undefeated teams is possible. Keep your eye on these 14 as the season goes on. Onto the poll.

Hello: Auburn and Wisconsin. The player who picked Auburn, whose mascots are a bird and a cat, is a dog. I love this game. A whopping 20 of you picked the Badgers. Welcome back and enjoy that 1 point for now.

Adios: Northwestern, the worst 5-0 team in the country most years, and Michigan, this year's worst 5-0 team in the country. They both lost, on the road to unranked foes. They are banished. (Said Shakespearean style, with the emphasis on "SHED.")

Georgia, Michigan, Northwestern and Stanford were the big losers. Mizzou (beat Georgia) jumped up 11. Virginia Tech up 5. Texas Tech up 4. I'd like to think that's because of other things that happened to other teams, not that beating Iowa State on your home turf is a big accomplishment.

Also: Group D is a vast wasteland of red. If you didn't pick Oklahoma, you're currently looking at zero points. And another bad loss by the Sooners might make me sing "The Ballad of Group D" all over again.

Best week: I thought I had a pretty good week, with all five teams winning (Miami bye) and three of them taking nice jumps. But I can't compete with whoever picked Missouri, which was "sadandbritish" of course (I apologize for mocking your inevitable loss, I underestimated your Tigers) and kitty "Tigger," who also had no losses and jumped up 17 points. That's how you go from 33rd place to tied for 11th.

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning? Copy-paste from last week:

"Dirty Diapers" saw Oklahoma lose ... but so did the next four players behind him. Hard to gain traction on the leader when you've got the same team. "No F'n Clue" stays in second.

So, the western Des Moines suburbs still dominates the game, with a big moat between the top of them and the rest of us.

The best candidate not in that household is "The Cough-Inn" in third. Top dog: Still "SuperPups" but down to a tie for 9th. Top child: "Daddy's reason to like softball" also in 9th. Top kitty: Tigger, thanks to that Missouri pick.

The links:

P62013 Scoreboard
Points for each team
AP Top 25 Poll

P62013: Week 6 Gets Back From Dallas

Hi everyone. Apologies for the late start on this week's recap. The Pick Six went off-site this weekend for the Shamrock Series game in Dallas. If you're not aware, every year Notre Dame plays a "home game" at a neutral site. ND gets the home uniforms, home sideline and NBC broadcasts the game. But being offsite allows ND's spread-out fans to see the team a little closer to home (and also allows recruits in talent-rich areas to get a better look at the program).

So, more to come on the game, if/when I get my thoughts together. I don't have much to say about this week's games (since I didn't see much) or the poll. The Top 5 stays the same.

Personally, I was happy to have a week where all my Pick Sixers won. UCLA and Texas survived road scares Thursday night. Miami beat Georgia Tech, Oregon rolled as usual, Nebraska thumped Illinois and South Carolina outlasted Kentucky, without star defender Jadeveon Clowney.

Adios: Arizona State, Ole Miss and Maryland all lost and disappeared. Not a ton of Pick Six points at risk there.

Hello: They are replaced by Northern Illinois (it's about time, frankly), Virginia Tech and ... Mizzou! Congrats to sadandbritish for your alma mater's appearance. I see you play at Georgia this Saturday. Enjoy your one-week stay in the Top 25.

Best week: The biggest mover was Northern, up three. The highest ranked teams to lose (Washington and Northwestern) lost to Top Five teams, so there wasn't much of a shakeup. A couple people had a +4 week ... "Detroit Tigers" and, aw crap, really? "Dirty Diapers"?


Enough jibber jabber, who's winning? Copy-paste from last week:

"Dirty Diapers" widens his lead to five points. "No F'n Clue" stays in second. The best candidate not in that household is "The Cough-Inn" in third. Top dog: "SuperPups" in 4th. Top child: "Lightning McQueen" tied for 12th. Top kitty: Franklin "The F-Bomb" tied (with me) for 23rd. If you're looking for something to break that logjam at the top ... Oklahoma doesn't play Baylor until the first week of November.

The links:

P62013 Scoreboard
Points for each team
AP Top 25 Poll

Next week: Both Iowa and Notre Dame have a bye, so the TV will be quiet at TMMPF HQ. Texas-Oklahoma is always fun to watch ... maybe less so with Texas being so down this year. Florida at LSU is a good Group B vs. Group C matchup. Oregon travels to Washington. How tired will the Huskies be playing the conference's best two teams back to back?