Sunday, October 13, 2013

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

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