Sunday, December 15, 2013

TMMPF P6 Bowl Preview

The bowls start this Saturday (Dec. 21). A few of these 35 bowls will undoubtedly affect the outcome of the Pick Six game. But which games should you watch? I'm here to guide you through the bowl schedule from the P6 perspective.

The games fall neatly into three categories:

YOU MUST LOVE BOWL SEASON TO WATCH THESE
New Mexico Dec. 21 Colorado St vs. Washington State
Idaho Potato Dec. 21 Buffalo vs. San Diego State
New Orleans Dec. 21 Tulane vs. UL Lafayette
Pizza Pizza Dec. 26 Bowling Green vs. Pittsburgh
Military Dec. 27 Marshall vs. Maryland
Texas Dec. 27 Minnesota vs. Syracuse
Armed Forces Dec. 30 Middle Tennessee vs. Navy
Music City Dec. 30 Georgia Tech vs. Ole Miss
AdvoCare V100 Dec. 31 Arizona vs. Boston College
Liberty Dec. 31 Mississippi State vs. Rice
Heart of Dallas Jan. 1 North Texas vs. UNLV
GoDaddy Jan. 5 Arkansas State vs. Ball State

Among these, the best matchup for football fans is Arizona/BC. Both feature awesome running backs: Kadeem Carey (great surname for an RB) and Andre Williams, who quietly had such a good year he got invited to the Heisman ceremony. The Liberty may be fun to watch if only to see Rice, who is excited to spend New Year's Eve in Memphis.

THE ROOTING INTEREST IS FAIRLY OBVIOUS
Note: the numbers in parentheses are the number of Pick Six players with that team, NOT the Associated Press ranking. 
Las Vegas Dec. 21 Fresno State vs. USC (14)
Beef O Brady's Dec. 23 East Carolina vs. Ohio (1)
Poinsettia Dec. 26 Northern Illinois (3) vs. Utah State
Belk Dec. 28 Cincinnati (1) vs. North Carolina
Holiday Dec. 30 Arizona State (4) vs. Texas Tech
Pinstripe Dec. 28 Notre Dame (24) vs. Rutgers
Chick-fil-A Dec. 31 Duke vs. Texas A&M (19)
Fiesta Jan. 1 Baylor (10) vs. UCF
Compass Jan. 4 Houston vs. Vanderbilt (1)

You can be guaranteed no one in the Pick Six game will be cheering against you in these games. The most intriguing matchup is likely Northern vs. Utah State in a battle of conference championship losers. Who will be motivated to get the win? Baylor and A&M should be huge favorites. Notre Dame is favored by two touchdowns; that game is played in a baseball stadium in New York.

NOW THINGS GET INTERESTING
Hawaii Dec. 24 Boise State (12) vs. Oregon State (9)
Fight Hunger Dec. 27 BYU (1) vs. Washington (1)
Russell Athletic Dec. 28 Louisville (11) vs. Miami Fla. (4)
Buffalo Wild Wings Dec. 29 Kansas State (11) vs. Michigan (17)
Alamo Dec. 30 Oregon (9) vs. Texas (7)
Sun Dec. 31 UCLA (12) vs. Virginia Tech (5)
Gator Jan. 1 Georgia (7) vs. Nebraska (15)
Capital One Jan. 1 South Carolina (18) vs. Wisconsin (20)
Outback Jan. 1 Iowa (5) vs. LSU (12)
Rose Jan. 1 Michigan State (7) vs. Stanford (3)
Sugar Jan. 2 Alabama (27) vs. Oklahoma (15)
Cotton Jan. 3 Missouri (2) vs. Oklahoma State (7)
Orange Jan.3 Clemson (9) vs. Ohio State (20)
BCS Title Jan. 6 Florida State (16) vs. Auburn (1)

All 14 of these games feature P6 vs. P6 matchups. The most "interested" matchup is the Sugar Bowl, with 42 of you/us caring about the outcome. The runner-up is Wisky vs. Cocky, with 38. And, if you're rooting for chaos, you want the leaders' teams to lose. So that means rooting against Alabama, South Carolina, Florida State, Oklahoma, UCLA, Baylor and Michigan State. You'll definitely get a loser in the Sugar Bowl. Root for Oklahoma, because since Bama is favored, they will fall more if they lose. Florida State and Baylor are big favorites so don't expect a loss there.

Most importantly: gorge on the 35 games because when it's over, there's no more football til September.

Good luck! The following clip is true, and also a good reason why you shouldn't let your kids read/listen to this blog:

Sunday, December 08, 2013

P62013: The Regular Season Is in the Books

Games watched: Louisville-Cincy (Thurs); Mid-American championship (Friday); Oklahoma-Oklahoma State; Texas-Baylor; Southeastern championship; Pacific 12 championship (2nd TV); Big Ten championship; Atlantic Coast championship (2nd TV); Mountain West championship (a little, then fell asleep). 

Well, the regular season is over. A pretty good batch of games yesterday, including Sparty's surpising win over Ohio State to knock them out of the national championship game. So now, thanks to Sparty, we get the SEC in the championship, again. Way to go, guys.

The bowls are now set. Iowa is going to the Outback to play Louisana State. Notre Dame goes to the Pinstripe Bowl vs. RRRRutgers. Ohio heads to St. Petersberg for the Beef O'Brady's Bowl vs. East Carolina.

In the poll: In: Notre Dame. Out: Texas. Pretty quiet.

Biggest mover:  Mizzou fan Tippy had two big winners in Michigan State and Oklahoma, plus Notre Dame and Alabama who ticked up thanks to other teams losing. Tippy was up 15 points and more than 20 spots in the standings (to a tie for 17th).

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning?



The joke, if you don't know it, is right here. But the joke is on us, because a guy who doesn't like or pay attention to college football has taken the lead heading into bowl season. "Nope. I'm a Frayed Knot" had a great week, going plus 14 and moving into the top slot, two points ahead of "No F'n Clue." He has perfect picks in Groups A through E.

This Saturday, there is only one game in Division I-A. It is Army-Navy, and you should watch it and feel glad you live in America.


Reminder, the Pick Six game goes through the bowl season, to the final AP poll after all bowls are over. We'll be back with a bowl preview before the games start.

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

P62013: Week 14 Had Some Pretty Darn Good Games

Games watched: many of them. See below.

Hi everybody. Thanks for your patience in getting this week's update out to you. TMMPF left the HQ and headed to the desert of Arizona for Thanksgiving. The flight home was a frustrating disaster (supposed to land at 5pm, finally got home at quarter to midnight).

So let's talk about the games. On Tuesday we might have watched Northern Illinois. I think we did.

On Thursday, Texas beat Texas Tech. I miss watching Texas vs. Texas A&M Thanksgiving weekend. It was starting to feel like turkey and stuffing. Texas vs. Texas Tech is like Chinese food for Thanksgiving dinner. It's still tasty, it's just not the tradition you expected. I think I watched the Egg Bowl (Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State). I remember an exciting finish, which probably means I fell asleep on the couch.

Friday meant Iowa-Nebraska. One nice thing about Arizona is the games all start an hour early, so I only had to wait til 10am for the 11 o'clock kickoff. Iowa looked like the team we've been waiting to see since Ricky Stanzi's junior year. The offense is finally starting to gel and the defense was stout. It didn't hurt that Nebraska (and their coach) were in meltdown mode.



By the way: Duke and Michigan played in the Big Ten-ACC basketball challenge last night. That matchup made me realize: Duke football is better than Michigan football. Think about that for a minute.

Now to Alabama-Auburn. The ending was so great it's easy to overlook that the consensus No. 1 team in the country lost for the first time in over a year. The loss all but guaranteed two non-SEC teams will play for the national championship for the first time in almost a decade.

But of course, it was the ending that mattered. With the game tied 28-28, Alabama chose to try a 57-yard field goal instead of a Hail Mary or just kneeling and going to overtime. Auburn wisely put a receiver in the back of the end zone in case the kick came up short.

And it did.



In case you are more of a graphic mapping sort:


I heard/read many fans and commentators say they'd never seen anything like it. Except Bears fans have seen something exactly like it. In 2005, the Bears hosted the 49'ers in one of the windiest games I've ever seen. (Watch this video for great footage, but mute it because Chris Berman narrates.) At the end of the first half San Francisco tried a long field goal, and the Bears put Nathan Vasher in the back of the end zone just in case.



Devin Hester thought that was pretty cool, so the next year, he did it too.



Anyway, it was a cool play, it screwed 27 of you out of a first place team, and it opened the door for a Florida State-Ohio State championship game. (Of course, I still remember that West Virginia-Missouri championship game of 2007. Weird things happen in college football.) I didn't even get to all the great rivalry games like OSU-Meech and Oregon-Oregon State. It's damn late so I'll just say: they were good.

The poll: ND and USC lost and are out. Bluebloods Texas and Georgia replace them.

Best week: "SuperPups" up 11, with five winners/climbers.

Enough jibber jabber, despite the busy exciting week of football, who's winning?


Hello again, WTF panda. "No F'n Clue" takes sole possession of the lead. She has five (ed: I meant four, you can tell I did this late) of the six of the perfect pickset. Top kitty: Tigger, in 3rd. Top kid: "Lightning McQueen" in 9th. Top dog: Anna in 24th.

The links:

P62013 Scoreboard
Points for each team
AP Top 25 Poll

This weekend, we've got conference championships in the Big Ten, SEC, Pacific Twelve, Mid-American and ACC. Plus a handful of Big XII that will determine that champion, and a bunch of games in the American that probably mean something but I just don't care and probably neither do you. It's your last real Saturday of football until fall 2014, so enjoy it.