P6 2013: Week 3 and Winning Feels Lousy

Games watched: TCU-Texas Tech (Thurs), Boise-Air Force (Fri), Stanford-Army, Akron-Michigan (the end), USC-Boston College (look-ins), Oregon-Tennessee (2nd TV), Alabama-Texas A&M (until Iowa started), Iowa-Iowa St, Auburn-Miss. St (a little), Ohio-Marshall (some), Notre Dame-Purdue, Utah-Oregon State, Arizona St-Wisconsin.

Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day. Today is cold, gray and rainy. It's fitting to reflect on a day where Iowa, Notre Dame and Ohio all won, and yet, for the first two games at least, the wins felt like losses. 

The 11am timeslot saw a bunch of awful games. In fact, player "Lizzie Bear" and I spent more time watching Florence + the Machine's unplugged set on Palladia than we did watching college football. Since Iowa played at 5pm and ND at 7pm, we just surfed around multiple games, including Army hanging with Stanford and the almost-upset of the year, Akron nearly beating Michigan. We had all morning to wait until The Game Of The Century Of The Week, Alabama-Texas A&M. Then the Iowa game, then ND, and a lot of pacing.  

I should say first, we saw some awesome plays. First, the Alabama-Texas A&M game. Now, I'm as sick of John Manziel as the next person. I wish he would go away from Sunday to Friday. I don't want to hear about him off the field. But on the field, it is exciting to watch him do things like this: 

I'm not sure that was even the most athletic play of the game. I was amazed by this interception by Gino (or Tino) Sunseri of Alabama (he didn't really run this fast):

Then the Iowa game started. Iowa jumped out to a 27-7 lead, then let ISU get back into it. I've watched enough Iowa-ISU games to know that the Clones would fight their way back into it (and probably win since it was in Ames). And I've watched Iowa make so many stupid mistakes on special teams recently that I just knew something was going to go wrong. And sure enough, ISU scored to make it 27-14, executed an onside kick that Iowa should have defended, and drove down to make it 27-21. 

And as ISU was driving for the game-winning touchdown ... BJ Lowery made my fricking day.  

Holy shit was that a cool interception. Let's look at that in .gif mode.

The end result was a 27-21 victory and reclaiming whatever ugly trophy goes to the winner of this rivalry. Iowa won, but the fourth quarter was so close to a meltdown, it didn't inspire any confidence in the season.

Victory. 

Meanwhile, the ND game started, and they looked pretty uninspiring too. They ended up beating Purdue by a touchdown, but considering the Irish were favored by 20.5 points, it was a pretty "bleh" performance. Tommy Rees threw way too many times, despite that ND played from behind for most of the game.

The Pick Six: My P6'ers were also pretty blah. Miami had a bye, Texas got killed (again), and UCLA thumped Nebraska. Yes, I violated my own rule by picking teams that play each other. Oops. So between UCLA, Oregon and South Carolina, I only had three wins this week. Surprisingly, I moved from 41st to 33rd (tie) even though I stayed at 61 points.

The poll: Hello to Arizona State (congrats to four of you with the Sun Devils) and Texas Tech, a team no one in the game picked. Adios to Nebraska (ugly loss) and TCU (reasonable loss. They might be back).

Best of the week: Not a ton of people moved up a lot, since there wasn't a lot of movement at the top. It was good to have Arizona St. or UCLA (+3) or one of a handful of +2s. Congrats to "No F'n Clue" and "SuperPups" who were +8 (and on a related note, are currently No. 2 and No. 3 in the game.)

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning?

"Dirty Diapers" lost some ground with A&M but gained with UCLA and Baylor for a +3 on the week and another week at the top. With wife "No F'n Clue" in second place, they are the dominant couple in the early going. Top dog: "SuperPups" in 3rd. Top kid: "Daddy's reason to like softball" in 15th. Top kitty: my furry little friend Franklin "The F Bomb" in 22nd.

The links:

P62013 Scoreboard
Points for each team
AP Top 25 Poll

Next week: There are a couple interesting games, like Oklahoma State vs. West Virginia and Florida vs. Tennessee, but there's only one ranked vs. ranked game, Arizona State at Stanford. So root for your teams, but it'll probably be pretty quiet in the P6 unless we see crazy upsets.

P62013: Week 2 Finally Sees Some Movement

Games Watched: Sacramento St. at Arizona St. (til I got bored), Wake Forest at Boston College; UCF at FIU (look in), Florida vs. Miami (2nd TV), Iowa vs. Southwest Missouri St., Bowling Green vs. Kent St. (look in), Georgia-South Carolina, Oklahoma-West Va (2nd TV), Michigan-Notre Dame, Texas-BYU (2nd TV), USC-Washington State (intermittent).

It was a bit of a rough week. The hometown high school lost on a field goal in the fourth quarter. Iowa only scored 7 points on a I-AA school in the first half. Notre Dame lost badly. And two of my Pick Sixers tanked on national TV.

Let's start with a stat. Last year in the regular season, Notre Dame gave up 0, 3, 3, 6, 6, and 10 in its six best defensive efforts. That's 28 points. Last  night in the horror show up in Ann Arbor, the defense gave up 41 points. Let's move on.

In the poll: A lot of people had the teams that bit it: Notre Dame and South Carolina and to a lesser extent Texas and Florida. I had two of 'em. So the average score went down, from 68 to 66. Oklahoma beat a bad West Virginia team by single digits, at home, and Oklahoma moves up? Did any voter actually watch that game?

Welcome: Miami, Mississippi State. Adding the 'Canes takes the sting off of losing Texas. And, the balance of power is complete in the What Ever State Mississippi Is Called State. 

Adios: Texas, USC. Boy that 2005 championship game was a long time ago, wasn't it? In Week 1 we lost the first Group E (Oregon State) and Group D (Boise). Now Texas has the honor of being the first Group C to depart.

Best Week: "The A Team" and "Anna" used Michigan to gain nine points this week. I hope you feel dirty.

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning? Speaking of dirty ...

The Pick Six leadership stays in the suburbs of Des Moines for a second week. "No F'n Clue" hands the temporary crown to her husband, "Dirty Diapers." Look for a new champ next week, as Dirty Diapers has both Alabama and A&M, who play each other on Saturday.

The links:

P62013 Scoreboard
Points for each team
AP Top 25 Poll

Looking ahead: In addition to Bama-Aggies, there's Nebraska-UCLA and Wisconsin-Arizona State.

P62013: Kickoff Weekend

Games watched: N. Carolina-S. Carolina (a little), Ole Miss-Vandy, Miami-FIU, Michigan State-Western Mitten, Kansas State-N. Dakota St., ND-Temple, Iowa-Northern, E. Wash-Ore. St (the end), Georgia-Clemson, LSU-TCU (2nd TV), Northwestern-Cal (until sleepy).

I had kind of a weird Thursday. Normally I like to rush home from work and plop down on the couch to watch that first, glorious game of the season. But this Thursday I had to work late on a project, then attempted to get from the northern suburbs to downtown to attend a party for alumni of a former employer. Traffic sucked, I made it halfway and got a text from a friend saying don't bother coming down here. In my hassled disgust to get home, I took a wrong turn then realized I'd never get home in time to eat.

I was hungry, I was grumpy, I pulled into the first food place I could find, a gyro stand. I ordered and impatiently waited for my food, and paced around the corner into the seating area.

And there .... and there. Was the South Carolina-North Carolina game. Live college football. And then I was okay.

It was also a weird Saturday because Iowa and Notre Dame played at 2:30 pm. In the 11am time slot, we just meandered through a bunch of meaningless games (Villanova-BC, Purdue-Cincy), not really watching any of them. Then I had to juggle attention on both games, then watch Iowa lose as painfully as any of the awful losses of the last three years.

But Georgia-Clemson was pretty cool. Congrats to the nine of you with the guts to pick the Tigers.

It was also weird because of all the I-AA wins over I-A teams. In fact there were eight of them:

• Towson beat UConn
  
• Southern Utah over South Alabama (although So. Ala is a recent Div. I-A joiner)
  
• Samford beat Georgia State (although Geo. St. is a recent Div. I-A joiner)
  
• Eastern Washington over Oregon State (Beavers were ranked No. 25)
  
• McNeese State beat South Florida (like UConn, a member of the former Big East)
  
• Northern Iowa beat Iowa State, the most relieving schaudenfraudistic game of the day
  
• Eastern Illinois thumped San Diego State, 40-19!
  
• North Dakota State beat Kansas State in a game we watched. The Bison used an awesome drive at the end of the game to win it.

If you're a fan of the underdog, you can read more here. If you have no fear of the underdog, here's Spoon.

Right ... how'd my Pick Six do? Yes, back to you. Well, good on you if you had the aforementioned Clemson or Washington. The Huskies beat Boise State 38-6 in the debut of their new home stadium. I don't know if I'd call it an upset. Washington is a good-to-decent team, and this might be the year Boise falls back into mediocrity.

Sucks to be ... Boise, Georgia and TCU. Ranked teams losing on the road is not rewarded, even if you lost to a solid team like Clemson or LSU. Oregon State or K-State: losing at home to lower division teams is bad. Nebraska: edging out Wyoming by 3 points is not cool.

Best of the week: Early congrats to a trio of +7 players: "No F'n Clue," who apparently does have a clue, "Dirty Diapers," and "Bo's Boys," who wisely avoided picking Bo's boys (Nebraska, coached by Bo Pelini).

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning?

I almost ran the Beavis and Butt-Head picture to symbolize Week 1 leader "No F'n Clue" but then realized that those guys actually do have a clue sometimes. Besides, who doesn't love a confused panda. "No F'n Clue" broke the preseason tie with "Nope. I'm a Frayed Knot" (love that name) and is only six points off the perfect set. 

Oh okay I can't tease you guys like that, here's Beavis and Butt-Head. 

Bookmark this link, it won't change all season: P62013 Scoreboard.

Two more links for you: Points for each team (also found on the second tab of the scoreboard) and the AP Top 25 Poll.

Game of the upcoming week: Notre Dame (24 picks) vs. Michigan (17 picks). Good luck to the nine of you who picked the Irish AND the Skunkbears. You better be rooting for the right one on Saturday.

MPF004's Picks Explained

As fearless leader of the Pick Six, I describe the rationale for my picks every year for laudation (or mockery). 

The Group A pick boils down to Alabama vs. Anybody Else. My choice of "anybody else" is less a vote of no confidence in Bama and more of an acknowledgment of the difficulty of maintaining a dynasty in modern college football. Nebraska had an amazing run in the 1990s, Florida State was dominant for a stretch, USC was nearly unbeatable in the mid-2000s. All of them came back to earth. Besides, I think most people will pick Alabama, and if you want to win, you've got to take a risk.

Georgia was five yards and three seconds away from the national championship game last year, but I don't think they'll repeat that success. Ohio State and Stanford had great seasons as well. But I look at Oregon and I see a team that hardly ever loses. Despite losing Chip Kelly to the NFL, they keep the same offensive system. Plus they have a kid from my old high school. Amazing athletes + hometown sentimentality is enough to outweigh those ugly, ugly uniforms.

In Group B, I'm staying far away from Clemson, Texas A&M and Louisville. I think all three are far too mercurial and likely to finish the season much lower than this. So it basically boils down to who I think will win the Florida-South Carolina game, as these two are otherwise evenly matched. I like the wiliness of Steve Spurrier to exploit the weaknesses in Will Muschamp's defense. I expect an SEC East title and a boost into the Top 5 for South Carolina.

In Group C, I was torn between Notre Dame and Texas. None of the "States" tripped my trigger, although I think FSU is in the best position among the three to run the table. In the end I thought there's enough that can go wrong for ND, and a wide open Big XII, that I felt better with Bevo. Plus I won't feel doubly-awful if/when ND tanks.

Group D was somewhat easier. I've already picked Texas to win the Big XII, so no Oklahoma or TCU. I think Boise will plummet on its first loss and probably not recover. I am not picking Michigan. So, I ended up with Nebraska. I think they'll have a nice recovery from last year's embarrassments, the schedule gets easier, and I have a bonus reason to hate Michigan on Nov. 9.

Group E is weird: three Pac 12s and two Big Tens. I've already got a Big Ten team, so those two are out. No way I'm picking USC, and I don't know why Oregon State made the poll over someone like Michigan State. So I reluctantly choose UCLA. I realized after I made this pick that the Bruins and Huskers play each other (on Sept. 14).

As for the all important Group F. It couldn't be someone from the SEC because that conference is already well-represented. I didn't want to pick Iowa ... not enough confidence there. Michigan State is very tempting. They went 7-6 but had an awesome defense and lost five of those by a combined 13 points. But then I'd have to root for a team that plays Iowa and Notre Dame. Kansas State looks impressive but I gave that one to Franklin "The F Bomb." (Note: this was written before K-State's loss to North Dakota State last night.) I didn't pick an ACC team above, so that was looking good.

I needed someone off the radar, someone with talent but not in the media spotlight. Someone with a talented roster and a good coach.

Last year I picked South Florida. They went 2-10 and Skip Holtz got fired. This year I'm going even further southeast ... to Miami.

First and probably last time the Fresh Prince shows up on my blog. 

Site of January's Irish Massacree, home of "Da U". The ACC is wide open, with only two teams in the Top 25, both on the other half of the conference. Miami's hardest games are home vs. Virginia Tech, at Florida State and home vs. Florida but a 9-3 record is certainly reasonable and could get them into the Top 20 or better.

Last year all my hard work and research garnered me a 38th place finish. We'll see how I do in 2013.

Thomas The Train: The 2012 Pick Six Champion

Entries are rolling in for this year's Pick Six game. But before we kick off the season, a moment to discuss last year's winner.

Each year the winner gets a small prize. Usually I get a photo with the winner and their prize. But since last year's winner is in eastern Ohio, I didn't have a chance to take a picture of the winner, "Thomas the Train." And I couldn't really call him, because he is only 1 year old.

I did take a photo of the first place prize (and the bonus for the runner-up, courtesy of 2011 champ Sidney:)

I finally connected with "Super Why" and "Cat in the Hat", the parental units of young "Thomas." They agreed to coordinate an interview. I am grateful for this, because I'm learning that interpreting the proto-language of a 1-year-old isn't easy. His mom explained: "We answered with his favorite words because he didnt want to pay attention when we asked him  :). We provided our translation of what we think he would say."

TMMPF.com: How did you make your picks as an eight month old?
Thomas the Train: "Dino"
Translation: "As with everything, I trusted my parents. Their help with my picks ended up being the best of both of them, just like me. Besides, how can you go wrong with Ohio State?"

TMMPF.com: What was your reaction when you heard you won the Pick Six game?
Thomas the Train:  "yay!"
Translation: " I was shocked, at a year old I had never won anything before! But seriously, Ohio State went 12-0. I had a pretty good idea."

TMMPF.com: As a former champion, what's your advice to people as they make their picks?   Thomas the Train: "it's hot"
Translation: "Don't overthink it...I may have trusted my parents last year but this year I am going to leave it up to chance. We'll see if I can repeat!"

Thanks to "Super Why" and "Cat In the Hat" (by the way, I totally get those references now ... I've seen my fair share of PBS Kids) for their help in securing access to our winner. 

Finally, here's a picture of the champ with his prize. Just think, people: in four months, this could be you. 

"Thomas the Train," 2012 Pick Six Champion.

Time To Play Pick Six 2013!

If you live in the Upper Midwest, like many TMMPF.com readers, you've noticed a certain chill in the air. A crispness that says ... it's football season. And as of today, it IS officially football season, because the Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll was released, and that means the Sixth Annual TMMPF Pick Six Game. Cue the Viking kitties.

The Viking Kitty video actually won't play within Blogger. Watch here to get psyched up.

THE GAME IS EASY! If you've played in previous years, you know how simple it is (to enter at least, winning is a different story) ....

The preseason Top 25 poll is divided into quintiles (a word that probably gets used once a year and on this blog only):

A: Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, Stanford, Georgia
B: South Carolina, Texas A&M, Clemson, Louisville, Florida
C: Florida State, Louisiana State, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Texas
D: Oklahoma, Michigan, Nebraska, Boise State, Texas Christian
E: UCLA, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Southern Cal, Oregon State

Pick one team from each group. Then one unranked team (Group F). There's your Pick Six. The goal is to have the highest ranked teams at the end of the season. (The game ends after the bowls, with the final AP poll in January.)

FAMILY FUN! We've learned the game is more fun when multiple members of your family or household participate. Think you don't care about that Georgia/Clemson game? You will, if you've got the 'Dogs and your spouse has the Tigers!

Cats can play ....

This is Franklin on my lap as I entered my 2011 picks. 

Dogs can play ....

USC or UCLA ... which kibble looks tastier?

Heck in 2011 we had a fetus enter the game. He finished 19th. The next year after he was born, he played again and finished first!! (I hope to have more from last year's winner, "Thomas the Train," next week.)

Last year we had a TMMPF-record 60 entries. The more the merrier, so share the info with friends, co-workers, your bookie, whoever you think would enjoy.

PRIZES! Every year I give a kitchsy, college-football themed prize for first place. The last few years have been memorabilia for teams from the Southeast, which is ironic given I live in Big Ten/Notre Dame country. But along with the glory, you could walk away with a prize valued at up to TEN WHOPPING DOLLARS.

You don't have to know anything about football. You don't even have to be sober.

DO I NEED TO DO RESEARCH? If you want to ... whether you are online ...

...or prefer old school newspaper.

IT'S TIME TO ENTER! To play, simply submit your six teams and a name for your entry. If you submit picks without a team name, I will pick one for you. That can be dangerous. If you played last year, you can keep your name or choose a new one.

Send your picks to tmmpf.blog (at) gmail dotcom. Any advice, decision angst you felt, or pictures of kitties/dogs/babies making picks is always welcome, and in fact is a key component of the game.

Call your friends...

Send an email ...

tell them to get their picks in!

DEADLINE: The deadline is Thursday, August 29, 4:55 pm Central, which is five minutes before the first game of the season. No I don't know why North Carolina vs. South Carolina (and Kent State) felt it necessary to start at 5pm.

Every Sunday (God willin' and the Creek don't rise), I'll post a recap on Saturday's games and an updated scoreboard.

QUESTIONS? Reach out to me at my email address if you've got it, the email address above if you don't, or leave a comment here on the blog if it's general.

Thanks and good luck to everyone!

If the sight of this doesn't make you retch, congratulations on giving up on twenty years of hate. You've just identified your Group A pick.

It's Coming

The coaches poll was released on Thursday. Which is meaningless, except for serving as a milestone that we are that much closer to the Associated Press poll. Which means:

August 17, people. Mark your calendars. Get out your Post-It notes and dog food bowls. We'll be back with more details then.

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.

BEST OF MPF 2012

BEST DAY: Feb. 28. It started with an early afternoon doctor's appointment and ended with our first child being born, around 11:30pm. Any other year the winner would be Aug. 24: I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time, then to a Cleveland Indians game.

BEST PICTURE: All year I figured it would be this one, taken minutes after her birth:

But I just love this one too:

BEST AD: (tie) AT&T aired this Olympics ad several hours after the event in the commercial actually happened live in London. Amazing use of technology to capture the viewer's attention. Co-winner: This ad that makes fun of people who stand in line to buy a portable telephone. Hilariously dead-on.

BEST NEWS STORY INVOLVING A CAT: This cat is mayor of a small Alaska town.

BEST AMATEUR ATHLETE: Manti Te'o, linebacker, University of Notre Dame. Runner-up: Missy Franklin, swimmer/lip-syncher, America.

Manti Te'o, after beating Michigan.

BEST MOVIE: Argo (dir. Ben Affleck).

WORST MOVIE: The Dictator (dir. Larry Charles). Not that it was awful, but I only saw two movies in 2012.

BEST TV SHOW: "Louie" (FX).

BEST NOTRE DAME GAME: We saw the 17-14 win over BYU on Oct. 20.

BEST BASEBALL GAME: The Indians game I guess. We did not go to any Cubs games.

BEST WEEK: Chicago week on Conan O'Brien's show. (June 11-14).

BEST CAREER MOVE: Accepting a new position, then getting laid off (with severance) from my old job before I could turn in my notice. Yes, this really happened. (Aug. 22)

BEST ALBUM:

BEST SONG: "We Take Care of Our Own" by Bruce.

WORST/CATCHIEST SONG: The "red, yellow, blue" song on the baby's exersaucer. Runner-up: "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.

BEST ROAD TRIP: To Cleveland and Buffalo (Aug. 23-27).

BEST CONCERT (OUTDOORS): Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Wrigley Field (Sept. 7).

BEST CONCERT (INDOORS): Ray LaMontagne at the Chicago Theatre (Dec. 1). Runner-up: Alejandro Escovedo at the Prairie Center for the Arts (Apr. 21).

Thanks for reading my year-end review. I hope 2013 finds you happy and healthy and at peace.

The TMMPF Pick Six Bowl Viewer's Guide

There are 35 bowls in college football these days, way too many for the average fan to follow. (Way too many for even a die-hard fan, but that's a topic for a different day.)

Because we host the Pick Six game, we realize our readers wonder how the bowls will affect the scores and standings in the game. You'll only want to tune into the games that matter.

You Don't Care:

Of the 44 teams in the Pick Six game, 10 didn't make a bowl. (Arkansas, Ohio State, Auburn, Illinois, Iowa, Mizzou, North Carolina, South Florida, Tennessee, Utah). So with 34 active teams and 70 playing in bowls, you know there's a long list of games that don't matter at all.

None of these teams are in the Pick Six:
Dec. 15 New Mexico (Albuquerque): Arizona vs. Nevada (you especially don't care because it was played yesterday)

Dec. 21 Beef O'Brady's (St. Petersburg): UCF vs. Ball State

Dec. 22 New Orleans: East Carolina vs. Louisiana-Lafayette 

Dec. 24 Hawaii (Honolulu): Fresno State vs. SMU

Dec. 26 Pizza (Detroit): Central Michigan vs. Western Kentucky 

Dec. 27 Holiday (San Diego): Baylor  vs. UCLA

Dec. 27 Belk (Charlotte): Cincinnati  vs. Duke  

Dec. 27 Military (Washington): San Jose State  vs. Bowling Green   

Dec. 28 Meineke (Houston): Minnesota vs. Texas Tech  

Dec. 29 Armed Forces (Fort Worth): Rice  vs. Air Force  

Dec. 31 Liberty (Memphis): Iowa State vs. Tulsa

Jan. 5 BBVA Compass (Birmingham): Pittsburgh vs. Ole Miss  

Jan. 6 GoDaddy.com (Mobile): Kent State  vs. Arkansas State 

You Only Care If Your Name Is On This List:

Because these games feature only one team picked by one player. You'll be watching these teams alone:

Dec. 15 Famous Idaho Potato (Boise): Utah State vs. Toledo (NO Bowl Game) (and Toledo lost yesterday, sorry)
Dec. 20 Poinsettia (San Diego): BYU vs. San Diego State (How Pathetic!)

Dec. 31 Music City (Nashville): Vanderbilt vs. N.C. State (Sidney) 

Jan. 1 Gator (Jacksonville): Mississippi State vs. Northwestern (Daddy's reason to like softball)  

A Lot Of People Picked These Teams: 

I use the term "a lot" liberally, because you'll see one of these has just 2 pickers. Hey, 2 is more than one. The most popular game is the Rose Bowl with 46 picks of Wisky and/or Stanford.  ND/Bama has 31 players, meaning about half the game picked one of the other of the title combatants. (Not exactly because six players picked both teams.) These games will have some P6 eyeballs.

The numbers in parentheses indicate how many P6 players picked that team:
Dec. 22 Las Vegas: Boise State (14) vs. Washington (9)

Dec. 28 Independence (Shreveport): Ohio (4) vs. Louisiana-Monroe

Dec. 28 Russell Athletic (Orlando):  Rutgers (1) vs. Virginia Tech (11) 

Dec. 29 Pinstripe (Bronx): West Virginia (6) vs. Syracuse (1) 

Dec. 29 Fight Hunger (San Francisco): Navy vs. Arizona State (2)  

Dec. 29 Alamo (San Antonio):  Texas (12) vs. Oregon State

Dec. 29 Buffalo Wild Wings (Tempe): TCU (11) vs. Michigan State (7)

Dec. 31 Sun (El Paso): USC (15) vs. Georgia Tech (4) 

Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A (Atlanta):  LSU (9) vs. Clemson (8) 

Jan. 1 Heart of Dallas: Purdue vs. Oklahoma State (9) 

Jan. 1 Outback (Tampa):  South Carolina (8) vs. Michigan (15)
Jan. 1 Capital One (Orlando):  Georgia (10) vs. Nebraska (11)

Jan. 1 Rose (Pasadena):  Stanford (19) vs. Wisconsin (27)

Jan. 1 Orange (Miami): Florida State (14) vs. N. Illinois  

Jan. 2 Sugar (New Orleans):  Florida (9) vs. Louisville (7)
Jan. 3 Fiesta (Glendale):  Oregon (11) vs. Kansas State (11)

Jan. 4 Cotton (Arlington): Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma (7)

Jan. 7 BCS Title (Miami):  Notre Dame (11) vs. Alabama (18)

There are some exciting conflicts and overlaps that affect the players in the Top Ten. We'll get into those scenarios in the next post. 

P6 2012: Week 14 Is Just Waiting for the Bowls

Last Saturday was the last full week of football. Yesterday was mostly conference championships and the occasional conference without a championship game (Big 12) playing out the schedule.

As a result, nothing much changed in the AP Top 25. Georgia lost and moved down three spots. The three teams in between moved up one notch accordingly. Everything else down to No. 13 stayed the same.

The only notable move was Nebraska (sorry Kelly and Larry) who was punished for getting killed by Wisconsin in the -- oh sorry, looks like Wisconsin just scored again. They fall nine points to No. 23. Also down is Kent State, losers in OT to the MAC champions from DeKalb. Only climbers of significance are Boise (+5) and Big East Champions (snort) Louisville, getting re-ranked at 22 and +4 points.

This week's trivial note: Clemson is the only team from Group "C" remaining that is ranked.

Best week: You needed to have Boise, plus a couple other gainers. That would be "M-I-L" who finished the week +8. Honorable mention to the awesomely named "Mo' Mini, Mo' Problems", who makes me thinking Verne Troyer aka "Mini Me" from the Austin Powers movies.

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning? 

"Flying Cougars" keeps her lead for another week. Heading into bowl season, she's got a one-point lead over "I Hate Caillou". Oh, and by the way, they have five of six teams the same.

Standings. Team points.

Even though the regular season is over (minus the Army-Navy game next Saturday, watch it if you love America), the Pick Six game is not over. The game is decided by the final AP Poll, which is held after the bowls. I'll have more info on the bowls before the games begin. Check out where your teams are playing and enjoy the games!

P6 2012: Week 13 Just Kinda Rubs Its Chin In Wonder

It's Monday night. It's been a little under 48 hours since Notre Dame beat Southern Cal to finish the season 12-0 and cement a spot in the national championship game. The sense of "what the bleepity fuck" really hasn't gone away yet. I wrote to a friend today: "(The season) has been more surreal and dreamlike than chest thumping. All season I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was pretty nervous Sat night. Even when we won, it wasn't a triumphant "YES" moment but more of a 'hunh. whoa. wow.' kind of moment."

There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done, so let's move on to the poll: 

Adios: Louisville (was 19, lost to UConn in OT), Rrrrutgers and my Scott Clark references (was 21, killed by Pitt. Pitt!), Mississippi State (was 25, lost to in-state rival Ole Miss, who came in 5-6).

Hello: Northwestern at 22* and Boise at 25. (We had a tie at #25 last week, meaning there were 26 teams in the poll. This week we're back to 25, so three depart and two join.)

Biggest movers: Very little movement in the Top Ten. Stanford is now 10-2 and moves up three spots to No. 8. Congrats to the tree or the bird or the color or the whatever the hell. Kent State and Northern both move up 5 points in advance of what should be an entertaining MAC championship game Friday night. Texas -5 for being schizophrenic. Little yellow pills are available for the 12 of you who took Texas with your "C" pick. (Kegs of cheap Milwaukee-produced beer are available for the 27 of us who took Wisconsin in that slot.) South Carolina and Oklahoma +2 for dispatching in-state rivals. Florida State and Clemson -3 for losing to in-state rivals. Statistical proof that losing really is worse than winning.

Best week: If you want to gain points this late in the season, you better have some red in your game. "Huskers Du" picked Stanford and Nebraska, who collectively got 6 points. Her other four teams were flat, but no matter. Plus-six takes the best of the week and gives her a bump from 14th to 9th.

Enough jibber-jabber, who's winning? 

The top four players all lost points. But "Flying Cougars" had the least bad week, only -1, and retakes the lead with 95 points, one better than "I Hate Caillou" who makes a nice showing at +2. Top kid: "Thomas the Train." Top kitty: Mutchka. Top dog: "Silly Milly."

Gamewide: we collectively dropped a point and a half, down from 55.0 to 53.6.  I'm barely below the Mendoza line with 53 points, still not even leading the household. I guess there's always the bowl season.

Standings. Team points.

There are really only a few games left to whet your whistle before bowl season. As mentioned, there's the MAC championship on Friday night, the Pac-12 championship (UCLA vs. Stanford) also on Friday, then the SEC, Big Ten and ACC championships on Friday. Texas vs. K-State should be a decent game but much less meaningful that two weeks ago.

* -- what are you doing to do. They are 9-3 in a crappy Big Ten. The only other Big Ten team even receiving votes is Penn State. The champion of the East division is 7-5 and received zero votes from any of the 60 voters. This is the Big Ten in 2012.

P6 2012: Week 11 and 12 OMG-WTF-LOL UBERUPDATE

Last week, real life intervened. I couldn't get the P6 written (although I did update the googledoc, if you checked the standings). So this week, a quick review of the Week 11 action (there wasn't much) and a deeper look at Week 12.

First up, the Week 11 summary, pieced together from some notes I jotted. --MPF004

P6 2012: Week 11 Heard a Thunderous Sound

And that sound was either a "crack" or a "thud." The "crack" was Texas A&M piercing the invincibility of Alabama. After about seven minutes of football, it was 14-0 A&M. Bama could never recover. The "thud" was at the final gun when Bama fell from the ranks of the undefeateds, creating an opening for K-State and Notre Dame to claim one of the two slots in the national championship game.

Big gainers: nobody except Michigan +3, to rejoin the poll as the least deserving in the poll and the most over-rated three-loss team in the country. It was a quiet week.

Big losers: Louisville -9 after getting killed by Syracuse.  Alabama -3 and (at least so we thought at the time) its chances at the national championship. Toledo -3 and out (losing to Ball State will do that to ya).

Best week: Congrats to "Keiimik," "Haskins Mama," and "The Big D" who all had a +7.

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning?



"Thomas the Train" and "Dix Pix Six" both tumbled, leaving an opening for our old friend from Week 7 and 8, "Flying Cougars," who shamefully benefitted from Michigan's win.

Gamewide average: basically flat, from 54.1 to 54.0.

In Week 12, Flying Cougars has a matchup between Ohio State and Wisconsin. But more importantly, what about those losses?


P6 2012: Week 12 Watched It and Still Couldn't Believe It

I think we all figured Notre Dame would cruise past Wake Forest (Jim Grobe: good guy, runs a clean program, has a MAC feather in his cap, but was way overmatched). And I think some were hopeful that stodgy, tough Stanford could hang with the high-flyin' Ducks of Oregon.
But nobody saw Oregon losing AND K-State losing, particularly the way they did. Add it all up and I get email messages like this:

N D # 1

Didn't think this morning this could happen.  Hope you got to watch/listen to the games!!!!!!

And pictures like this (click to embiggen):



Also: Tennessee fired Derek Dooley on Sunday (cue sad Scott Miller).

I was speechless Saturday night and I'm still at a loss for words (mostly because it's late and I want to get this posted so I can go to bed). All I can say is, if Notre Dame can beat USC, featuring a redshirt freshman making his first collegiate start, then they will play for the national championship. Those words are so bizarre and so true.

To the poll:

Adios to Southern Cal, Louisana Tech and Texas Tech. Ahhh, don't pretend to be sad (said with a Michael Corleone "ahhh"). You didn't have either of those Techs, and if you had probation-battered Southern Cal, well, it's your own fault. Welcome to: Oklahoma State (an original Group "D", making 9 players happy), Mississippi State (unloved and unchosen by the Pick Sixers) and Northern Illinois, making this week's Top 25 doubly MAC-tastic since Kent State is still there. Being a Chicago-based game, I'm surprised no one jumped on the Huskies as a Pick Sixth. I guess all that Midwestern love went to the Irish, and rightly so you pickers!

By the way, is Georgia really the third best team in the country? Despite losing in OT, when you look at their body of work, it's not Oregon? Or, you know, 11-0 Ohio State?

Biggest winners: Notre Dame obviously, and I'm not talking about the two points in the poll. But back to the rankings math: Oklahoma State, who beat the former No. 23 Red Raiders of Texas Tech. Stanford, +3 for beating the Ducks and making Saturday historically awesome. Michigan, again, improving 3 points, clearly not based on anything special they did Saturday.

Big losers: Voters did not look kindly on losing to 4-5 Baylor and dropped K-State five spots. USC: dropped five notches (and out) after that pathetic performance against cross-town rival USC. Oregon down 4.

Best week: I still don't know (yet) what Caillou is, and why "I Hate Caillou" hates it so much, although I assume I'm going to find out soon enough. Dislikes aside, my old buddy in North Carolina came through with a mightly +12, benefitting from Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, Stanford and ND, all of whom gained a couple notches apiece. Despite a huge gain, he only moves from 7th to 5th in the game. Who could have possibly topped him?

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning?

"Dix Pix Six" scored a +7 on the week, good enough for 97 points and a one-point lead over last week's leader, "Flying Cougars." I'm way down at 34th, partially because I put my Pick Six "A" faith in this guy:



Top kid: "Thomas the Train." Top cat: Mutchka. Top dog: "Silly Milly." Gamewide: up one point, from 54.0 to 55.0. So I guess it was a good week for our teams, overall.

Standings: read 'em and weep.

We're down to the last full week of the regular season. The last week sees classic rivalries like Alabama-Auburn and Notre Dame-USC, both of which need to dispatch weaker foes to keep their slot in the championship game. There are other exciting rivalries that will move the standings, like South Carolina-Clemson and Ohio State-Michigan. And, uh, Iowa-Nebraska. A game that I planned my Thanksgiving around to make sure I'd be home for. Oh well, at least there's the Iron Bowl too.

Good luck next week. Keep an eye on your teams to see how they finish it out!

P6 2012: Week 10 Has Found The First Odd Man Out

Games watched: EMU-Ohio (Thurs, parts); Va Tech-Miami (Thurs, somewhere between Ohio and sleep); Wash-Cal (Fri, first half); Mizzou-Fla (snippets); Oklahoma-Iowa State (2nd tv); Michigan-Minnesota; Iowa-Indiana (as little as possible, 2nd tv); Nebraska-Michigan State (snippets); Pitt-ND; Oregon-USC (2nd tv); K-St-Okla St (flip at commercials); Bama-LSU.

Saturday was the rare day when I was able to watch all four of the top teams in action, at least partially. Notre Dame kicked off at 2:30 and didn't end until three overtimes later, around 6:45. Oregon-USC kicked off at 6pm, and the game was out of reach before we could switch over. I will give credit to Southern Cal for hanging in there and occasionally keeping it close, but I don't know what you can say when a team can score 62 points and not really look like they broke a sweat. Meanwhile, K-State dispatched Oklahoma State in a night game. I'm not sure K-State's stadium has ever been that electric at night. As for Bama-LSU: despite my urgings as an ND fan and LSU Pick Six holder, they could not unseat Alabama, who truly looks every bit the Number One team in the country.

After 10 weeks, we basically know the profile of every team (with exceptions like West Virginia and Texas, who seem to flip a coin to decide if they'll be good any given week). And generally, I'm not given to big pronouncements about what can and will happen at the end of the season: remember that Kansas-West Virginia national championship in 2007? Exactly. But having said all that: I don't see anyone on the schedule of Alabama, Oregon or K-State who can or will beat them.

Notre Dame, on the other hand, could easily lose to any of the next three teams, just as they could have (should have) lost to Pitt yesterday. A flat defense, more quarterback roulette, a case of fumble-itis ... any of things could derail the Irish, especially against an opponent who knows that a win would make their season.

So yeah, Notre Dame is Number 4. But I'm looking at a three-man race from now til December 1.

To the poll: Three re-entries. First up:

No one is going to get that joke except TM ("QBKatt") and perhaps the New York City residents/alums in the group. Everytime Scott Clark (former sports anchor for WABC-Channel 7) said the name of the State University of New Jersey, he said it like this:

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-UT-GERS!

It was awesome. We moved away in 2007 and still say it like Scott Clark.

Also, Texas (more on them in a second) and MAC token of the week, the Toledo Rockets. Special shout-out to "NO Bowl Game" who visited us here in the suburbs recently, and had the temerity to pick a MAC school as his Pick Sixth. (Yes that's right Pick Sixers, if you come out to the burbs and visit TMMPF HQ, you will probably get a personal shout-out in the blog. This is how bribery works, man.)

Adios: Boise State (losing to Sparty doesn't look as good in November); the other schizophrenia special, West Virginia; and everyone's favorite ex-Michigan coach* and his new Arizona squad. I mean, c'mon, they kept it within 55 points of UCLA!

Big gainers: The previously mentioned walking case of schizophrenia known as the Texas Longhorns re-enters the poll at 19. That's +7 points for a team that lost 63-21 to a team that lost at home, at night, twice in five weeks. (In Oklahoma's defense, they lost to the current No. 3 and No. 4 teams. That's SEC-worthy.) That's also the best jump of the week. Nebraska +3 for beating Sparty in a Cro-Magnon game of pathetic offense. If that's not a "fuck it, I don't care about this Big Ten" from voters, I don't know what is. Also +3 for Toledo (in at No. 23).

Big losers: This, as Richard Nixon would tell you, is the more interesting side of things. Boise went from 19th to gone (-7) for the crime of losing on their blue turf to San Diego State. LSU dropped 4 for the more respectable home loss to Alabama. USC down 3 for losing to the No. 2 team. West Virginia -3 and out for falling in a shootout to TCU. West Virginia currently ranks 116th out of 120 teams in scoring defense (giving up 39.75 points per game). If you add in the four new schools that the NCAA doesn't count for whatever reason, they fall to 119th of 124. For context, ND is second at 11.67 ppg, behind Bama at 9.11 ppg.

Trivial: this week has two ties, at No. 5 (Ohio State/Georgia) and at No. 19 (Texas/La Tech). I don't think I've ever seen that.

Best week: This was the week to have Texas, and a couple other climbers as well. "Dix Pix Six" fits the bill, jumping 11 points with Texas plus Georgia, Ohio State and Florida. That gets him from 5th to ...

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning? 

"Thomas the Train" (or his mommy) had the wisdom to take Ohio State out of Group D, which, by the way, is the only 10-0 team in the country and has climbed up to No. 4. Last week Thomas had a one-point lead, 91-90, and this week he's up to 93. But "Dix Pix Six" joins him at the top of the pile. (I wasn't entirely sure how to illustrate "Dix Pix Six." Then I found six guitar picks with Elvis on them. Now I need to go put "Elvis guitar picks" on my birthday wish list.)

Top adult: "Dix Pix Six." Top kitty: Mutchka. Top dog: the awesomely named "Four Legs and a cloud of dust." Gamewide average falls a half point, from 54.6 to 54.1.

* -- Oh who am I kidding. EVERY ex-Michigan coach is great to make fun of.

P6 2012: Week 9 Asks Someone To Pinch Me

For a good chunk of Saturday, the football wasn't so good. I figured the Iowa game would be ugly, so I went outside and raked leaves instead. Ohio went into rival Miami and blew their undefeated season with a last-second loss. A loss where all they needed to do was kick a short field goal to go into overtime, by the way. I took beatings in the Pick Six with South Carolina losing RB Lattimore for the season and Florida losing to Georgia.

For a while, the day's only bright spot was seeing the Palatine Pirates win an IHSA playoff game.

And then came the Irish.



At some point, we're going to run out of superlatives to describe this 2012 season. Back in the summer I saw 9-3 as the ceiling for this team, beating a couple teams they shouldn't. Or look at it this way, at this point last year they were 5-3 with final four games of the ACC stretch (Wake, BC, Turtles) followed by the West Coast game (@Stanford). This year they are 8-0 with the ACC stretch (future member Pitt, Wake, BC) and the West Coast game (@Southern Cal) upcoming.

All I know is, I'm loving the run. Even when it's felt like borrowed time, it's been a thrill. At this point even the hardest heart has to admit this Notre Dame team is the real deal. And as a CBS Sports article I saw this morning pointed out, the season sets up a Final Four of sorts, with Bama, Oregon, K-State and ND not playing each other this year. So all four could finish 12-0, with Bama and Oregon potentially going 13-0 with their conference championship game.

To the poll: There wasn't much room to advance at the top, but there sure was room to fall. Rutgers -8 (and out), Southern Cal -8, Michigan -6 (and out), Oklahoma -6, Florida -5, and Ohio -3 (and out). Many of the vanquishers of those teams were rewarded accordingly: Georgia is up +5 after the Cocktail Party win; Arizona enters the poll after beating USC (who do you root for in Arizona vs. USC, personally I was rooting for the thunderstorm rain delay); Nebraska returns to the poll (congrats Husker-themed teams).

Lots of movement among the teams we collectively weren't smart enough to choose for our Pick Sixth. Oregon State falls from the ranks of the unbeatens down to 13; same for Mississippi State, down to 17; Texas A&M continues its Image Rehabilitation Tour with a win and a jump up to 16; Louisiana Tech is still in there for some reason, and Pac-12 riff-raff Arizona and UCLA make their second appearances in the poll. Given their erratic seasons, don't get used to seeing them here.

Trivial fact: the gap between Florida State (preseason #1 by Phil Steele) and Florida has been as high as 18 points this season, with FSU higher. In week 6 it flipped to be +8 Florida, and now with the Gators' loss, it's back to +1 Seminoles.

Biggest gainer: The key would be having some of those climbers I mentioned above, and sure enough, someone did. With Georgia, Nebraska and Stanford (+4 after beating 2-5 Washington State at home? I don't get it), "Huskers Du" climbs 14 points for the best of the week. I'm too lazy to find the umlaut on the Blogger keyboard, but I think that's Huhsk-ers, as in the football team, not HOOSK-ers, as in Bob Mould's old band. Or maybe the umlaut is on the "Du" so it's not "Huskers DUH." TMMPF favorite "Huskers Du" has been around the Pick Six for three years; I am sure this was explained to me at one point and that brain cell was replaced by "how long has it been since the baby ate" during the first few days in the hospital.

Honorable mention to "Liars, Gastropods, Normads, D-bags, Enablers, and Jimbo Fisher". There is no way in hell I was going to type all that in and mess up my spreadsheet, so it shows as "LGNDE & Jimbo Fisher" on the sheet. He had 13 points, and I thought for a minute I was going to have to spend this section trying to dissect who all falls into those five categories. 

Enough jibber-jabber, who's winning?

I knew "Flying Cougars" would eventually pay for the folly of picking Michigan (maybe I should ask for a DNA test?). That week was today, and she had a -1 on the week. Which wouldn't be such a big deal, except ...

...last week's No. 2, "Thomas the Train," eight points behind, scored a plus-8 thanks to gainers including Florida State and Boise State. That puts him back in the lead, 91 to 90.

Top adult: "Flying Cougars." Top kitty: Mutchka, now all the way up to 13th. Top dog: "Silly Milly." The dogs were once all over the leaderboard, now the leader of the pack is down at 22nd. (Not that you'll get any taunting from a guy at 27th, tied with a 9-year-old and a sheepdog that goes for my crotch everytime we see each other.) Gamewide average: up 2.1, from 52.6 to 54.6, making me about a half point below average.

Boards are updated. This Thomas vs. Cougar battle should be fun to watch in the coming weeks. Remember, they share Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame. "Flying Cougars" has a built-in loss with the Michigan-Ohio State game ... but only if Michigan is ranked at the time, which I assume/hope they won't be. Texas (Thomas) can play spoiler to K-State (Cougars) in the last week of the regular season, which is Sat. Dec. 1. Sounds like an exciting day.

The big game this week is Alabama vs. LSU. Remember, this was supposed to be the Game of the Century of the Year, before the Honey Badger got kicked off the team and LSU realized they still don't have an offense, even with Zach Mettenberger at QB. Early line is Bama favored by 10, or approximately the same that Oklahoma was favored over Notre Dame.

P6 2012: Week 8 Saw the Irish Win (Again)

We were in South Bend on Saturday for our one and only Irish game of the season. Back in June when I got the tickets, I would have never guessed we'd see the 6-0, No.-5-in-the-country Irish.

And while the game wasn't pretty, they remained undefeated, and we remain perfect watching Notre Dame in person during the Brian Kelly Era (4-0 over three seasons).

Top 25: As you can imagine, we only saw a bit of the night games once we got back. Other than Penn State killing Iowa, it was an uneventful day in the Top 25. I figured South Carolina on the road without RB Lattimore was a recipe for disaster, and in fact Florida rolled them. Most everybody else held serve and beat who they were supposed to beat. The only team to lose to a lower-ranked team was Cincinnati, who was upset by Toledo. (They drop out of the Top 25 and are replaced by Louisiana Tech, not that you care since you don't have either team in your Pick Six.) Ohio State struggled with Purdue and dropped a few slots, but that was because their star QB Miller was knocked out for the game. A couple others besides the Gamecocks lost to higher-ranked teams, like West Virginia (falls to No. 25) and Texas A&M, but nothing major.

By the way, West Virginia was No. 4 a couple weeks ago. They've given up 104 points in the two weeks since, and another 108 in the two weeks prior. That's 212 points over four games, or 53 points per game if my late night math is correct. By constrast, the Irish have given up 66 points all year long.

Biggest gainer: In a week when no team moved up more than three spots, it helps to have at least two of those teams. That was the strategy for "The Big D," who had Michigan and Stanford (both +3) and Oklahoma (+2) for a week-best gain of eight points. That moves him into a tie for 29th place with yours truly. With all my college football knowledge and intellect, I am the points equivalent of someone who eats pureed food and poops in a diaper. The Pick Six game is truly the great equalizer.

Enough jibber-jabber, who's winning?

A quiet week at the top of the AP poll usually means a quiet week on the leaderboard. And so "Flying Cougars" stays in first for a second week. "Thomas the Train" cuts the lead down to eight points, from nine last week. If you're looking ahead to a battle royale between these two, take note that they have three teams the same, including Pick Sixth Notre Dame.

Top child: "Thomas the Train". Top kitty: Mutchka. Top dog: "Silly Milly." Average score: up 1, from 51.6 to 52.6. Check the standings (you bookmarked that page, right?) for all the details.  

Big game next week, with ND going to Oklahoma. College Gameday will be there, for their second Irish game in three weeks.

P6 2012: Week 7 Is Full of Win

Games watched: Arizona State-Colorado, Thurs (first half); Navy-Central Michigan, Fri (snippets); Iowa-Michigan State; Iowa State-Kansas State (2nd TV); Texas-Oklahoma (before it got ugly); North Carolina-Miami Fla (look-ins); Illinois-Michigan (snippets, before it got boring); West Virginia-Texas Tech (first half); Stanford-Notre Dame; Southern Cal-Washington (flipping); South Carolina-LSU (flipping); Ohio State-Indiana (look-ins when it got close).

What a day. If you can't tell, I spent all day on the couch. It was a much appreciated day of rest which I spent drinking in the hours and hours of college football. And what a reward: Iowa and Notre Dame both won ... in overtime. Ohio won to move to 7-0. Hell even Drake and Maryland won yesterday. If rivals Southern Cal and Michigan had managed to lose it would have been perfect. But schadenfraude aside, it was great to get "W"s for all our teams.

Just a reminder: you might have seen something called the BCS Standings come out today (Sunday). Do not be fooled by imitators! The one and only poll that matters is the AP Poll, and all references to rankings at TMMPF.com will always be to the AP Poll.

General notes: 

Is Alabama the quietest No. 1 in recent memory? Think about all the hype and praise (deserved by the way) heaped on Alabama in the past four years. They are the defending national champions and have been ranked No. 1 since dismantling Michigan in Week 1. Have you heard anything about them all season? All the attention has been on the stat-tastic performances of West Virginia, the sudden emergence of SEC East teams on the national scene, and the echoing thud made by Big Ten teams falling flat on their faces. How is it that Alabama, of all teams, can be such a quiet No. 1?

Part of the answer is their uninteresting schedule. Since that asswhumping of a statement on the first Saturday night of the season, they've played barely Division I-A Western Kentucky, Arkansas without its starting QB, barely Division I-A Florida Atlantic, Ole Miss and Missouri without its starting QB (Franklin, not our Franklin), plus a bye. But the Tide can't fly below the radar forever. (Maybe they've been drafting, like Sammy Sosa to Mark McGuire in 1998?) Next week they play at Tennessee. Stranger things have happened at Rocky Top (like a MAC team leading the Volunteers....)

Raise your hand if you think Clemson is the 12th-best team in the country. Okay, raise your hand if you think they are the best team in the ACC by process of elimination.

Adios: Texas, Louisiana Tech. Hola: Texas Tech (we don't care), Ohio at 25! WOOO finally the only unranked unbeaten has finally joined the poll. Congrats to the four alumni/MAC lovers who picked Ohio with your Pick Sixth!

Biggest gainers: Nobody made a tremendous gain, since the biggest winners of the day either had one loss already (Oklahoma, LSU) or didn't have that much room to move up (Irish). No team moved up more than three spots in the poll, but if you had West Virginia (-12) or Texas (-11): ouch.

So how do you build a winning week in such an environment? What's the secret to this week's biggest improvers, a three-way tie between "Kaitlyn's Crushers," "Pizza Delivery," and "Stanzi City Chiefs"? Well if I knew I'd be doing better than 21st place, but unless Dad helped with the Chiefs, the combined age of these three is about 20. So maybe youthful exuberance?

Enough jibber-jabber, who's winning?

F-9 Cougars.

"Flying Cougars" has flown the coop away from the homeland of the Midwest. But there's still loyalty to flyover country with steady gainers Michigan (bleh), Ohio State, Kansas State and Notre Dame (and unranked but improving Wisconsin to boot). It was good enough (+7) to move into first place for Week 7, with Thomas the Train dropping 8 points into second. Congrats sis!!

Top child: "Thomas the Train." Top dog: "Silly Milly." Top kitty: Mutchka.  Gamewide average: 51.6, down from 54.1.

Picks are updated, you know the link. Have a great week!

P6 2012: Week 6 Shakes It Up

Man, what a Saturday. We knew that two Top Ten SEC teams would lose, with No. 4 LSU at No. 10 Florida, and No. 6 South Carolina hosting No. 5 Georgia.

But even though Florida's 14-6 win wasn't a huge surprise, the 35-7 beatdown handed down by the Gamecocks stunned most of us. No. 15 TCU lost (to who doesn't matter), Stanford struggled with Arizona (won in OT), and No. 11 Texas took their first loss in a shootout with West Virginia.

And if that wasn't enough, I woke up this morning and read that No. 3 Florida State lost to North Carolina State, 17-16. The same NC State team that last week, gave up 566 yards to a Miami team that scored 3 points last night against Notre Dame.  All told, nine ranked teams lost yesterday: Florida State, LSU, Georgia, Texas, TCU, and a string of the bottom quartile: No. 21 Nebraska (to Ohio State); No. 23 Washington (to Oregon); No. 24 Northwestern (as predicted by me); No. 25 UCLA (I have nothing parenthetical to add about a team that lost to 1-4 Cal).

Assessing the carnage: Florida jumps up 6 to No. 4. Ohio State and Oklahoma moved up 4. Ohio State thumped a conference foe, and Oklahoma just sat on the couch and watched all the teams above them lose. The big losers, as expected, are TCU (-11), Florida State (-9), Georgia (-9), Nebraska (-5) and LSU (-5). TCU and the four from the 20s fall out.

Replacing the five that departed, a new 20-25: Cincy, Texas A&M, Lousiana Tech, Boise, and sigh, Michigan. Michigan has beaten three teams. Which one of their three wins am I supposed to be impressed with: Air Force, Massachusetts or Purdue? Meanwhile you've got a 6-0 MAC team on the outside looking in. I'm calling bullshit on you, AP voters.

Poll weirdness: The second Pac-12 team in the Top Ten behind Oregon isn't Southern Cal or Cal, but Oregon State. If OSU is for real, this year's Civil War is going to be a heck of a game. South Carolina is ranked third in the country. Think about that.

Biggest gainers: When I got a ballot called "Super Why," I had no idea what it meant. Was it a pun, like asking the question "why?" over and over? Then I found out that the team owner of "Kaitlyn's Crushers" is a huge fan of this PBS reading show ... called "Super Why." Given the infusion of kids and kid-influenced team names this year, I should have known.

At any rate, in a week when a lot of schools took a nosedive, "Super Why" had gainers across from Group A to Group E and just missed on her Pick Sixth (Ohio). With an increase of 15 points, she moves from 15th to 4th place. Gamewide, the average score fell about three points, from 57.3 to 54.1

Enough jibber jabber, who's winning?

In the Pick Six game, as in life, change is constant. With this much change, the reign of "Let's do this thing" comes to an end. What blows my mind is that last week's runner up, "Thomas the Train," actually lost points, and still moved up into the top slot. In fact, the top SEVEN players from last week all lost points. I don't think I've ever seen that in three years of the Pick Six.

Top Adult: "Dix Pix Six." (2nd place) Top canine: "Silly Milly." (5th) Top kitty: Tippy (16th)

Congrats to Thomas (and his mom, "Super Why"!). Standings here, team points here.

Next week: College Gameday will be at Notre Dame for the ND-Stanford game!