BCS bowls (5 Games - 10 Teams -- Pick Teams to LOSE)

[AncientHumanoid]

@Snowboarder_Bo

Thanks for starting the threads, Zeldar, and for being so good about doing each week in a timely manner. It’s been a real hoot to pick losers; somehow it’s different than picking the winners.

Yeah!

[swampbear]

I haven’t participated all season. However, if my pick of losers is anything like my pick of celebrities in the Celebrity Death Pool, all my loser picks will win.

[Zeldar]

With four hours (give or take) before the poll closes:

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                             ==================================================================================== 
                             MichSt  Stanford  Baylor  CentFla  Alabama  Oklahoma  Clemson  OhioSt  FlaSt  Auburn
                             ==================================================================================== 

armedmonkey            5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma           OhioSt  FlaSt   
DMC                    5     MichSt                    CentFla  Alabama            Clemson                 Auburn
For You                5             Stanford          CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson          FlaSt   
Jackknifed Juggernaut  5             Stanford          CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson                 Auburn
Jman                   5             Stanford          CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson                 Auburn
JohnT                  5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma           OhioSt  FlaSt
Munch                  5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma           OhioSt         Auburn 
Nauplius               5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma           OhioSt         Auburn
NoClueBoy              5     MichSt                    CentFla  Alabama            Clemson                 Auburn
notfrommensa           5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson                 Auburn
Oakminster             5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma           OhioSt  FlaSt        
Rex Goliath            5             Stanford  Baylor                    Oklahoma           OhioSt         Auburn 
Snowboarder Bo         5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson                 Auburn
Sterling Archer        5             Stanford          CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson                 Auburn
swampbear              5             Stanford          CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson          FlaSt 
Typo Negative          5     MichSt  Stanford  Baylor  CentFla                     Clemson   
USCDiver               5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma           OhioSt         Auburn 
Yorikke                5             Stanford          CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson          FlaSt   
Zakalwe                5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson                 Auburn
Zeldar                 5             Stanford          CentFla  Alabama            Clemson          FlaSt
zoog                   5     MichSt                    CentFla           Oklahoma  Clemson          FlaSt   
 
========================     ====================================================================================
   21                105       13       9        2       20        3        17       14        7      8      12  /105

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[Zeldar]

Here are the other threads where 21 voters participated:

Week 9 CFB -- Which AP Top Ten team(s) will lose?

Week 9 CFB – Which AP Top Ten team(s) will lose?
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 21

Week 14 CFB -- Which AP Top Ten team(s) will lose?

Week 14 CFB – Which AP Top Ten team(s) will lose?
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 21

[AncientHumanoid]

Closest split looks to be the Championship Game.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

I really thought Stanford had enough motivation being close to home that they would pull out the win. Ah well.

[Oakminster]

@armedmonkey

That game was tied before Bama tried that ill advised field goal attempt. If you take that play out then Auburn would have still won in overtime. The Tigers were at home, the Tide doesn’t have a kicking game… AU would have won in OT.

Speculation spiced with a bit of homerdom. You don’t need a kicking game if you can score touchdowns. On the short field in OT, advantage Crimson Tide. All they have to do it punch it in and stop Auburn. Winning the way Auburn did was flukey at best. Saban made a very strange call to try the long fieldgoal, and frankly got out coached the whole game, but the thing could have gone either way in OT.

[eschereal]

@Snowboarder_Bo

I really thought Stanford had enough motivation being close to home that they would pull out the win. Ah well.

Stanford was pretty good this year, but not really a powerhouse. I mean, they lost to the pudding that was USC and, FFS, the Utes. That they should be felled by the Spartans is no big surprise.

[Rex_Goliath]

Baylor goes down and I’m 2 for 2. Roll Tide!

[Zakalwe]

Yeah, congrats to the two who had the guts to call Baylor. Did NOT expect that one. Still, if go 1-4 in this, I’ll be perfectly happy as long as the 1 is the BCS game…

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

Suck it, 20 people who voted against UCF!

[armedmonkey]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Suck it, 20 people who voted against UCF!

I will, and gladly. That’s the funny thing about when you force yourself to pick games. Sometimes you kinda want one team to win, but pick the other. I do genuinely like Baylor, but a rising Central Florida sure as hell makes me smile. Kudos to the Knights.

@Oakminster

Speculation spiced with a bit of homerdom. You don’t need a kicking game if you can score touchdowns. On the short field in OT, advantage Crimson Tide. All they have to do it punch it in and stop Auburn. Winning the way Auburn did was flukey at best.

The Crimson Tide were 4-13 in third down conversions in that game. That’s not good, and should tell you something about who is better when the game is on the line. It wouldn’t have bode well for the Tide if that thing went to overtime. However, that is all speculation

I do want you to do me a favor, though. Kick the shit out of Oklahoma the same way that you kicked the shit out of Notre Dame last year. Do it for the SEC and do it for the state of Alabama.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@armedmonkey

I will, and gladly.

Well, I didn’t see that coming. After years of effort I finally got my wife into football this year (she’s a UCF grad too) and she kept asking me if we had a chance of winning last night. I was like, “yeah, we have… a chance.” And then she started asking if a 17 point spread was a lot, and I started lying through my teeth. Still, I personally had the game as a coinflip. The spread is one thing we have been able to defend this season (north/south running, not so much).

[excavating_for_a_mind]

@Oakminster

Speculation spiced with a bit of homerdom. You don’t need a kicking game if you can score touchdowns. On the short field in OT, advantage Crimson Tide. All they have to do it punch it in and stop Auburn. Winning the way Auburn did was flukey at best. Saban made a very strange call to try the long fieldgoal, and frankly got out coached the whole game, but the thing could have gone either way in OT.

Speculation, yes, since that is all we have, but simply being tied at the end of regulation against the No. 1 team in the nation would be considered a victory for just about any team, no matter how you spice it, particularly for a team that didn’t win a single SEC game in 2012.

And, what’s this “you don’t need a kicking game”? You could say the same thing about special teams or, to take it to extreme, the entire defensive squad. A kicking game would have helped 'Bama out considerably; even a mediocre kicking game would have obviated the need for a last-second field goal.

Finally, to admit that “the thing could have gone either way in OT” is just a (perhaps unintentional) way of saying that the Tigers had the upper hand. Things being equal, 'Bama should have had a clear and undeniable advantage in OT. To realize that they could have gone either way just shows why Saban was scared enough of OT to do what he did.

No, the armedmonkey had it right. The win against Georgia had one very lucky play at the end. Had that play occurred with 7 minutes left to go in the 3rd quarter (with the same final score), nobody would would say the Tigers only won by luck.

The Iron Bowl win was just good football. I’d have the same opinion if 'Bama had made that field goal and the final score had been 31-28 instead of 28-34, but *that *is just speculation.

[Zeldar]

@armedmonkey

<< snipped >> Do it for the SEC and do it for the state of Alabama.

In case you have yet to see the conference standings in the bowls, check out 2013–14 NCAA football bowl games where at this hour things look like this: Bowl Challenge Cup standings

[astorian]

@astorian

The toughest game for me to pick was Stanford vs. Michigan State. They’re both physical teams with strong defenses. On that game, I guessed.

The easiest game to pick was Alabama, who are just waaay better than Oklahoma.

And Auburn needed too much luck to get to the BCS game. This week, their luck runs out.

After that, I went with my long-started bowl theorem: bet against the team that’s pissed off it isn’t in a much better bowl, especially when it’s facing a team that’s happy to be there.

Hence, Baylor and Ohio State (who thought, not long ago, they might be in the BCS game) go down. And if Dabo Swinney wants the Texas job, he’ll pile on the points.

I hadn’t done all that well in previous rounds, but so far, I’m looking good! I just had a feeling Baylor’s porous defense would let them down again.

Although… DUH! It looks like I didn’t actually vote.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

You didn’t vote.

[eschereal]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Suck it, 20 people who voted against UCF!

Note that one of those people who voted against UCF also voted against Baylor.

[Nauplius]

So we were supposed to pick the winners right?

[AncientHumanoid]

I got one right!