CFB Pick 'em Contest

[tallahassee blues fan]

Refresher course on the rules. Pick any ten teams you want from the list of games below. You are picking against the line. Therefore, if you pick State U. to beat U of State, the line is State U by 3, and State U wins by 2, that's a loss. If State U wins by 3, you are credited with a tie. If State U wins by 4 or more, you're credited with a win. The person with the most wins at the end of the season is the contest winner. (In case two or more contestants have an equal number of wins at the end of the season, the one with the most ties will win the contest) If you happen to miss a week, don't fret. Several of us did last year and weren't eliminated from contention. (We didn't pick enough winners to put any distance between any two contestants!)

We will use the line that is published by USA Today (Danny Sheridan's) when it first comes out. I will try and publish it on Monday morning. Whatever I first post in the thread is what we use - if the line moves thereafter, tough. All picks have to be in by 5 p.m. CDT on the Friday before the weekend's games. If, however, you are going to pick one of the weekday games, the weekday winner that you select must be posted before 5 p.m. on the day of that game (or, in the case of some flukey weekday "day" game, it must be in one hour before the scheduled kickoff). For example, if you pick two Thursday games, and eight Saturday games, the Thursday selections must be in by 5 p.m. on Thursday and the rest of your selections will have to be in by 5 p.m. on Friday. Any picks after the 5 p.m. Friday cut-off will not be considered. If you pick less than ten games, you will only have the number you pick considered, unless you make the additional picks you need to make ten games before 5 p.m. on Friday. If you pick more than ten, only the first ten on your list will be considered.

Good luck to all. Here are Sheridan's first week's odds. The first team is the favorite, the number is by how much, and the capitalized team is the home team. I do not find any irony in Miami being a 3 point favorite over FSU.


NCAA Football
Thursday, Sept. 1

CONNECTICUT 18½ Buffalo - UConn 38 Buffalo 0
Oregon 8½ HOUSTON - Oregon 38 Houston 24
CINCINNATI 10½ E. Michigan - Cincy 28 E. Mich 26
WAKE FOREST 9½ Vanderbilt - Vandy 24 Wake 20
S. CAROLINA 18½ Central Florida - S. Car. 24 UCF 15
ARIZONA STATE 26 Temple - ASU 63 Temple 16
WASHINGTON STATE 27½ Idaho - WSU 38 Idaho 26
Minnesota 15 TULSA - Minny 41 Tulsa 10
Friday, Sept. 2
Indiana 9 CENTRAL MICHIGAN - Indiana 20 C.Mich 13
UTAH 7 Arizona - Utah 27 Arizona 24

Saturday, Sept. 3

WISCONSIN 4 Bowling Green - Wisconsin 56 BGreen 42
NORTHWESTERN 14½ Ohio - Northwestern 38 Ohio 14
VIRGINIA 33 Western Michigan - Virginia 31 W. Mich 19
IOWA 39 Ball State - Iowa 56 B. State 0
MICHIGAN STATE 18 Kent - Michigan St. 49 Kent 14
OHIO STATE 14½ Miami Ohio - Ohio St. 34 Miami 14
MICHIGAN 18 N. Illinois - Michigan 33 N. Illinois 17
PENN STATE 23 S. Florida - Penn State 23 USF 13
Duke 1½ E. CAROLINA - ECU 24 Duke 21
TENNESSEE 23½ u.a.b. - Tennessee 17 UAB 10
ILLINOIS 2 Rutgers - Illinois 33 Rutgers 30 (OT)
COLORADO 8 Colorado State - Colorado 31 CSU 28
PITTSBURGH 3½ Notre Dame - Notre Dame 42 Pitt 21
GEORGIA 7 Boise State - UGA 48 Boise St. 13
MARYLAND 8 Navy - Maryland 23 Navy 20
FLORIDA 22 Wyoming - Florida 32 Wyoming 14
Washington 2½ AIR FORCE - Air Force 20 Washington 17
OKLAHOMA 27 t.c.u. - TCU 17 OU 10
AUBURN 7 Georgia Tech Ga. Tech 23 Auburn 1
Boston College 4 B.Y.U. - BC 20 BYU 3
Texas A&M 1 CLEMSON - Clemson 25 A&M 24
Baylor 4 S.M.U. - Baylor 28 SMU 23
u.c.l.a. 7½ SAN DIEGO STATE - UCLA 44 SDState 21
u.s.c. 33½ HAWAII - USC 63-17

Sunday, Sept. 4

SYRACUSE 1 W. Virginia - WVU 15 Syracuse 7
Louisville 22½ KENTUCKY - Louisville 31 Kentucky 24
S. MISSISSIPPI 10½ Tulane - Postponed
Virginia Tech 5½ N.C. STATE - Va. Tech 20 NC State 16

Monday, Sept. 5

NEW MEXICO 14 u.n.l.v.
MEMPHIS 2½ Mississippi
Miami Florida 3 FLORIDA STATE

[tallahassee blues fan]

I'm going to make my first amendment to the rules. (I reserve the right to do this where logic and justice dictate it be done) Sometimes, a big game will have NL (no line) when the Sheridan odds are published on Monday. This does not mean, as one of our contestants interpreted last year, that it's a toss-up. It means there's a doubtful starter for a team who is critical to that team's chances that might not be playing, and the linesmakers are waiting to see if he will play before they set the line. If there is a game line set for such a game later in the week, I may post it so that it can be among the picks. If, however, I don't post a line for the game, an NL game may not be used.

[Charlie Sheen]

Virginia Tech -5.5
Ohio State -14.5
Vandy +9.5
Florida State +3
Illinois -2
Wisconsin -4
Maryland -8
Washington -2.5
Arizona +7
Tennessee -23.5

[tallahassee blues fan]

I like a man who's chompin' at the bit, Nate, but wouldn't you have at least like to have heard FSU name a starting qb before picking them?

[Charlie Sheen]

It's pretty much been determined that Weatherford is starting hasn't it?

[tallahassee blues fan]

Originally posted by Nasty Nate@Aug 25 2005, 07:46 PM
It's pretty much been determined that Weatherford is starting hasn't it?

Quoted post

Yeah. He threw for over four hundred yards in a scrimmage the other day, and Lee can't practice until Monday because of an injury. You're really keeping up with the game if you knew that Weatherford was starting.

[Charlie Sheen]

I just knew Lee hurt his shoulder or was having some problems with it, but I didn't really know whether or not Weatherford had really seperated himself and "earned" the job.

Oh and the FSU pick was more of a gut feeling, I had Miami at first then changed it. I think its time for FSU to finally make it happen against Miami.

[tallahassee blues fan]

I thought OSU traditionally came out of the box pretty slowly, and had problems with the other smaller Ohio teams that they play first (e.g., Cincy). You don't seem to think they'll have any trouble with Miami, Ohio.

Yeah, it is time for FSU to do something, but it's hard to see that happening with a freshman qb and Jeff Bowden as OC.

[Charlie Sheen]

They have had a couple of scares against Bowling Green and Cinci over the last few years, but none of those teams had the high flying quick strike ability that this team is going to have this year. I don't see Miami of Ohio being able to slow down Ginn and Holmes at all.

[Lippa]

Nate, love that sig picture.

[tallahassee blues fan]

You're probably right. I haven't got any good feel for these games yet. Maryland's only an eight point favorite over Navy?

[Charlie Sheen]

As far as 9/10 goes, I think its crucial that Troy Smith is able to play and be effective, they are gonna need his scrambling/make it happen type of play in the backfield to beat Texas.

Under normal circumstances, I'd be very confident in his ability to lead the team to victory, but since he broke rules and got suspended for 2 games, the game against Texas will be his first action of the season, so there will be no "feeling out" period for him at all. He is gonna get thrown into the fire.

The buzz in Columbus for this game is amazing, everyone feels like this team has a real shot to make a run at another championship, but no one will really know until about half time of the Texas game.

[Charlie Sheen]

Originally posted by Lippa@Aug 25 2005, 08:05 PM
Nate, love that sig picture.

Quoted post

Yeah, a friend just showed it to me...had to use it as the sig.

[tallahassee blues fan]

Don't forget that Texas is breaking in a new Defensive Coordinator, one I'm not quite sold on.

[CD]

10 teams I like in this game...and I don't know that I'll be able to play every week but I'll certainly try...

South Carolina
Arizona State
Michigan
Tennessee
Notre Dame
Georgia Tech
UCLA
Louisville
Virginia Tech
Miami