College Bowl Pick 'Em

	2010 College Football
	Bowl Pick 'Em

2009
2008
(07 06, 05, 04, 03, 02)

Welcome to College Bowl Pick' Em 2010

January 11th
- Wow, what an amazing finish to yet another fun college football season. I hope you all enjoyed the game last night as well as many others this holiday season. Of course some of you have extra reason to celebrate, as you have proven yourselves experts in your ability to prognosticate college football winners.
  
  Congrats to AJ Friedman who takes first place ($4,140) with 22 wins, a 69% pick percentage. Which is higher than normal but not a record. AJ had a pack of competitors right on his heels. Four people tied with 21 wins, which sent us to the best bets and tiebreakers for second and third (We have received positive feedback on the payouts for second and third place).
  
  Vinsel and Gaillot both had all their best bets pay off, Vinsel was closer to guessing the total points last night so he gets second ($776), Gaillot third ($259). (we apologize for a miscalculation in our analysis from yesterday on the site)
  
  Also, the competition for the Criquet shirt was heated (thank you again to our sponsor http://www.criquetshirts.com/). Three people tied for last in games, with Mike Geismar pulling out the win (loss) based on tying Sipp with 9 points in best bets (Leahy had 11, therefore knocked out) and then losing by having the farthest guess on points in last nights game.
  
  We are making payouts immediately, thank you everyone for paying quickly. Friedman, Vinsel, Gaillot, and Geismar need to respond back to us with mailing addresses for your checks and shirt. If you wrote a check, that will be cashed shortly.
  
  Thanks for playing and we hope you will join us next year.
  
  Sincerely,
  Wes, Brad, And LT
January 10th
- Also, Geismar and Sipp for the Criquet shirt for last place, may come down to points in the final game (tied in games, tied in best games if Auburn wins)
January 10th
- Congratulations go to AJ Friedman for winning this year’s Bowl Poll with 22 wins, two games clear and a 71% win percentage with tonight’s National Championship game remaining.
- 2nd and 3rd gets complicated.
  - 1st - $4,140 (80%) – AJ Friedman
  - 2nd - $776.25 (15%) – Clint Miller (Ore) or Peter Gailliot (Aub)
  - 3rd - $258.75 (5%) – Peter Gailliot (Ore) , Hunter Vinsel (Aub and over 72 pts) or Mark Shaker (Aub and under 71 pts)
    In short, there are 4 guys who could get finish 2nd or 3rd. (in bold)
- 5 guys are tied for 2nd with 20 wins. (4 have Auburn -2.5 and 1 has Oregon)
  Clint Miller – Oregon (So, if Oregon covers, Clint Miller gets 2nd. If Auburn covers, out of the money with 6 pts). If Auburn covers, there will be a 4 way tie for 2nd.
  - 20 Wins
    Peter Gailliot –Auburn (15), If Auburn covers, 2nd place. If Oregon covers, 3rd place)
    Hunter Vinsel – Auburn (10) If Auburn covers, 72 pts in game (needs over 72 PTS) for 3rd
    Mark Shaker –Auburn (10) If Auburn covers, 70 pts (needs Under 71 PTS) for 3rd
    Alvaro Minoso – Auburn (eliminated bc of best bets
January 4th
- With six games remaining, AJ Friedman has a two game lead but a bunch of people are still within striking distance
December 28th
- There is no clear leader emerging as of yet with a total logjam up front and lots of games to be played.
- The next five days are really the heart of the bowl season with 2,3,4,4, and 6 games. Nineteen games over five days
- There are still a couple slackers who have not paid, if you are one of those, please do so immediately.
December 24th
- Merry Christmas!!
- Of the eight early leaders, only three have Tulsa......
December 21st
- 69 total entries, one off of our record last year, which is great. So that breaks out as
  - 1st - $4,140 (80%)
  - 2nd - $776.25 (15%)
  - 3rd - $258.75 (5%)
- Good Luck!
December 11th
- Welcome to College Bowl Pick Em 2010, our tenth bowl season. For those of you that have participated in years past welcome back. For newcomers, this is a great event and I know you will enjoy it. There is no better way to become intimately involved in all the games. People often talk about the meaning of the season around this time of year......and I am pretty sure they mean College Bowl Season.
- Biggest change this year, much requested, is a money split. This should keep more people in it longer, and only makes sense with the larger numbers of entrys we have seen. The first place winner will take 80% of the pot, second 15%, and third 5%. Obviously the final amounts will depend upon the number of entrants
- NEW!! We have finally hit the big time and now have an official sponsor, Criquet Organic Golf Shirts. They have been kind enough to sponsor a prize (one of their extremely attractive shirts) for the last place finisher. The official name of the prize is the “You are a loser, but at least you look good prize”. And if you don’t ‘win’, of course you might be interested in a shirt nonetheless, I know I will be.
  http://www.criquetshirts.com/
- There are 35 bowl games this year, however, like last year we are only playing 32. We have looked at several different formats/websites and none allowed us to run the contest in the same manner as we have in the past (specifically the weighted favorites, which we believe is a superior method for choosing a champion). We are not using the first three games (New Mexico Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl, New Orleans Bowl) on December 18th.
- Pick 32 Bowl Games against the spread plus the tiebreak of your top 5 best bets and predicted score of the Championship Game. You will get 5 points for your 1st best bet, 4 pts for your 2nd, 3 for your 3rd, and so on down to 1 pt for your 5th. In the event of a tie, the person with the most points wins. If still tied, closest score wins.
- You will be able to track your standings daily on this website. The first game is the St. Petersburg Bowl on Tuesday December 21st at 8:00 pm EST. That is the deadline for joining and payment should be submitted upon completing your entry.
- The fee is $75 (or less than $3 per game, which netted the winner last year $5,250) is payable to: [email protected] via paypal ($78 using Paypal) with a debit or credit card. Or you can send a check snail mail to Wes Battle: 2913 Dumbarton St NW Washington, DC 20007. If you use Paypal make sure you make the subject line something innocuous such as 'ski trip payment' or something. I got in trouble a couple years ago.
- You can email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.
- A quick note on corrections. Once you have made your picks online you can not make changes. However, if you need to change a pick you made, email me the details at [email protected] before the deadline (No changes allowed after that) and I can make the change.
Past Champions
- Nate Davenport (2009) (70 competitors - $5,250 - 23 wins, 72% Winning Percentage)
- John Mah (2008) (44 - $3,300 - 20, 63%)
- Ryan Friend (2007) (67 - $5,025 - 20T, 66%)
- Chris Williams (2006) (54 - $4,050 - 22, 69%)
- Rob Hassell (2005) (38 - $2,850 - 17T, 61%)
- Lincoln Gaffney (2004) (31 - $2,325 - 22, 79%)
- Steven Sparks (2003) (27 - $2,025 - 18, 64%)
- Chris Williams (2002) (26 - $1,950 - 17, 61%)
- Rocky Stone (2001) (15 - $1,125 - 16T, 64%)
Updated Archives (thanks to wes)

Below is a graph of the growth of the pool. Blue is total entries on the left axis, the red line is % growth on the right axis.
Historical Notes
- Records/Stats:
  1) Wes Battle has tied for 1st twice (2001, 2005) and placed 2nd once (2003) without a victory: he is the all times wins leader.
  2) For those that have played at least 3 years, Mark Gander leads in Average Wins per season (18.0)-Tania Harrick 2nd at 17.5.
  3) Chris Williams is a two-time winner with $6,000 and your Money Leader.
  4) Through 2008, the Bowl Poll has been contested by 119 players.
  5) 6 players have competed in every bowl poll (8 years) Battle, McBride, C. Harrick, LT, B. Cohen and M. Shaker
  6) Doug Cohen owns the distinction for getting last THREE TIMES, including twice in back-to-back seasons (2003-2004)
  7) Lincoln Gaffney went from first to worst in 2004-2003
  8) 45 of 67 participants in 2007 had competed before. 22 were newcomers.
  9) In 2008, 41 of 44 participants had played before-only 3 newcomers.
  10) The average Winner picks 67% of the games correctly.
  11) 3 out of 8 years, the Champion has been decided by the tiebreak-your 5 Best Bets.
  12) Linoln Gaffney had the best single year in 2004, winning 79% !!! Or 22 of 28 games.
  13) Doug Cohen had the worst single year in 2004, winnning 25% or 7 of 28 games.

Bowl Info