Board 8 > College Football Ladder Contest 2018: Week 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

The letter or the spirit? That's the question this week as to which game gets the fifth marquee spot. Two of them are obvious as they feature two ranked teams, and there are two others that feature a ranked team against an unranked Power 5 team that's receiving votes in both polls. And normally, "ranked vs. ARV in both polls" is second to "ranked vs. ranked" in terms of order of choice, followed in third by "ARV vs. ARV" and then matches that feature teams that are ARV in one poll only. The problem is...this results in a game with a 36.5-point spread being considered "marquee", as Arkansas State (1 lone point in the AP Poll, 5 in the Coaches' Poll) goes on the road to take on top-ranked Alabama.

Rules
- State which level you're on when you make your pick. Usually it should be obvious, but say it anyway.
- Deadline for making a pick is the start of the earliest game that you're picking. This means that if you are on a level that involves picking multiple teams, ALL of your teams are locked as soon as one of your teams has kicked off. If you don't have a pick in by the start of the early games, you can just pick later games, but if you can't make an eligible pick out of the games that haven't started yet, you can't advance that week.
- Conferences featured in games may be imposed at certain levels, but unless otherwise stated, any game(s) featuring two FBS teams are eligible.
- I'll list some marquee games each week, but you're not restricted to these. If you pick other games, make sure that your lines can be verified.

Level 1: Pick one game against the spread.

Level 2: Pick three over/unders; 2 out of three passes.

Level 3: Three-team teaser. Tease the lines six points in your favor, two wins and a push or three wins needed to pass.

Level 3:
KCF0107
TsunamiXXVIII

Level 2:
Jakyl25
jcgamer107
kevwaffles
Paratroopa1
turbopuns2

Level 1:
baubeta
ShatteredElysium
SmartMuffin
5tarscream

Marquee Games:

Mississippi State (-9.5) @ Kansas State (O/U 54)
Georgia (-10) @ South Carolina (O/U 53)
Iowa State (+3.5) @ Iowa (O/U 49)
Clemson (-12.5) @ Texas A&M (O/U 54)
USC (+4.5) @ Stanford (O/U 54.5)

Yeah, the spirit of the marquee wins out over the letter. Besides, looking at the preseason poll, it looks like the Red Wolves were already receiving votes and merely didn't do anything to screw that up in Week 1, rather than actually having an impressive win to warrant consideration. And Iowa State-Iowa actually has the smallest spread of the five, so including that instead of Arkansas State-Alabama is definitely a positive for our so-called marquee.

(The "rules" of choosing marquee games, by the way, are different late in the season. Games that directly decide a division or conference championship, even if one or both of the teams in question aren't ranked, take precedence over anything else, followed by games between two teams with identical records of 5-6 due to the similar "must-win for both sides" atmosphere. Penultimate-week games where one team has a final-week bye and is already 5-6 while the other team is either 5-5 or 4-6 may also apply to that rule.)
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Oh, hey, wait, that's right. Since I'm "going back to basics", that is, restoring the legacy levels to their original positions under SmartMuffin, that means I'm on the teaser level already. Which means that I'd better choose my other two carefully, because by not locking the line in as a marquee game, I risk this one falling if I have to change my pick later.

Level 3
Arkansas State +42.5
Clemson -6.5
Florida Atlantic -2.5

On the other hand, looking at the line movements thus far on both that aSu-Bama game and a certain other game, I feel like I may be changing my pick once a certain line moves anyway...

...Nah, probably not. We saw how homerism burned SmartMuffin last week.
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Will make my picks today or tomorrow. I feel compelled to go with random games for a third straight week.
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tag
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Level 1 - South Carolina
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Level 2

Alabama/Arkansas State UNDER 66
Georgia/South Carolina OVER 56.5
USC/Stanford UNDER 56.5

won't I feel silly if I get both of those last two wrong with the same line

What's a good source for looking up the lines for games?

http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-football/odds/las-vegas/

I just use that and the column labeled "VI Consensus"
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Level 1: UNLV -23
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Level 3:
Memphis (-1) at Navy
Kentucky at Florida (-8)
Massachusetts at Georgia Southern (+3.5)

Lines already teased. Don't fail me now random games!
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Bump
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Level 2:

Kentucky/Florida - OVER 51
Goergia/South Carolina - OVER 56
Arkansas/Colorado State - UNDER 70

Level 1 - Iowa -3.5

turbopuns2 posted...

Goergia

Level 2

GT/USF OVER 59
USC/Stanford OVER 54.5
Clemson/Texas A&M OVER 54
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oh crap uhhhhhh

i will make picks on the way to Michigan/WMU
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Level 2:
Georgia @ South Carolina UNDER 53
Iowa State @ Iowa UNDER 49
USC @ Stanford OVER 54.5
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Feeling pretty good about that GT/USF over pick right now.
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Wait can I use 53 for my georgia line

If it's a marquee listing I think you have to?
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kevwaffles posted...

If it's a marquee listing I think you have to?

Oh cool, makes sense. I forgot about those when I was looking up other games. Yeah still taking the over, obviously

w00t

Nice, got my level 2 advance with one game to go

If Kentucky beats Florida, I couldn't care less about me getting this wrong. Raised as a UK fan my entire life and they've never won against Florida in my lifetime.

Of course Clemson/Texas A&M pushed the O/U on this when they beat the actual one. Of fucking course.
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turbopuns2 posted...

Level 2:

Kentucky/Florida - OVER 51
Goergia/South Carolina - OVER 56
Arkansas/Colorado State - UNDER 70

Is there a way to see the lines on that vegas site after the games are over?

These picks should be valid for advancing from level 2 with Georgia/SC getting 58 and AR/CSU getting 61, although atm I can't seem to prove the line was 70. I used the website/column KCF suggested.

bump
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keep alive
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New topic today?
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Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
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Oh, whoops, better bump this. Need to set up next week's
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