Board 8 > College Football Ladder Contest Week 14: Championship Week Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

Whoops, the usual rules spiel somehow disappeared when I was creating last week's topic. And that computer is being a little bitch again so I can't put it in this week's either!

Also sorry about not getting it up in time for the Friday games; I'm not used to having a job.

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 4: First! Pick a winless team to get their first win or an undefeated team to suffer their first loss. If you are predicting a favorite to win, they must also cover the spread (a push is sufficient). You may also select "none" if you think that every game between two winless or two undefeated teams will result in the favorite winning but failing to cover the spread and that no other teams will get their first win or suffer their first loss. Also, for this level, you may pick FCS teams to win against any Division I opponent, but in the case of FBS-FCS games, you must be taking the FCS team to win.

Level 5: Pleaser. Pick one team and move the line 7 points to your disadvantage.

Level 6: Triple points pleaser. Pick either three over/unders and move the lines on each 5 points to your disadvantage. 3 out of 3 needed to pass.

Level 7: High-Low. Pick a team to score over 60 points and a team to score under 10.

Level 7:
jcgamer107

Level 6:
KCF0107
Paratroopa1
TsunamiXXVIII
turbopuns2

Level 5:
ShatteredElysium
5tarscream

Level 4:

Level 3:
kevwaffles

Level 2:
Jakyl25

Level 1:
baubeta
Eddv
SmartMuffin

Marquee Games:
Big 12 Championship Game: #14 Texas (+8) vs. #5 Oklahoma (O/U 78)
SEC Championship Game: #1 Alabama (-13) vs. #4 Georgia (O/U 63.5)
Mountain West Championship Game: #25 Fresno State (PK) vs. #22 Boise State (O/U 52.5)
ACC Championship Game: #2 Clemson (-27.5) vs. Pittsburgh (O/U 53)
Big Ten Championship Game: #21 Northwestern (+14.5) vs. #6 Ohio State (O/U 62)
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Level 6:

Texas vs. Oklahoma OVER 83
Alabama vs. Georgia UNDER 58.5
Marshall @ Virginia Tech OVER 55.5
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Level 6

Texas/Oklahoma OVER 83
Alabama/Georgia OVER 68.5
Fresno State/Boise State UNDER 47.5

I don't care just get to bowl season and we'll start doing this for real again

Level 6
Northwestern vs Ohio State under 57
Clemson vs Pitt over 58
Alabama vs Georgia under 58.5
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L5 Boise (-7)
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Level 7
Ohio St over 60
Northwestern under 10
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In the week where I didn't pick, would the Notre Dame pick I had been picking every week actually have worked out? I don't know how much they were favored by over USC

Wow, Texas and Oklahoma actually playing defense. I probably need overtime to salvage this.
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Well I thought the Big Ten Championship might be a repeat of 2014 where Ohio St just obliterated Wisconsin to make a case for the playoff. Not quite.
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I don't think I could be any less enthusiasthic about playing Washington in the Rose Bowl which I know isn't official but is extremely likely.

I hate the automatic tie-ins. I want to play the best team available which I feel as the 1st or 2nd team out we should get the opportunity to do so. There's clearly a gulf between the top end of the NY6 teams this year and the bottom end.

I want UCF or Georgia not a 3 loss team

ShatteredElysium posted...

I don't think I could be any less enthusiasthic about playing Washington in the Rose Bowl which I know isn't official but is extremely likely.

I hate the automatic tie-ins. I want to play the best team available which I feel as the 1st or 2nd team out we should get the opportunity to do so. There's clearly a gulf between the top end of the NY6 teams this year and the bottom end.

I want UCF or Georgia not a 3 loss team

You are flying very close to the sun my friend

1) Washington lost its combined games by a total of 10 points; Ohio State lost its by a combined total of 29 points

2) Washington played a loseable game in nonconference and lost it; Ohio State did not

3) Ohio State had a fluky escape against Maryland and generally had better luck than Washington did in close games

Now that all said Ohio State's best wins are more impressive and they will be rightfully favored to win the Rose Bowl, if you believe the difference in record is truly that great and that Washington is a team that is beneath you you are setting yourself up for some embarrassment down the road

Also, the Rose Bowl is the Big Ten-Pac 12 championship game as it rightfully should be

Washington are a 3 loss team with a weaker SOS and less impressive wins so yeah I think there's a gulf between OSU and Washington. I think there's a clear gap between all the teams above Washington and themselves not just us. UCF being the clearly debatable one as we don't know how good they are.

Just the same as I think we would get killed by Alabama if they had foolishly put us in the top 4.

Whilst there's no excuse for getting mauled by Purdue in the way we did, I will say our 2 big losses in the last 2 seasons both came against teams entering the game on the back of a sad fan story.

I googled "college football strength of schedule" and of the first three lists I looked at, two rank Washington's SOS as harder than Ohio State's

I personally have Ohio St 5th and Washington 8th, I think it'll be a good game. Auburn was a tough game to open with for Washington and I think they're playing better now.

ShatteredElysium posted...

our 2 big losses in the last 2 seasons both came against teams entering the game on the back of a sad fan story.

that damn cancer is hyping up Big Ten West teams too much lol
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I guess for my moaning, ranking wise Georgia get the biggest shaft in their bowl game.

It's a shame they couldn't send the next in line SEC team to play Texas and have Georgia play UCF or Michigan instead.

From the rankings I think I'd have preferred something like this (that still maintains tie-ins)

LSU / Michigan
Florida / Texas
OSU / Washington
Georgia / UCF

Or alternatively if we don't care about tie-ins

OSU / Georgia
UCF / Michigan
LSU / Washington
Florida / Texas

I guess if tie-ins don't matter you would toss Texas out for whoever was 12th. Penn State?

I would much rather Michigan played LSU (they've still never played before) or UCF....anyone but Florida. We've played Florida twice in the last three years already. Ohio St/Georgia would be good.

We are undefeated against Florida, so I at least want to keep that streak going.
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Yeah the Florida/Michigan game I would have preferred they avoid just because it feels like it has happened a lot recently.

I think my main issue with the bowl games is that they just don't tell us much and have sizable favorites in 3 of the 4 matches (I haven't checked but I'd think that Georgia, Michigan and OSU are all decent favorites in those matches?)

UCF/LSU should be a good match but I feel either way it won't tell us much. Whoever wins, the loser will be labelled as not very good. Whereas if we had gotten UCF paired against Georgia, OSU or Michigan and pulled off the upset then I don't feel that would said afterwards.

Just checked

Ohio State are 5.5 point favorites
Michigan are 7.5 point favorites
Georgia are 14 point favorites
LSU are 6 point favorites (opened as 4 points but has gone up)

There's a good chance that I won't watch any of the playoff games this season. I can't stand watching teams that have no concept of defense, Notre Dame is Notre Dame, and while Alabama and Clemson are easily the most exciting teams of the four, they are a stale option. Haven't they been in every playoff or at worst missed out on one?

Luckily, there will be like 35 other bowls.
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Alabama's been in every playoff; Clemson's been in every one besides the first one in 2014
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