DISCLAIMER: This game is for entertainment purposes only. No actual wagering is being performed.
One of the really nice things about this game is that it's not that hard to make a huge comeback. All you have to do is find a bet or a parlay you like and then have the guts to go big with it. Everyone who's fallen at least a few hundred fake dollars behind has been swinging for the fences every week, trying to hit one of these big bets so they can get back into the race for... whatever it is we're going to give to the winner (I'm leaning towards something that involves a protective cup).
It finally happened last week, and as you might expect, the standings now look completely different for it. The weekly gains and losses are in parentheses. And you'll notice I had to use colons to break up the names instead of dashes. When you get to the bottom of the list, you'll understand.
- Ken DeCelles: $1,252.13 (+$644.71)
- Hoya Suxa: $1,236.81 (+$156.82)
- WVUIE97, The Smoking Musket: $1,034.06
- Kevin Meacham, The UConn Blog: $896.10 ($0)
- Casual Hoya: $879.44 (-$4.54)
- Chas Rich, Pitt Blather: $721.09 (-$21.27)
- Scott, Bearcats Blog: $638.91 (-$56.82)
- Sean Keeley, Troy Nunes Is an Absolute Magician: $601.82 ($0)
- Chris Lane, The Nova Blog: $333.17 ($0)
- Andrew Porter, The UConn Blog: $142.46 (-$54.55)
- Voodoo 5: $118.49 ($0)
- Toro Grande: -$58.89 (-$248.09)
That's right, Toro has gone completely broke. According to the hastily-assembled guidelines for what to do when a player burns through their entire $1,000, Toro must write a "penance post" in which he admits where he went wrong and tells us how he vows to do better with the next $1,000. Otherwise he's out of the game.
The Microsoft Excel file with everyone's weekly pick-by-pick results can be found here, along with the week-to-week graph, which now dips below zero to show off the new level of futility that has been reached.
BEST BET: Obviously it's Ken's parlay, which won him a cool $644.80 and more than doubled him up. He had UCF -2 against Houston, and possibly the easiest over/under money of all time, Illinois/Michigan over 57.5 points. They exceeded it by halftime, and by the end of the game both teams had exceeded it on their own as the Wolverines hit a buzzer-beater to win 67-65.
WORST BET: Well, anytime you throw out a three-team parlay that puts you officially in the hole, you have to be the worst bet. And actually Toro's bet wasn't terrible. He had Georgia Tech +13 at Virginia Tech, and Florida -14.5 at Vanderbilt. Both covered easily, and all he needed was for Florida State to cover 10.5 points at home against UNC and he would have won almost 1500 fake dollars. Instead, the Noles went up in flames and the Tar Heels won outright.
MOST DEGENERATE BET: This would have clearly gone to Chris for his rash and totally insane attempt to put $248 on Western Michigan without even checking the line. But fortunately for him, I denied his late bet, and the Broncos, who were 3.5-point underdogs, ended up losing to Central Michigan by 4. That would have been such a degenerate bet that I would have had to retire this award on account of it being impossible to top.
So instead, it's time we give Scott from Bearcats Blog his long-awaited due for the wild-ass teases and parlays he puts together every week. This one was strange even for him. Normally he only puts a few bucks on these, but this week he loaded up for $65 on an eight-team tease that was doomed to fail (no one has hit a bet involving more than three teams all year long). He had Alabama -0.5, Iowa -11.5, Louisville +12, Michigan State -18.5, Oklahoma +3, Utah +11, Oregon -29.5, and Wisconsin -14. Only half of the eight teams managed to come through.