Protect Your Unit: Endgame

(DISCLAIMER: This contest is for entertainment purposes only. No actual money is being wagered.)

OK gang, let's get caught up on your favorite fake gambling contest.

Because "Week 15" included the Army-Navy game played on December 14, there haven't been any new standings to update since the Monday after Thanksgiving. But we have them now, and they are changed quite a bit, thanks to several players going for broke in the last week of the regular season.

Week 15's big winners were:

• chuckycrater, +$179.54, thanks to a $200 bet on the UCF-SMU under.
• danj725, +203.83, hitting the Michigan State +183 and Stanford +143 money lines.
• zls44, +$359, having placed $300 on Stanford at +143.
  
• jthomas11, +$411.46 for the week, winning on Michigan State at +183, and also hit the UCF-SMU under.
• But our big winner for the week is diddybull32, who put $80 on a three-way parlay of Baylor, Florida State, and Fresno State against the spread, hitting for $480. He also netted $23.64 on three straight bets, for a grand total of $503.64. An impressive haul, considering he had only $211 to start with.
  

Those whose all-in moves didn't work out were iwaswrongabouthowell (-300), LeavittTown (-231.35), AndrewP (-211.36), dsidwell31 (-160.91), and RyanTSmith (-156.10).

Your end-of-regular-season standings are:

zls44 extends his lead by hitting another big money line game, having scored on Auburn over Alabama the week before.

But here's where things get interesting.

All of bowl season, from the New Mexico Bowl on December 21 to the National Championship Game on January 6, constitute the final "week" of the season. For bowl week, the following rule changes are in effect:

• You may bet up to $500, or 50% of your end-of-week-15 bankroll, whichever is higher. (Rather than the usual $250 or 25%.)
  • If you win or lose money early in bowl season, your maximum bet amount does not change. It is based on the amount you ended Week 15 with, which is listed above.
    
• You must bet at least 5 bowl games, including 2 bowl games involving American/old Big East schools. (Rather than the usual 3 and 1, respectively.)
• You may not take a bye week.
• Each pick will be made public once the betting window is closed for that game. Standings will be updated once that game is over (or as soon as I can enter the game results).

I'm working on a new page for the ProtectYourU.net site that will track the results and standings, day by day., so you'll always know the score. As always, you can bet on any game up until one hour before kickoff. Do you try to make a move with the early bowl games, or save your chips for January and make a big move at the end? Or do you just pick the games you feel strongest about, regardless of time?

When the season's over, I'll announce the winner, and hand out some other best-of-the-year type awards. We'll also have a thread to talk about bowl season, as we had for each week of the regular season.

The first set of lines for bowl season is up now. They will be updated once a day.

By the way, there are no rule changes regarding parlays - you may place any parlay that is otherwise permissible. Email your choices to me as you have been this season.

As always, if you have any questions, please ask. I hope you all have enjoyed the season - I've had a lot of fun organizing it for you. Protect Your Unit will certainly be back for 2014, and I hope you all will be too.