Protect Your Unit Week 9 Results

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

OK, I've used this space to talk UAB before, but their story is just criminally under-reported in the college football press. And it's Halloween, so rising from the dead is an appropriate topic.

After sitting out the last two years over dubious budgetary concerns, and the death of their superstar recruit, UAB football won its fifth game of the season on Saturday. They pounded their rival and C-USA heavyweight Southern Mississippi 30-12. With home games remaining against awful UTEP and Rice teams, they will probably go to a bowl game their first year back from the dead. It would only be their second in school history. They were bowl-eligible in their "final" season of 2014, but somehow none of the 7,000 bowl games could find room for them.

You know what this proves, though? The NCAA has no reason not to use the death penalty. For years, they’ve used SMU’s post-1986 futility as an excuse never to drop The Big One again. Now there is a counterexample. If a Group of 5 program like UAB can get the death penalty from its own state government, and come back with their best team in school history, then the NCAA shouldn’t hold back on shutting down teams that deserve it. And if you’re a fan of a program that regularly gets into NCAA trouble, that should be scary.

Standings after Week 9:

We didn’t have a good week. This is often the case when USF loses, because we are a bunch of homers. CarlZee, at 53.84, was the biggest fake-money winner this week. JJlovecub moves into first place by virtue of a small win (18.00 fake dollars) when almost everyone else lost.

Two parlays nearly came through: LrdNorman had Minnesota +7 over Iowa (push), Georgia over Florida (win), and Kentucky -3.5 over Tennessee (Kentucky won by 3). So want of half a point, LrdNorman lost 200 instead of winning 520. ULhothot had Notre Dame and Missouri right, but lost on Louisville.

Randolph and Mortimer Spite Bet of the Week goes to mmmmsnouts for bringing back the classic $1-against-Skip-Holtz bet. Bonus points for betting on an awful Rice team to win outright.

The Floyd’s Money Team Degenerate Bet of the Week isn’t so much a bet as it is a line. What prevailing wisdom set the Missouri-UConn game as going over 80 points? It came back a little to 78, but that’s still way too high for any UConn game. I get that Missouri scores a lot and gives up a lot, but UConn has an uncanny ability to impose its own dullness on any game it participates in. Without looking, I’d wager that under bets on UConn game win more often than not. Points to CarlZee, defdans, and HerdCountry941 for taking advantage of this one.

Lots of big national games in Week 10. Penn State is at Michigan State. Clemson is at North Carolina State, a key ACC divisional game, and a rematch of a game NCSU almost won last year. Virginia Tech is at quietly unbeaten Miami. Oklahoma-Oklahoma State is on. Alabama hosts LSU, who lost to Troy earlier this season, but still in the Top 25. Georgia hosts 6-2 South Carolina. Ohio State goes to 5-3 Iowa. Stanford visits Washington State. Surging Arizona is at Southern Cal. Iowa State goes to West Virginia in an important Big XII game.

In the AAC, a full set of conference games. On Friday, Memphis is at Tulsa, and Navy is at Temple. Saturday brings USF’s rescheduled game at Connecticut, Central Florida at SMU; Cincinnati at Tulane, and East Carolina at Houston.