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Protect Your Unit Week 13 Picks Thread

Of rivalry trophies and email spam.

Mississippi v Mississippi State
Mississippi wins the Egg Bowl, the only bowl they will be playing in.
Photo by Butch Dill/Getty Images

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

Like you, I get spam email. Unlike you, a lot of mine is related to gambling. Early this week, I got this interesting proposition:

BetDSI.eu posted a prop on where Scott Frost will be coaching next season. The majority of wagers have come on Nebraska.

Scott Frost will be head coach of which team on September 1, 2018

Nebraska +300
Florida +325
UCF +350
Tennessee +1500
UCLA +2500
None of the above +1000

I really wanted to put this prop bet in our game, but it didn’t make sense to have a bet that could not be won or lost until next season. Personally, I’d put $100 each on Nebraska and Florida.

Also, some of you took a stab at guessing last week’s list of rivalry games. Here are the ones you knew:

  • Palmetto Bowl - South Carolina-Clemson
  • Paul Bunyan's Axe - Wisconsin-Minnesota
  • Commonwealth Cup - Virginia-Virginia Tech
  • Civil War/Platypus Trophy - Oregon-Oregon State
  • Apple Cup - Washington-Washington State
  • Iron Bowl - Alabama-Auburn (I think everybody knows this one)
  • Governor's Cup - Kentucky-Louisville (though Kansas-Kansas State, played earlier in the season, is also called this)

The ones you didn’t get:

  • Fremont Cannon - Nevada-UNLV. This is a cool one. The prize is an actual cannon. The winner paints it their color. They used to actually fire it during games, until it became inoperable.
  • Wagon Wheel - An obscure one; it’s Akron-Kent State. There is also an Old Wagon Wheel contested by Utah State and Brigham Young.
  • Territorial Cup - Arizona-Arizona State. So called because the series predates Arizona’s statehood.
  • Heroes Game - Iowa-Nebraska. This is an odd one, because the schools really don’t dislike each other, even now that they play every year for real stakes. It’s advertised a lot, especially at regional grocery store HyVee, but no one is really that interested in it. It’s not even the best contrived Big Ten trophy Nebraska plays for; that would be the $5 Broken Bits of Chair Trophy.
  • Farmageddon - Kansas State-Iowa State.
  • Land of Lincoln Trophy (formerly Sweet Sioux Tomahawk) - Illinois-Northwestern.
  • Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate - Georgia-Georgia Tech.
  • Old Oaken Bucket - Purdue-Indiana.

I totally forgot to mention the Egg Bowl (Mississippi-Mississippi State), which was played Thanksgiving night.

And to answer LightningFan’s question, the Florida-Florida State rivalry is supposedly called the Sunshine Showdown, but I’ve never heard any fan of either team use that term. It sounds corporate, like the beginning of a longer phrase where the next two words are “sponsored by.” FSU-Miami has no name or trophy either. Florida-Miami had the Seminole War Canoe Trophy (no, really). UF demanded its return in 2010, but Miami’s position is that it is only awarded to the winner of the annual series, which ended in 1987. Someone tried inventing the three-way Florida Cup trophy, but it’s rarely awarded since UF and UM don’t play most years. There’s also the Florida Classic (Bethune Cookman-Florida A&M), and Shula Bowl (FAU-FIU).

For whatever reason, wacky trophies didn’t develop in the south like they did in the midwest and west. Few southern rivalries have them. So it’s safe to say that today’s War on I-4 is Florida’s biggest trophy game in at least 30 years. Enjoy it.

Picks so far:

andrewpina Toledo -13.0 points over Western Michigan 100.00
andrewpina Pittsburgh +14.0 points over Miami (FL) 50.00
andrewpina Ohio -4.0 points over Buffalo 50.00
andrewpina Cincinnati -4.5 points over Connecticut 30.00
andrewpina California +7.0 points over UCLA 20.00
BrianMartin South Florida +350.0 money line to beat Central Florida 248.00
BrianMartin Pittsburgh +435.0 money line to beat Miami (FL) 1.00
BrianMartin Under 44.0 points in the Florida State-Florida game 1.00
CarlZee Ohio State -11.0 points over Michigan 70.00
CarlZee Under 44.0 points in the Florida State-Florida game 40.00
CarlZee Auburn +175.0 money line to beat Alabama 40.00
CarlZee Iowa -3.5 points over Nebraska 35.00
CarlZee Florida +190.0 money line to beat Florida State 35.00
CarlZee Over 62.0 points in the South Florida-Central Florida game 6.20
CarlZee Northwestern -16.0 points over Illinois 3.14
eastcoastbull South Florida +10.5 points over Central Florida 248.00
eastcoastbull Houston -4.0 points over Navy 1.00
eastcoastbull Southern Methodist -7.5 points over Tulane 1.00
ElliotMoore Florida State -4.5 points over Florida 50.00
ElliotMoore Ohio -3.5 points over Buffalo 50.00
ElliotMoore Stanford +2.5 points over Notre Dame 50.00
ElliotMoore Cincinnati -5.0 points over Connecticut 50.00
ElliotMoore South Florida +350.0 money line to beat Central Florida 50.00
GaryStephen South Florida +350.0 money line to beat Central Florida 64.12
GaryStephen North Texas -13.0 points over Rice 50.00
GaryStephen Over 62.0 points in the South Florida-Central Florida game 50.00
GaryStephen Alabama -4.0 points over Auburn 40.00
GaryStephen Kentucky +10.0 points over Louisville 30.00
GaryStephen Iowa -3.0 points over Nebraska 20.00
jjlovecub Florida State -4.5 points over Florida 77.00
jjlovecub South Florida +11.0 points over Central Florida 77.00
jjlovecub West Virginia +23.0 points over Oklahoma 77.00
mcgies852 South Florida +11.0 points over Central Florida 150.00
mcgies852 Fresno State +7.5 points over Boise State 100.00
McIntyre2K7 Over 44.0 points in the Florida State-Florida game 100.00
McIntyre2K7 Over 49.5 points in the Miami (FL)-Pittsburgh game 100.00
McIntyre2K7 Over 49.0 points in the Miami (FL)-Pittsburgh game
Under 44.0 points in the Florida State-Florida game
100.00
ULhothot Alabama -4.0 points over Auburn
Wake Forest -11.5 points over Duke
Notre Dame -2.0 points over Stanford
60.00
ULhothot Wake Forest -11.5 points over Duke 44.00
ULhothot Notre Dame -2.0 points over Stanford 44.00
ULhothot Alabama -4.0 points over Auburn 44.00
ULhothot Louisville -9.5 points over Kentucky 44.00
ULhothot South Florida +11.5 points over Central Florida 11.00
ULhothot South Florida +350.0 money line to beat Central Florida 3.00

Use the space below to enter your Scott Frost prop bets, or anything else you want to yak about.