Protect Your Unit Week 9 Results Thread

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

For all the gloom around USF Nation going into Saturday’s game, a surprising number of you took USF to beat Houston. Out of 14 point spread or money line bets, 11 were on USF. All 6 over-under bets were unders, which suggest our players thought USF’s defense could slow D’Eriq King down.

USF-Houston was by far the most played game of the week. Some players even pinned their season hopes on an upset: BrianMartin ($200 fake dollars) and McIntyre2K7 ($120) took USF to win outright at +245. It looked for a few moments in the third quarter like the Bulls might have a shot at it. It wasn’t to be, and so we enter our first week of some players having less than $250 in the bankroll.

Also in big bets, undercoverbull staked $248 on a three-way parlay, which was done in by Cincinnati. The Bearcats only won by 6 at SMU. McIntyre2K7 also bet big on Hawaii, which didn’t pan out either.

On the happy side, gym399 hit a three-way parlay for $480: Kentucky, West Virginia, and the Texas A&M-Mississippi State under. Other parlay wins were:

dsidwell31 lost a second three-way parlay win, when Georgia-Florida exceeded the 52-point under by one point. That aside, this was a game our players did well on.

Another game of note was UMass-UConn. Despite some people taking each side, nobody lost. UMass was available at -4 and UConn at +5; the final score was 22-17, leaving no losers (only pushes, where you get your bet back). Some of you also won on the under.

A lot of you did well with money lines this week:

In a week with plenty of interesting and important games, three of you found a way to bet on UAB-UTEP. For that, I give E-dogg42, HerdCountry941, and jrjs the Floyd’s Money Team Degenerate Bet of the Week.

Not a lot of spitefulness this week, so I’ll use the Randolph & Mortimer Spite Bet of the Week to highlight someone who got treated spitefully by the gambling gods. This week, that is E-dogg42. He lost two bets by half a point. (We call that “the hook.”) To add insult to injury, he took BYU -7.5 over Northern Illinois. The final score was 7-6. Meaning, his team ended the game with negative points. Ouch. In yet another game, Washington was -10 over California, and only scored 10.

Standings:

Congratulations to gym399, andrewpina, jrjs, ULhothot, and anthonyvito, who all had triple-digit profits. jjlovecub was close at $95 fake dollars net.

Two of our players are below $250 entering Week 10, which means they can invoke the All-In Rule (aka Rule 8.4.1): you can bet it all on one bet or one parlay, if desired. It does not have to be an AAC game. Normally, you have to make 3 bets including one AAC bet, but for those below $250 entering a week, we waive these requirements.

Week 10 has some important conference games lined up. Let’s look at each conference race:

Alabama-LSU and Kentucky-Georgia are essentially Round of 16 games for the national championship. Hear me out: these games will decide each SEC division, and the winner of the SEC championship game is almost certainly going to the 4-team playoff. That makes the SEC championship game a national quarterfinal, and the division-deciding games a national Round of 16 game. Guess that means Florida lost in the Round of 32, as they often do in basketball.

In the Big Ten, Penn State survived Iowa, and now travels to Michigan. A win could get PSU back in the East race, though they need additional Michigan/Ohio State losses. The Big Ten West champion is looking like... Northwestern? For real, folks, NU has only one conference loss, and they’ve already beaten most of the teams with two. A win at Iowa in a couple weeks would pretty much cinch it, as NU’s last two opponents are Illinois and Indiana. This week, however, they play Notre Dame in what might be a test for the #3 Irish.

Clemson has already clinched their division of the ACC, and shouldn’t be tested by Louisville. In an even bigger surprise than Northwestern, their championship game opponent looks to be Virginia. They’re 4-1, and can eliminate even more unlikely contender Pittsburgh (3-1) this week. Virginia Tech (3-1) and Miami (2-2) aren’t out of it.

The Big XII has West Virginia-Texas and Oklahoma-Texas Tech, which will narrow down what is currently a wide-open race.

Washington State is the only Pac-12 team with one conference loss; they host California, who knocked off Washington last week. Stanford and Washington are the only teams in the North with 2 losses, and play each other this week. In the South, every team has 3 losses, except Utah, which has 2. The Utes play up-and-down Arizona State; a win by Herman Edwards’ crew would turn the division into chaos.

In the AAC East, the two remaining unbeatens Temple and Central Florida finally play, on Thursday. Yes, Temple is unbeaten in AAC play. Furthermore, Cincinnati and USF also control their own destiny. Any of those teams that wins out wins the division, regardless what else happens.

Houston, also unbeaten in conference play, can all but clinch the west if they can win at second-place SMU this week. Otherwise, this is a week for crossover games: Tulane is at USF; Navy-Cincinnati; Memphis-East Carolina; and UConn-Tulsa. Someone’s bound to get a win in that one.