Protect Your Unit Week 15 Midweek Update

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

The Great Narrowing has occurred.

Our contest leaders, chasing even greater totals to get ahead of each other, all took big losses instead, and fell back to the field. Meanwhile, a former champion hit a big score to creep into contention. Straight to the standings:

Let’s review what was a dramatic Saturday for our contest:

• AAC Championship Game: Memphis had to come from behind to beat Cincinnati, falling behind 24-23 with 4:27 to play. This made a 9-point cover extremely problematic, and broke what could have been the championship-winning play:

So, so close. LSU crushed Georgia, and Appalachian won by enough, but one garbage touchdown for Memphis would have given Danj725 $5777.21, and a nearly insurmountable lead.

But that wasn’t the only heartbreak to be had:

• Big XII Championship Game: Baylor, reduced to playing third-string true freshman Jacob Zeno at quarterback, rallied in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime. Again, it’s tough to cover 8 points when the game is this close late, and it cost two players:

That would have put Defdans at $2,059.31, and well-positioned for the final week. speruche would have been at $3,421.99, restoring his near-$1,000 lead from just a couple weeks ago.

• MAC Championship Game: Speruche also lost on this one:

Again, the favorite fell behind, though this time they didn’t even come back to win the game.

• Mountain West Championship Game: Oh, this game did soooooooo much damage.

Despite the stereotype of Mountain West football being a defense-optional pinball machine, Boise’s defense is actually pretty good. It’s rated in the top 40 overall according to Football Outsiders and other advanced metrics. Even Hawaii’s defense isn’t terrible.

This game was 3-3 approaching halftime, when a quarterback change spurred Boise to two quick TDs, and their defense held the rest of the way.

This one would have separated undercoverbull, speruche, and jrjs from the rest of the pack, and given HerdCountry941 a huge boost over $2,000. When this bet lost, the rest of the field won.

• Big Ten Championship Game. This one is especially interesting because these two bets came in after the Boise game was resolved:

Two of our three leaders, having each suffered a setback, take another big swing at each other. But a lot of people played this game:

As you can see, it wasn’t just our leaders making big plays late in the season. HerdCountry941, McIntyre2K7, andrewpina, dsidwell31, Oak1787, and ElliotMoore all took a big stab at moving up the standings, and all came really close to doing it. But the game went far against what was expected, with Wisconsin leading 21-7 at the half.

The over-under bet was especially cruel. The point amount varied over the course of the week, so some players won and others lost on the over. Also, Wisconsin drove all the way to the 10 yard line as time expired. A garbage-time score would have given dsidwell31 and Oak1787 big wins.

And finally, special mention has to go to julmiste4heisman, for not calling it quits when he was down to $2.86 of fake money. He bet on the AAC Championship game, and won! Since 1-3 players typically lose their entire $1,000 fake dollars each season, it’s a little bit of an accomplishment to end with something. Depending on how the Army-Navy game goes, he may also win a weekly award; $2.60 is currently good for third place on the week. (I know, I need to get those published.)

Finally, we have to talk about the remaining Futures bets:

Winnings for the remaining futures bets will be dispersed after the Army-Navy game, and before bowl season starts. I’m not doing it now, because I don’t want players gaining additional bankroll during a week.

The big winner here is E-Dogg42, who is currently at $-10 but will pick up $75 that will at least let him play bowl season. He is also going to exercise his Sudden Death bet on Army-Navy, so he could go into bowl season with a decent bankroll. This is explicitly allowed in Rule 11.1. He’d still have to overcome the $500 lost, though.

As a reminder: Week 15 is not over. The Army-Navy game is part of Week 15, and you may bet it if you have bankroll remaining from the December 7 games. After that game is played, we’ll tally everything up and prepare for bowl season.