PYU Week 12 Results: Hail To Pitt

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

Let’s start with the money standings:

Wow! In a week, BullsOnParade96’s lead shrank from 3429.26 to 1207.46. How did that happen? It was mostly on one very astute preseason bet, and one very bad in-season bet:

BOP wasn’t the only one to be suckered into believing in USF against a winless and supposedly disinterested Tulane team. But he did pay the highest price for it. Meanwhile, ULhothot made a bet on Pitt, of all teams, to win their division of the ACC. I wouldn’t bet on Pitt to win a league if all the other teams dropped football mid-season. But they did it yesterday, over Virginia. Our friend from Louisville also had a very good Week 12, slotting into third place:

Major winning bets were:

You can see another source of ULhothot’s success, and it’s probably the most hilarious win of the season, even funnier than Louisiana-Monroe. He had Southern Miss (which was 1-8) at +630 to beat Louisiana Tech outright. Which, despite not coming from a USF supporter, may be the ultimate spite bet on Skip Holtz. You know how Quinton Flowers got called a “glorified running back?” USM won this game with literal glorified running backs at QB. Frank Gore Jr. (yes, you are old) was one of four non-quarterbacks who threw passes in the game, and went 4-for-8 for 75 yards and two passing TDs.

And this wasn’t even the spite-iest bet of the week:

I’ve never seen a spite parlay before. But briank19 made one and actually won it, using the new 1.01 “LOL bet” convention. ElliotMoore’s bet on Arkansas to beat Alabama outright was also a lot more viable than it seemed pre-game.

More about Futures bets. Most of them, except for USF’s quest to win 3 games and the National Championship bets, have already won or lost. You can see a current list of them at the website. Most “over/under win” bets will be paid off after next week’s games, because that’s when most teams end their regular season, and the over/under bet requires each team’s complete season to be played. Conference/division winner bets don’t require this, so they can be paid when clinched. No more such bets are live, though.

Undercoverbull and defdans, both of whom ran out of fake money earlier this season, will win a Futures bet and can return to play Week 14 and bowl season if they want to. Another player, camweed12, lost his last 88.28 on USF, and can make the Last Chance Bet in Week 14 if he wants to. It occurs to me that this is a fine example of diminishing marginal utility, or “stack size” in poker: the more chips you have, the less each chip is worth. Camweed12 losing 88.28 units hurt him a lot more than BullsOnParade96 was hurt by losing 1,122.29 units.

Points standings for the season are:

BullsOnParade96 is still in good position to win the points race. Speruche and DSidwell31 aren’t mathematically eliminated yet, but there’s only three weeks to go. That USF-Cincinnati game from last week is looming large in this race. If USF had failed to cover, DSidwell31 would have had five more points, and BOP five less. the top three scores would be 70-57-57.

One thing I never clarified was whether or not the bowl season, or the Futures bets, counted as a “week” in terms of the points race. The futures bets won’t, because futures bets were optional, and counting them in the points race would put those who didn’t play futures at a disadvantage. But bowl season, a.k.a. “Week 15”, will be considered a week in terms of the points race.

Week 13 is rivalry week, full of great games like Texas-Texas A&M, Oklahoma-Nebraska, West Virginia-Pittsburgh... oh, sorry, I got nostalgic there for a second. And, sooner than we think, the War on I-4 will join the dust bin of history. If the next realignment is slated for 2023, and UCF doesn’t want to play the game anymore (funny, that) then this may be USF’s last-ever trip to the Bounce House. And while a lot of words have already been written about this, I think I can sum it up with just two: