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(DISCLAIMER: This game is for entertainment purposes only. No actual money is being wagered.)
That Fawlty Towers comparison was a little more on the nose than I intended.
Due to a database issue with my website host, the database functions that do most of the work of letting you enter bets and view results all stopped working. It wasn’t sorted out until Sunday morning. Which means you weren’t able to make bets during Saturday until kickoff time, which I endeavor to permit. Sorry about that. I did receive one late bet via email, which has since been entered. (It lost.)
That aside, this week’s story was underdog money line wins. There were several hits:
| E-dogg42 | Southern Methodist +325.0 money line to beat Texas Christian | Southern Methodist 42-34 | 50.00 | WIN | 162.50 |
| mcgies852 | North Carolina State +335.0 money line to beat Clemson | North Carolina State 27-21 | 25.00 | WIN | 83.75 |
| speruche | Southern Methodist +310.0 money line to beat Texas Christian | Southern Methodist 42-34 | 15.00 | WIN | 46.50 |
| GaryStephen | Southern Methodist +310.0 money line to beat Texas Christian | Southern Methodist 42-34 | 5.00 | WIN | 15.50 |
Some near-misses:
| GaryStephen | Arkansas State +460.0 money line to beat Tulsa | Tulsa 41-34 | 5.00 | LOSS | -5.00 |
| GaryStephen | Nevada-Las Vegas +3285.0 money line to beat Fresno State | Fresno State 38-30 | 1.01 | LOSS | -1.01 |
| HerdCountry941 | Marshall +250.0 money line to beat Appalachian State | Appalachian State 31-30 | 20.00 | LOSS | -20.00 |
| McIntyre2K7 | Connecticut +2500.0 money line to beat Wyoming | Wyoming 24-22 | 15.00 | LOSS | -15.00 |
And a lot of homer plays that had a real shot at coming in:
| bullsonparade96 | South Florida +1360.0 money line to beat Brigham Young | Brigham Young 35-27 | 50.00 | LOSS | -50.00 |
| LrdNorman | South Florida +1270.0 money line to beat Brigham Young | Brigham Young 35-27 | 30.00 | LOSS | -30.00 |
| undercoverbull | South Florida +1350.0 money line to beat Brigham Young | Brigham Young 35-27 | 27.23 | LOSS | -27.23 |
| Julmisteforheisman | South Florida +1240.0 money line to beat Brigham Young | Brigham Young 35-27 | 25.00 | LOSS | -25.00 |
| mcgies852 | South Florida +1360.0 money line to beat Brigham Young | Brigham Young 35-27 | 25.00 | LOSS | -25.00 |
| McIntyre2K7 | South Florida +1300.0 money line to beat Brigham Young | Brigham Young 35-27 | 20.00 | LOSS | -20.00 |
| E-dogg42 | South Florida +1240.0 money line to beat Brigham Young | Brigham Young 35-27 | 20.00 | LOSS | -20.00 |
Yeah, you guys didn’t buy a lottery ticket on USF, either. You went for it. A little better defense or a little faster start, and that game might have won you a lot of units.
The bad luck continues for BullsOnParade96, who has now lost back everything he won in Weeks 1 and 2, and is at 1018.12 for the season (not including 250 pending bets on futures).
Here’s a novel way to lose a sports bet. Or win one:
Marshall was trailing by 1 point late in the game, and was trying to let Appalachian State score a touchdown, so they could get the ball back with a chance to tie. But running back Nate Noel wasn’t taking the bait, and fell down in play. This allowed Appalachian State to run off the rest of the clock and win 31-30. This flipped the results of two parlays:
| HerdCountry941 | Over 59.0 points in the Marshall-Appalachian State game; Marshall +7.0 points over Appalachian State(WIN,WIN) | Appalachian State 31-30; Appalachian State 31-30 | 30.00 | WIN | 78.00 |
| E-dogg42 | Over 59.0 points in the Marshall-Appalachian State game; Appalachian State -7.0 points over Marshall (WIN,LOSS) | Appalachian State 31-30; Appalachian State 31-30 | 15.00 | LOSS | -15.00 |
Even more maddening was the Michigan State-Nebraska game. Sparty rallied from a late 20-13 deficit to win 23-20 in overtime. But they had two real opportunities to score a touchdown instead, which would have covered the point spread. And for anyone who took Nebraska outright, the Huskers managed to blow a lead without allowing a single first down in the second half.
So Michigan State wanted to score a touchdown but didn’t, and Marshall tried to let Appalachian State score but failed. Fortunately, nobody parlayed Appy State and MSU to cover. That would have cracked most people.
Standings in the money race:
| speruche | 1949.61 | (0) |
| mcgies852 | 1592.82 | (150) |
| E-dogg42 | 1575.28 | (185) |
| Lrdnorman | 1268.41 | (0) |
| Gibbsak | 1117.73 | (0) |
| GaryStephen | 1114.66 | (0) |
| mmmmsnouts | 1114.55 | (150) |
| bullsonparade96 | 1018.12 | (250) |
| anthonyvito | 1015.91 | (100) |
| ElliotMoore | 999.47 | (150) |
| Danj725 | 974.16 | (0) |
| Andrewpina | 958.18 | (250) |
| jjlovecub | 928.00 | (0) |
| Gym399 | 843.63 | (0) |
| jrjs | 841.45 | (0) |
| HerdCountry941 | 816.03 | (0) |
| ULhothot | 746.18 | (250) |
| Julmisteforheisman | 739.51 | (0) |
| McIntyre2K7 | 708.32 | (110) |
| undercoverbull | 653.76 | (250) |
| camweed12 | 624.55 | (0) |
| briank19 | 622.02 | (0) |
| dsidwell31 | 538.64 | (0) |
| Defdans | 306.73 | (220) |
speruche moves into first place! Again, his lead isn’t as big as it looks, because trailing players have money invested in season-long futures bets (indicated in parentheses) while he does not.
Standings in the points race:
| PLAYERS | TOTAL | WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | WEEK 4 |
| speruche | 32 | 7 | 15 | 10 | |
| bullsonparade96 | 30 | 15 | 15 | ||
| e-dogg42 | 24 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| mcgies852 | 14 | 4 | 10 | ||
| LrdNorman | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | |
| McIntyre2K7 | 10 | 10 | |||
| undercoverbull | 10 | 10 | |||
| anthonyvito | 8 | 1 | 7 | ||
| ElliotMoore | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | |
| Gibbsak | 8 | 1 | 5 | 2 | |
| Ulhothot | 8 | 1 | 7 | ||
| mmmmsnouts | 7 | 7 | |||
| danj725 | 5 | 2 | 3 | ||
| GaryStephen | 5 | 1 | 4 | ||
| HerdCountry941 | 5 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Andrewpina | 4 | 4 | |||
| camweed12 | 2 | 2 | |||
| jrjs | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| briank19 | 1 | 1 | |||
| jjlovecub | 1 | 1 |
speruche moves past BullsOnParade96 in the points race as well! He has three top-three finishes, while BOP has two first-places but nothing else. E-Dogg42 is the only player to score in all four weeks so far, and that will keep him in the race. LrdNorman, ElliotMoore, GibbsAK, and speruche are the only players to score 3 out of 4 weeks. Briank19 gets on the board for the first time.
In Week 5, Cincinnati at Notre Dame may be the biggest national game. There is also Mississippi-Alabama, Arkansas-Georgia, and Michigan-Wisconsin. AAC conference play starts in earnest with Houston-Tulsa on Friday; Memphis-Temple; Tulane-East Carolina; Central Florida-Navy; and of course USF goes to SMU. Lines should be up by the time you read this. Happy fake gambling!