Protect Your Unit Week 7: I Go To Extremes

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

There’s a new wager this week: the halftime bet on the USF game. You can bet on the point spread of the halftime score, as well as the standard end-of-game bets. It’s an all-new way to bet against USF! Or put your unwarranted faith in them! Or both!

In accordance with USF’s performance this season, you can either bet on USF to be tied or ahead at halftime (USF +0.5) or for USF to be trailing by three touchdowns at halftime (Tulane -20.5). Obviously there’s a lot of room for both bets to lose, but it’s pretty consistent with USF’s performance. USF was either ahead at halftime, or trailed by 28 or more at halftime, in every game this year but one. (Against Florida, they trailed by 11 at the half.)

Not many takers on this bet so far, but there is one parlay so far:

I guess e-dogg thinks USF is going to get ahead, and blow it in the second half. Interesting play.

Here are all the other picks as of about 11:30 Eastern. Note that we already have a big parlay win from the weeknight games:

Sunday or Monday morning, this post will be updated to show the Week 7 results and update the season-long race.

RESULTS

While it wasn’t widely played, the USF-Tulane halftime bet was one of the most exciting of the day! USF led 14-10 in the last seconds of the second quarter, which would have made USF +0.5 a winner. From the 6 yard line with 6 seconds left in the half, Tulane scored to make both halftime bets a loser.

I haven’t decided if I’ll offer this bet again. I definitely won’t next week since USF has a bye week. Hopefully the “get killed out of the gate or be surprisingly competitive” trope has run its course.

The season-long race is now a three-way race, as the leaders continue to hit big parlays:

Leader McIntyre2K7 and new second-place player BullsOnParade96 easily hit big plays, pushing them even further ahead of the field along with Danj725. Dan took a net loss this week, but he did get Tennessee right:

You can bet the same game multiple times if you want. This is often advantageous, if the line moves in your direction.

Other successful plays were:

USF may have looked better the last two weeks, but you can still make money betting against them. Well done for Gibbsak, who was the only other player to profit this week:

When only three players are in the black, this means big points for them all: 15, 10, and 7 respectively. That makes the points standings:

McIntyre2K7 has a big lead in points, as BullsOnParade96 moves into a tie for second place with Danj725. You might say McIntyre2K7 is ahead by a week and a half. Since you can’t earn more than 15 points in a week, and can’t lose any points, it would take at least a first place and a third place result over two weeks for either challenger to pass him. Fourth-place jrjs would need two firsts plus three more points.

Money standings are:

It’s a three-man race, but jrjs, Squirbs, and gym399 are all on the winning side for the year. Unfortunately, speruche and ULhothot are out of bankroll, and will have to make a sudden death bet for a loan to continue playing. I’ll add one dollar to each account so they can pick an AAC game against the spread, as per Rule 11. (ULhothot has some pending Futures bets that could still win, but he is entitled to the Sudden Death bet also.)

USF has a much-needed bye week, so here are your AAC offerings: Tulsa-Temple on Friday, Cincinnati-SMU, Houston-Navy, Memphis-Tulane, UCF-East Carolina.

As fate would have it, you can also pick any Conference USA game you like for the Sudden Death bet, because all five Conference USA games in Week 8 also count as AAC games because they involve a team that joins the AAC next year. These are UAB-Western Kentucky on Friday, Rice-Louisiana Tech, North Texas-UTSA, FIU-Charlotte, and FAU-UTEP.

Week 8 national attractions include 6-0 Syracuse playing at 7-0 Clemson, for supremacy in the ACC Whatever Their Division Is Called. Other games of surprising import include UCLA-Oregon and Kansas State-TCU. And we’ve got Fun Belt! Georgia State-Appalachian State is Wednesday. There are also two Thursday night games.