PYU Week 8: The Not-So-Fun Belt

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

Three games have been played so far this week. Only Appalachian State has scored more than 17 points. Perhaps its a sign of the Sun Belt’s improved stature that its teams can actually play some defense now. I remember weeknight Sun Belt games as always being crazy fun and ending in pinball scores. Maybe we should start calling it the Un Belt, as in “bet the under.”

In other news, I have published everyone’s futures bet on the Futures page. All bets are still TBD, except for bets on USF over/under 4.5 wins. This bet became void when the site of the East Carolina game was moved. Bets have already been returned to the player. As futures bets win or lose, this page will be updated to show the results. Any money won or will be returned to the player’s bankroll.

By the way, won/loss futures bets aren’t paid until the team’s season ends. McIntyre2K7’s futures bet on Kansas to win more than 3 games is already a winner, but because of the “all games must be played as scheduled” rule, it won’t be paid until Kansas completes their regular season schedule. Conference winners will be paid (or marked “LOSS” once they become official. You paid for your futures bets when you made them, so losing one doesn’t cost you an additional money. Winning one wins the payoff amount and gets you your original bet back.

Two players, speruche and ULhothot, had to make Sudden Death bets this week to continue playing. They are listed in the set of everyone’s picks below. If successful, the player will get a 500-unit “loan” to continue playing. If not, they will be done for the season, unless any of ULhothot’s futures bets pay off later. (TCU +1800 to win the Big XII could be huge.)

This week’s plays so far:

We’ll be back after the weekend’s games to publish the results, and catch up the standings.

RESULTS

Almost everyone at the top of the table had a big win this week:

At the bottom of the table, there were two Sudden Death bets this week. ULhothot won on Tulane -5.5 over Memphis, so he gets the “loan” of 500 units to keep playing. Unfortunately, speruche lost on Tulsa -13 over Temple (Tulsa won by 11). He also has no pending futures bets, so he is eliminated for this season. Thank you for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts.

Only four players were in the black, and earned points this week:

Let’s see how this shakes up the money standings:

Leader McIntyre2K7 took a net loss for the week, but still leads by about 337 over his rival Danj725, who has gotten back into second place. jrjs is now third. bullsonparade96 dropped back to fourth. dsidwell31, Gym399, and andrewpina are all in pursuit.

The changes in the top four were mirrored in the points race:

The points race rewards week-to-week success, so gaps are harder to make up. It’s a much bigger drop for 4th tp 5th than in the money race, where one big parlay hit can turn a season around.

Week 9 has three Thursday night games, and 2 on Friday. USF is back in action, playing at Houston. Other AAC games are East Carolina-BYU, SMU-Tulsa, Temple-Navy, Charlotte-Rice, North Texas-Western Kentucky, and UAB-FAU.

Remember, Cincinnati-UCF does not count as an AAC game, because both teams are leaving the conference. All of their other conference games still count, because their opponent was a long-term or future AAC team. Houston doesn’t pay UCF or Cincinnati this season, so Cincinnati-UCF is the only “real” AAC game that won’t count as one.

National games of note will be Ohio State-Penn State, Oklahoma State-Kansas State, Kentucky-Tennessee, Florida-Georgia, and Michigan State-Michigan.