PYU Week 12: Melon Crazy

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

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The comedian Gallagher passed away last Friday. He graduated from USF in 1970 with a degree in chemical engineering and a minor in English literature. He never mentioned his USF ties, though he did have one joke that did so obliquely: “I was in college for seven years. It was a real long war.”

So let’s all smash a watermelon in memory of a beloved fellow alumni. His act didn’t age well, but he’s still a comedy legend. He was probably the most famous USF alum from a field other than sports. Unless you’re a huge fan of Aasif Mandvi, or Drew from Office Space.

The defining moment of his acting career, and he wore green and gold. Gotta love that.

On to this week’s business. The cancellation of the Coastal Carolina-Virginia game resulted in one bet being voided, and one bet in a parlay being treated as a push (more on that in a minute). Most importantly, it wrecked a futures bet: ULhothot was in line to win 95.46 (45.46 plus his 50-unit bet back) on Virginia winning less than 7.5 games. By rule, that bet is now a push, so he will only get his 50 back. Rule 14.8.5.1 even says “If any game is unplayed, incomplete, or if an opponent or location changes, the bet is voided and the player neither wins or loses. This includes bets that have already clinched, such already a team already having met its win total.”

That game was also part of bullsonparade’s 400-unit parlay that also had USF-Tulsa over 58.5, and USF +13. So he’ll win 1,000 units if USF loses a high-scoring weeknight road game no worse than 36-24. Good luck with that.

Let’s see the picks as of about noon on Friday:

ElliotMoore has moved into fourth place in the season-long money race, on the power of two more MACtion parlay wins.

After this weekend is over, the results will be posted to this thread.

RESULTS

I knew I shouldn’t have questioned bullsonparade96’s 400-unit parlay. It of course won easily, vaulting bullsonparade96 back into first place. Sportscaster’s curse strikes again.

Last week’s leader jrjs kept pace though, hitting another coordinated parlay on UMass +38/Under 48 versus Texas A&M. That’s the proper name for this type of play. Which I just this week learned that real sports books don’t allow. PYU has never had rules against them, and Rule 7 explicitly allows them, so they’re permissible here. Just be aware you can’t actually make this bet for real, in any locale where sports gambling is permissible.

Next season will probably have a rule disallowing this type of play, but that’ll be the least of it. I’m working on an ambitious re-imagining of PYU for next season. I’ll make a formal announcement when there’s something ready to you all the demo and test. I don’t want to Duke Nukem Forever this any more than I already have.

Week 12 winners were:

This differs little from what the weekly standings were after the noon kickoffs:

All the big wins were from weeknight or early Saturday games. E-Dogg42 had one late parlay hit that included two west coast games, but it wasn’t enough to put him in the black for the week. Let’s review the big winning bets now:

I love a good moneyline longshot, and defdans scored on South Carolina +1200. ULhothot also hit on Georgia Tech +900. bullsonparade96 could have won even more if Illinois had held off Michigan at +700.

Before we review season-long standings, a futures note: most win-loss futures have clinched a win or loss, but won’t be settled until after the team plays its last regular season game. For most, that will be after next weekend. ULhothot had three of his futures bets settled this week: Oklahoma State to win the Big XII and/or national championship have both been marked a loss, as they have four losses and are mathematically eliminated from the former. His bet on Virginia to win less than 7 games was voided, because they had a game cancelled. The 50 units he bet on that has been returned to his bankroll, and his “pending futures” amount is updated to reflect only those that are still pending.

Andrewpina, briank19, defdans, LrdNorman, McIntyre2K7, and ULhothot have all clinched a windfall, provided every team plays its last game as scheduled. dsidwell will also, if Hawaii loses its last game. These are all still pending futures in the money standings. Which are:

It’s a two-man race now between BOP96 and jrjs! McIntyre2K7 fell to third place after taking a big swing:

Too bad PYU doesn’t offer the European-style “trixie” or “patent” bet, as that would have offset some of the losses. Cough cough ambitious re-imagining cough cough.

And finally, the points standings:

Only five points separate the top three! Danj725, ElliotMoore, and defdans are still mathematically in the points race, as a maximum of 45 more points is possible. No one else can earn enough points to take the lead. There are three weeks left: Week 13 is Thanksgiving weekend, followed by Week 14 (championship games, Army-Navy, any other games). All of bowl season is Week 15.

Speaking of Week 13: we all know where it starts and ends, with a game I think we’re all glad to see go away. Central Florida needs a win, to assure its spot in the conference championship game; a loss eliminates them. The winner of Tulane-Cincinnati will host that conference title game. Houston will also finish tied for second at 6-2 if they beat Tulsa, but they can’t win any tie-breaker.

Among the soon-to-merged schools, UTSA will host the Conference USA championship game next week; they play UTEP in their regular season finale. North Texas will be the opponent, as long as they beat Rice, or FAU beats Western Kentucky.

Games of no championship import are East Carolina-Temple, Memphis-SMU, and UAB-Louisiana Tech. Navy is off, before the Army game next week. Charlotte’s regular season is over.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend, so you know which big rivalries are on. The biggest one is of course Michigan-Ohio State, with huge national implications. Notre Dame-USC and Oregon-Oregon State are the other Top 25 games. The Egg Bowl is on Thursday night. NC State-North Carolina is Friday night. Saturday includes Auburn-Alabama, Florida-Florida State, Georgia Tech-Georgia, South Carolina-Clemson, Tennessee-Vanderbilt, Louisville-Kentucky, Kansas-Kansas State, and Washington-Washington State.