Wrapping Up

Well, three weeks later and it's all finished! Congratulations to our double winner, Terry Shike, who took both the points and the picks brackets:

Given that the overall ESPN winner only had 555 points (77% accuracy), 71% is pretty impressive.

Michael gets the most for his money (least picks, most points), and Dan is the opposite. I win the "Strawn" bracket, while Emily and Aaron sweep their households. I'm not sure what happened to Brian on the last week of the season... Must have a case of triskaidekaphobia.

A couple of highlights from the season:

• Steve had the only perfect game of the season... Last year, it seemed like we had about 10 of these.
• Cat managed to pick the Illinois upset of tOSU, but still finish last during the week.
• On the off chance (waaaay off- see below) that tOSU wins the National Championship, Mich1gAAn has the chance to lose to two champions in the same year.
  
• Picks of the year: Aaron choosing Iowa over MSU, Janie knowing that UCLA would beat Cal, Dan choosing Iowa's upset of the Zooks, Cat knowing that tooOSU would beat Cal, Jake's twofer of GaTech and KSU over Clemson and Texas, Dan choosing Big Blue over Louisville, USC helping Jake over Georgia
• Lowlights of the year: Jake scoring 19 points in week 5, Janie's 17 points in week 7, my 16 (!) points in week 6, and Carrie's 15 points in week 6. Heck, in week 6, our apartment combined didn't outscore the top 6.

In a couple of weeks, we'll be back with the "Bowl Challenge" (not to be confused with the Bowel Challenge, which my daughter is currently undergoing). One sad "Bowl" note- this will be the last year that Lloyd will lose his post season game. Also, we won't have the automatic pick of whoever is playing Notre Lame, since they aren't eligible (but will still make $1.3 million, or $433,000 per win this season).

We all know that the BCS is crap- Even the BCS knows it, since they had do monkey with their rules to even get enough participants. You know, there's a real possibility that if Tennessee beats LSU, Georgia would get a BCS bid- the same Georgia that didn't win their division OR their conference. Ah, well...

So, with that in mind, here's my idea for the Bowls Chuck wants to See:

Zook Bowl- Illinois and Florida
"Defense? We don't need no stinking defense..." Bowl- Hawaii and West Virginia
Settling the Score Bowl- LSU and USC (not exactly best buddies, perhaps because of the exaggeration)
Defense and Special Teams Clinic Bowl- Ohio State and Virginia Tech
Mangino Bowl- Oklahoma and Kansas
Maybe we can beat Division 3? Bowl- Michigan and Mount Union

At any rate, stay tuned to this space for info about the Bowl picks game, and for the randomness that you've come to appreciated.