Bloguin College Pickem Week 1
College football is thought of by many as America's most fanatical sports and this is the most exciting time of the year as we ease into our first full weekend of action.
We have a lot of GREAT college football blogs and they all talk a big game, but we're interested to see just who is the brightest mind in our group of esteemed bloggers. To figure this out we've developed a unique contest that will span the entire season.
Each week our bloggers will be given 5 games to pick the winner of and will be asked to rank their confidence in those picks from 1-5. Each bloggers will be able to earn 15 points (5+4+3+2+1), if they can pick all 5 winners correctly. The 5 games they will be asked to rank are some of the more marquee games of the weekend.
They'll then have a chance to earn 6 more points by deciding if some of the weekend's biggest favorites can cover those massive spreads. Again they'll rank their picks 3-1.
In total there will be 21 points each week and our winner will be the person who has the highest % of points earned out of points attempted. Since we hate it when that one missed ballot cost you the championship because of a computer issue, blackout, drinking blackout, honeymoon, etc, bloggers will be able to have some leeway in missing ballots. At the end of the year, if you've attempted 80% of the total points of the season, you'll be eligible for our surprise prize (we don't know what it will be). Without further ado here are the first week of picks from our bloggers in the pickem component of this challenge.
Next week, we'll tally the points in our standings and show you our picks for another big slate of games.
| Boise State vs Virginia Tech |
North Carolina vs. LSU | Notre Dame vs. Purdue | TCU vs. Oregon State | BYU vs. Washington | |
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Virginia Tech (5) | LSU (2) | Notre Dame (4) | TCU (1) | Washington (3) |
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Boise (2) | LSU (3) | Notre Dame (5) | TCU (4) | Washington (1) |
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Virginia Tech (2) | LSU (3) | Notre Dame (4) | TCU (5) | Washington (1) |
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Virginia Tech (4) | LSU (3) | Purdue (2) | TCU (5) | Washington (1) |
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Virginia Tech (2) | LSU (5) | Notre Dame (4) | TCU (1) | Washington (3) |
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Virginia Tech (5) | LSU (2) | Notre Dame (1) | TCU (3) | Washington (4) |
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Virginia Tech (2) | LSU (5) | Notre Dame (3) | TCU (1) | Washington (4) |
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Boise (1) | LSU (2) | Notre Dame (3) | TCU (4) | BYU (5) |
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Boise (5) | LSU (3) | Notre Dame (1) | Oregon State (2) | Washington (4) |
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Virginia Tech (5) | LSU (3) | Notre Dame (2) | TCU (4) | Washington (1) |
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Boise (2) | LSU (5) | Notre Dame (4) | TCU (3) | BYU (1) |
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Virginia Tech (3) | LSU (1) | Notre Dame (2) | Oregon State (5) | Washington (4) |
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Boise (5) | LSU (4) | Notre Dame (2) | TCU (3) | BYU (3) |
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Boise (2) | UNC (1) |
Notre Dame (4) | TCU (3) | BYU (5) |
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Boise (2) | LSU (5) | Purdue (1) | TCU (3) | Washington (4) |
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Boise (1) | LSU (5) | Notre Dame (4) | Oregon State (3) | BYU (2) |
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Boise (1) | LSU (5) | Notre Dame (2) | TCU (4) | BYU (2) |
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Virginia Tech (3) | LSU (2) | Notre Dame (4) | TCU (1) | Washington (5) |
What can we infer from these numbers?
- LSU was the most picked team with the suspensions to the North Carolina team. Only 1 out of 15 bloggers picked the Tar Heels and LSU received 41 total confidence points compared to only 1 for UNC.
- Notre Dame and TCU were also popular picks with our bloggers both picking each 13 out of 15 picks. Notre Dame outscored Purdue 39-3 on confidence points with TCU getting 40 compared to Oregon State's 7.
- Washington vs. BYU was more of a tossup with a 11-4 split in favor of Washington. Washington garnered 30 confidence points while BYU garnered 14. Although BYU only received 4 picks, two of them were for 5 confidence points.
- In the weekends biggest game, our bloggers were virtually split on Virginia Tech vs. Boise State with a 8-7 voting tally in favor for the Hokies. Even though this was a tough game to pick, 1/3 of our ballots had this game as their most confident pick. In total Virgnia Tech received 28 confidence points compared to 19 for Boise State. Essentially Virginia Tech seemed to be a more confident pick while Boise backers were hesitant to really endorse the pick.
Now for the will they cover segment.
| Nebraska -38 vs. Western Kentucky |
Alabama -37.5 vs. San Jose State |
Oregon -34 vs. New Mexico |
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No (1) | Yes (2) | Yes (3) |
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Yes (3) | Yes (2) | No(1) |
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No (2) | No (1) | Yes (3) |
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Yes (3) | No (1) | No (2) |
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Yes (1) |
No (3) | Yes (2) |
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No (1) | Yes (2) | No (3) |
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No (3) | No (2) | No (1) |
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Yes (3) | Yes (2) | Yes (1) |
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Yes (3) | No (2) | No (1) |
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No (1) | Yes (2) | Yes (3) |
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No (3) | No (2) | Yes (1) |
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No (3) | Yes (2) | Yes (1) |
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Yes (3) | Yes (2) | Yes (1) |
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No (3) | Yes (2) |
No (1) |
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No (1) | Yes (2) |
Yes (3) |
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No (1) | Yes (2) |
Yes (3) |
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Yes (3) | No (1) | Yes (2) |
Oregon received 10 votes saying they'd cover the 34 point spread in the first game in the post Masoli era.
Bama even without Ingram was picked to cover by 9 bloggers compared to 6 dissenting.
The only game where our bloggers thought that the favorite would not cover was Nebraska and the 38 point spread against Western Kentucky.
Thanks for stopping by this new competition for Bloguin. We're excited to see just how smart or misguided some of our guys are. Enjoy the games and we'll see you next week!
