We’re getting a late start on a strange week 1 where there is an absolute BONANZA of games for the next five days. Games kickoff tonight, and carry on throughout the weekend, so we will be updating as often as picks roll in. Stay tuned!
Kirk Herbstreit:
Bama over VaTech (Twitter 7/30)
TAMU over Rice (Gameday Season Preview)
Penn St over Syracuse (Twitter 8/26)
S.Carolina over UNC
Vandy over Ole Miss
Tom Luginbill:
TAMU over Rice (CFB Daily 8/5)
Bama over VaTech
Clemson over UGA
LSU over TCU
Dari Nowkhah:
Bama over VaTech
S.carolina over UNC
Penn St over Syracuse
BYU over UVA
Auburn over Wash St
FSU over Pitt
NW over Cal
Okla St over Miss St
Washington over Boise St
TCU over LSU
Clemson over Georgia
OU over UL Monroe
Colin Cowherd:
Bama over VaTech
USC over Hawaii
S.Carolina over UNC
Okla St over Miss St
Georgia over Clemson
LSU over TCU
Washington over Boise St
UCLA over Nevada
NW over Cal
FSU over Pitt
Mike Bellotti:
Bama over VaTech
Matt Stinchcomb:
Bama over VaTech
Pat Forde:
Bama over VaTech
UGA over Clemson
LSU over TCU
Okla St over Miss St
Boise St over Wash
Mark Schlabach:
USC over Hawaii
TAMU over Rice
TOSU over Buffalo
Niu over Iowa (upset special)
Brad Edwards:
Cal over NW upset special
Skip bayless:
Vandy over Ole Miss
Jason Sehorn:
S.carolina over UNC
Penn St over Syracuse
BYU over UVA
Auburn over Wash St
FSU over Pitt
Cal over NW
Okla St over Miss St
Boise St over Washington
LSU over TCU
Bama over VaTech
Clemson over Georgia
OU over UL Monroe
Brian griese:
Ole miss over Vandy
USC over Hawaii
S.car over UNC
Lou Holtz:
Ole miss over Vandy
USC over Hawaii
S.car over UNC
Mark may:
Ole miss over Vandy
USC over Hawaii
S.car over UNC
Ryen Russillo:
Ohio St over Buffalo
Washington over Boise St
CSU over Colorado
It is a bittersweet day around here at the Gameday blog. The results for the season are in, and that means that we crown a new champion as we put the season to bed. I found it interesting that both last year’s bowl champion (Tony Reali) and last year’s season champion (Jesse Palmer) both were not in the competition. Tony Reali had no picks this year, and Jesse Palmer only had ten picks (going 7-3 overall). This year, Ryen Russillo was on top of the leaderboard going 18-5 (78.26%) but 23 picks is not enough to be a champion around here. Therefore, I am proud to bring you this year’s grand champion: Tom Luginbill at 58-17 (77.33%). We had a handful of experts going into bowl season who were within reach of the coveted 80% barrier for the season. Big names including Tom Luginbill, Lou Holtz, Pat Forde, Mike Bellotti, Colin Cowherd and so on. Pat Forde had been on a tear this year sitting at 75.84%, but tanked the bowl season going 18-17. Lou Holtz was at 75% even, but only picked two bowl games and got them wrong. Cowherd and Bellotti both had a shot, but average finishes weren’t enough to boost them over the top. Tom Luginbill was at exactly 80% headed into bowl season, but a 6-4 finish dropped him a few points which was still good enough for the gold. Below you will find the full slate of results for the year, with the minor experts listed below (those who only picked a few games).
Tom Luginbill: Gameday Champion
Our rookie of the year has to be Dari Nowkhah coming in at 72.6% in his first season here. He took on the hosting duties on the new ESPN show College Football Daily, which is the spiritual successor to the greatly missed “Palmer & Pollack”, and he did pretty well. Mark Schlabach did nicely this year at 64.41%, which was good enough to bring him up from last place in the all-time rankings (now taken on by Mike Greenberg after a disastrous bowl season). Celebrity guests on Gameday did pretty crappy, so let us shame them at 55.65%. Brian Griese is our anti-rookie of the year at 57.45%. Last but not least, I really do have to give props to Lou Holtz. In years past he has picked Notre Dame to win virtually every game they play, and this year he went bananas at 72.58% right. I would have loved to have seen how smug he would have been if ND won the championship, but oh well. I’m sure he’ll be back next year to pick them every game.
Thanks for reading; its been a great season. Check back next August when things get going again. Who knows, maybe this offseason I’ll write some bonus material here too.
Ryen Russillo: 18-5, 78.26%
Tom Luginbill: 58-17, 77.33%
Matt Stinchcomb: 12-4, 75%
Pat Forde: 310-110, 73.81%
Ed Cunningham: 8-3, 72.73%
Dari Nowkhah: 106-40, 72.60%
Lou Holtz: 45-17, 72.58%
Mike Bellotti: 65-25, 72.22%
Lee Corso: 128-50, 71.91%
Colin Cowherd: 99-39, 71.74%
Woody Paige: 5-2, 71.43%
Trevor Matich: 70.65%
Christian Fauria: 84-36, 70%
Jesse Palmer: 7-3, 70%
Kirk Herbstreit: 125-54, 69.83%
Mel Kiper Jr.: 30-14, 68.18%
Charles Arbuckle: 41-20, 67.21%
Brad Edwards: 42-21, 66.67%
Kevin Carter: 10-5, 66.67%
Matt Millen: 4-2, 66.67%
Jason Sehorn: 49-25, 66.22%
Jennifer’s Picks: 144-74, 66.06%
Mark Schlabach: 38-19, 64.41%
Desmond Howard: 92-52, 63.89%
Robert Smith: 97-56, 63.40%
David Pollack: 69-40, 63.30%
Mike Golic: 24-14, 63.16%
Dan Hawkins: 15-9, 62.5%
Danny Kanell: 23-15, 60.53%
Todd McShay: 52-35, 59.77%
Mark May: 46-32, 58.97%
Brian Griese: 27-20, 57.45%
Celebrity Guests: 69-55, 55.65%
Tim Cowlishaw: 5-4, 55.56%
Ivan Maisel: 3-3, 50%
Skip Bayless: 5-7, 41.67%
Chris Fowler: 2-3, 40%
Mike Greenberg: 13-22, 37.14%
Andre Ware: 1-3, 25%
Scott Van Pelt: 5-0, 100%
JA Adande: 3-0, 100%
Bob Ryan: 3-0, 100%
Kevin Blackistone: 2-0, 100%
Samantha Steele: 1-0, 100%
Jackie MacMullan: 1-0, 100%
Michael Smith: 4-1, 80%
Brock Huard: 3-1, 75%
Bill Plaschke: 0-1, 0%
We’ve had the boys down at the Gameday lab tallying picks, crunching numbers and doing things in labcoats and the results for the 2012-13 Bowl Season are finally in! As with every year, there is some discretion used by our board of trustees (i.e. Me) as to who actually wins, and how to interpret the results. First, our bowling results are below for your review presented in alphabetical order by first name:
Brad Edwards: 1-0
Charles Arbuckle: 1-0
Christian Fauria: 1-0
Colin Cowherd: 22-13
Dari Nowkhah: 1-0
Danny Kanell: 1-1
David Pollack: 3-4
Desmond Howard: 8-2
Ed Cunningham: 8-3
Ivan Maisel: 3-1
JA Adande: 1-0
Jackie MacMullan: 1-0
Jennifer’s Picks: 25-10
Jesse Palmer: 3-1
Kevin Carter: 7-3
Kirk Herbstreit: 5-3
Lee Corso: 7-3
Lou Holtz: 0-2
Mark May: 2-0
Mark Schlabach: 23-12
Matt Stinchcomb: 0-1
Mel Kiper Jr: 0-1
Michael Smith: 0-1
Mike Bellotti: 6-4
Mike Golic: 21-14
Mike Greenberg: 13-22
Pat Forde: 18-17
Robert Smith: 25-10
Ryen Russillo: 1-0
Scott Van Pelt: 1-0
Skip Bayless: 1-1
Stephen A. Smith: 1-0
Tim Cowlishaw: 5-3
Todd McShay: 21-14
Tom Luginbill: 6-4
Trevor Matich: 0-1
Urban Meyer: 0-1
Woody Paige: 1-0
While we have 30+ bowl pickers, we only have a few competitors who qualify for the championship due to the amount of games picked. The eligible competitors are Colin Cowherd, Jennifer, Mark Schlabach, Mike & Mike, Pat Forde, Robert Smith and Todd McShay. Each of them picked the full slate of bowl games, while everyone else just chimed in for a few games. Before crowning a champion, let me also explain the curious case of one Todd McShay. On this year’s Bowl Mania Special on ESPN, prior to any of the bowls kicking off, he picked all of the games with his confidence points. In his picks from this special, he went 22-13. On his ESPN.com Bowl Mania group, he picked a slightly different slate of games with a few being different, but also went 22-13 on his Bowl Mania group. The reason he is being dropped to 21-14 in the official record is because on the Rose Bowl pregame show, he came on about ten minutes before kickoff and boldly declared that he was changing his mind and called for Wisconsin to upset Stanford. Maybe you thought nobody would notice, but listen up McShay: I am here to hold you accountable. Therefore, you will be entered into the record going 21-14 for all eternity.
One last piece of business before we crown our champion. Please make sure to shame Mike Greenberg for going 13-22 on bowl picks. That is an all-time low as far as I know, and he was the only person to have a losing record. Now let us crown our champion… or should I say champions. This year, Robert Smith and my girlfriend Jennifer both put up 25-10 records in picking Bowl Games, and thus they will be our first ever BOWL PICK’EM CO-CHAMPIONS!!! Congratulations to the both of you. Jennifer has already received her congratulatory fruit basket. Robert Smith, if you are reading this, please be on the lookout for the congratulatory cheese platter I have sent you. It was a great bowl season, and we will be back soon with the yearly results!
