OBNUGgers, if you have not yet signed up for Bowl Pick 'Em, you need to drop whatever you are doing - especially work stuff - and get on over to ESPN.com and sign up. It's free, it's easy, and you can pick a pun for your team name.
Bowl Pick 'Em bowl games begin on Saturday, and here's your post for all the last-minute info prizes, picks, and more to get you ready to dominate. Join me after the jump for some pick 'em discussion, and feel free to share your strategies and picks in the comments.
Note: Picks will lock prior to the start of Saturday's games, so don't forget to pick your winners and give them confidence points. Or do forget and give us all better odds at winning.
Note #2: TITORAY is the winner of the regular season Pick 'Em thanks to an overall tiebreaker score that was just a tad better than BROW7237's. Congrats to TITORAY and thanks to everyone for participating.
Fabulous prizes: They exist
For the winner:
- Boise State swag from the Blue and Orange Store
- Sports Illustrated college football preview issue with Boise State on the cover
- Your name on the OBNUG Wall of Heroes
As promised, I have a new prize to add to the bounty now that the Pick 'Em group has hit 100. Winner gets a gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings, which will come in super handy next year when the Broncos are playing Mountain West games and you don't get CBS College Sports.
But wait, there's more. If the group can get to 150 by the start of games on Saturday, I'll add a pair of Nike Zoom Huarache shoes in Boise State colors. They're size 12, but since Nike designed them to be awesome, they fit comfortably even on teacup-pig feet like mine. Here's a sneak peek:
And if you all go out and overachieve (or make copious amounts of multiple entries for yourself), I'll add yet another prize to the haul should the group reach 200.
To recap: Swag, Sports Illustrated, wings, infamy, Nike shoes, and the respect and admiration and loathing of your peers. Good luck to you all and may the best guesser win.
There are no losers, only winners with fewer prizes
Keep in mind that the last place entry will take home a prize, too. I am nothing if not covering my bases for my turning in a really bad Pick 'Em entry. For the OBNUGger with the worst picks of us all: Heavyweights on DVD.
May it inspire you to turn your life around. Tony believes in you.
Do as we say, not as we do
To help keep your OBNUG writers accountable, here are the pick entries for me, Drew, and Nick:
- Haters Gonna Hate, Drew
- Karl Benson Panic Room, Kevan
- njk_id243 1, Nick
Nick's entry name is an inside joke, I guess.
Top Ten is in your sidebar
For a semi-daily update on how Bowl Pick 'Em is going, check the right sidebar on OBNUG.com for a Top Ten for the group.
The totally imperfect Pick 'Em entry of Kevan Lee
Since no one asked for it, I thought I'd walk you all through how I put together my Bowl Pick 'Em entry. First things first, Boise State gets the most confidence points. I do this every year, and every year they play a BCS bowl I am rewarded richly.
The rest of my entry is a combination of guesses, speculation, misinformation, and personal agendas. North Carolina over Tennessee? Sure, why not. Clemson over South Florida? Big East football is the worst. Missouri over Iowa? Iowa really chaps me.
My least confident pick was Texas Tech over Northwestern because I cannot bring myself to have an opinion on either team. It's just not happening, no matter how much Mark Schlabach I read. I picked Hawaii and Nevada to win, Fresno State to lose. I thought about skipping the Ohio vs. Troy game entirely. Middle Tennessee exists. Huh.
Nevertheless, I am totally stoked about my Bowl Pick 'Em entry. It is going to win.
For the games of December 18 through December 28, I picked thusly:
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New Mexico Bowl: UTEP over BYU, 20 confidence points
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Humanitarian Bowl: Northern Illinois over Fresno State, nine confidence points
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New Orleans Bowl: Ohio over Troy, eight confidence points
- St. Petersburg Bowl: Southern Miss over Louisville, seven confidence points
- Las Vegas Bowl: Boise State over Utah, 35 confidence points
- Poinsettia Bowl: Navy over San Diego State, 19 confidence points
- Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii over Tulsa, 26 confidence points
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Little Caesars Bowl: Toledo over Florida International, 18 confidence points
- Independence Bowl: Air Force over Georgia Tech, six confidence points
- Champs Sports Bowl: West Virginia over NC State, 17 confidence points
- Insight Bowl: Missouri over Iowa, 10 confidence points
Confidence points: How are you spending them?
I invested my largest amount in a Boise State win and saved my fewest for Northwestern vs. Texas Tech. Which game was your most confident pick? Which was your least confident? Share your picks in the comments.