RMN Bowl Contest - And Down the Stretch we Come

First, an explanation regarding Michigan State/Stanford.  I decided long ago that I did not want to deal with ties or "pushes" with this contest.  It was big enough that dealing with a record line of W-L-T was just not interesting to me.  So I made the executive decision that, though a bet which tied would result in a push, I was going to award them as wins.  In our years, I believe it had happened two or three times leading up to this year, and yes, it does help our bottom line.  Yesterday, Michigan State defeated Stanford 24-20.  The Over/Under was 44.  So if you check your "Form Responses" tab, you will notice that regardless of your answer, it is green.  Well done contest :-)

With that behind us, we now look ahead to only six games remaining.  At the top, HNTR continues their impressive run, now sitting at 42-16.  The record for wins in this contest is 45 (held by a few people), and that appears to be in great danger of being broken with 12 more choices remaining.  Two back of the lead is...well...me.  The Beef is sitting decent at 40-18, but has only three picks which differ from HNTR's.  There is a group two back of second place which includes poolmwv, Mark Schlabaugh, MizKC, TommySaundersHair and TIGERLADY1. Of that group, MizKC has actually been eliminated from being able to take the title and both poolmwv and TIGERLADY1 are up against it, with only four different picks from the leader.  There are certainly many more people who may possibly still be within reach, but I only have so much time to look.

On the other end, LongSnapper4Heisman has a one game lead for the bottom spot at 21-37 over JimLC05 and ColumbianKramer. Two off the bottom is MUScott and three back is mizzousundevil before we get to a group of folks at 25-33.

For tonight, just the one matchup, but one which may go a long way towards deciding the champion:

• Alabama (-14.5) vs. Oklahoma (O/U-51.5) - 86% taking Alabama / 71% taking the Over

This match is so important because HNTR is the only one at the top who has Oklahoma and is among a small group who have the Under.

Overall, the contest now sits at 53.51%, 940 picks above .500 (the tie was worth 231, so we are still doing quite well).  All time, we are 999 games above .500 at 50.99%.  I think a lovely new goal would be to finish this year over 1,000 to the good and with a full percentage point to spare.  Seems pretty doable, but Alabama and the Over would certainly be a step in the right direction. As always, enjoy (or lament) your own picks by clicking the link.

Happy Thursday everyone!