P-F12: Week 1 Results, My Observations

The bad thing about attending games in person, especially night games, is that you don't really get to watch any other game. I caught about 10 minutes of the 8:00AM Notre Dame/Navy game, then drove out of town, tailgated all day, went to the game, tailgated some more, then went to bed.

The good thing is that I have the interwebs, I've checked out all the box scores, and I think I figured out what happened.

First, some administrative stuff:

WEEK 1 SCORECARD

Pickem-Football.com 2012 Week 1 NCAA Card (v1.0) - Scorecard

WEEK 1 LEADERBOARD

BONUS POINT EXPLANATION

Here is how bonus points were tallied. (Note: The pre-Week 1 bonus picks have been added to this week's bonus also.)

Weekly Winner = 3pts. A-C, CG, AP, DT (11/15 picks)
Double Digit Card (dubs) = 3pts. DW, GF, A-C, CG, JC, JN, AP, Lo, DT
Paid Entry Fee = 1pt/wk. GN, DW, CCo, CG, MN, JC, KP, DD, JHu, ANe

Best Bets = 3pts.
Each of our Best Bet winners picked 3 favorites. Interesting.
TXHTR (DT) - Notre Dame -16.5, Ohio State -22.5, Louisville -13.5
Kentucky Wildmen (GF) - West Virginia -24.5, Alabama -12.5, Louisville -13.5
JoeMama_TheGreek (JHu) - Notre Dame -16.5, West Virginia -24.5, Ohio State -22.5

WEEK 1, MY OBSERVATIONS

I don't know what you saw, but this is what I noticed from the box scores.

Notre Dame 50 (-16.5), Navy 10. 67% of league picked correctly.
Is Notre Dame finally good? Uhhh, a forty point win in a soccer stadium. Yeah -- they are back.

Marshall 34, #11 West Virginia 69 (-24.5). 82% of league picked correctly.
When you score a point a minute, you don't need defense. Welcome to the Big 12-2, WVU. You'll fit in just fine.

Miami (OH) 10, #18 Ohio State 56 (-22.5). 82% of league picked correctly.
Buckeyes. Urban Meyer. And this catch.

Northern Iowa 21 (+7.5), #12 Wisconsin 26. 0% of the league picked correctly. Zero.
Vegas didn't have a line on this game when I did the card. I MADE ONE UP. I saw spreads of 33 before the weekend. Wiscy didn't cover the fake spread, y'all! This game ruined most of the league's Best Bets. So what happened?!!!! The box score tells me that No. Iowa just had a late "surge." No need to panic, cheese lovers.

Southern Miss 20, #17 Nebraska 49 (-19.5). 75% of the league picked correctly.
Taylor Martinez threw for 354 yds, had 5 TD passes, and covers the spread easily. Damn. That is taking care of biz.

Bowling Green 14 (+28.5), #23 Florida 27. 43% of the league picked correctly.
Florida didn't even score as many points as the spread. "We need to be tougher and play smash mouth football" says coach (I'm guessing). "Bowling Green is a good opponent. They stepped it up today." "No, the QB situation is just how we want it." Uh oh, Coach Boom. You have the fighting Texas Ags next. They've got 12 men and stadium sway.

Colorado State 22 (+5.5), Colorado 17. 29% of the league picked correctly.
"One of the all time great rivaries." "What a game today." - says a couple of drunk guys in Denver.

North Texas 14 (+42.5), #3 LSU 41. 50% of the league picked correctly.
You don't need Honey Badgers if you score more points than the other team, new QB Zach Mettenberger. Oh, LSU had 316 rushing yards. That works, but not to cover 42.5 points.

Hawaii 10, #1 USC 49 (-38.5). 57% of the league picked correctly.
Aloha. USC, no longer on sanctions, scores a 4th quarter TD to put them over the number. I don't trust 'em. Aloha.

Texas State 30 (+36.5), Houston 13. 64% of the league picked correctly.
Texas State proves they belong in the FBS. Houston remembers they belong in UIL 5A.

Wyoming 17 (+28.5), #15 Texas 37. 54% of the league picked correctly.
Texas meets everyone's expectations (of everyone who had low expectations). Just saying.

#8 Michigan 14, #2 Alabama 41 (-12.5). 71% of the league picked correctly.
Tide dominates in Jerry World. Michigan may be good, but Bama is really good... at least in the first quarter.

#14 Clemson 26 (-3.5), Auburn 19. 54% of the league picked correctly.
It was full cat-on-cat in the Gays Won't Be Saved College Football Kickoff in Atlanta. Clemson wore the pants on Saturday.

#4 Oklahoma 24, UTEP 7 (+30.5). 32% of the league picked correctly.
Sooners are going to lose. Sooners are going to lose. Sooners are going to lose! Oh. Never mind.

Kentucky 14, #25 Louisville 32 (-13.5). 68% of the league picked correctly.
Last game on the card. HIGH FIVE!

Great breakdown of this animated gif from SB Nation.

Layers within layers here, with each loop bringing new information to us.

For starters, the man falling here is not responsible for the worst high-five in the frame. That honor actually belongs to the backwards-hat and sweatband guy in the foreground and the guy with the chains and the white goatee. Backwards-hat performs his half of the high-five before the recipient is ready, resulting in a delayed echo-five. Like one of those banks where you put a coin in a groove and a small plastic hand reaches out and snatches it.

Also worth nothing: the fan in the glasses on the extreme right-hand edge of the frame who also appears to be engaged in a woefully sub-par high-five that may be turning into "skins."

Also also worth noting:
- Two beer-holding guys engaged in INTENSE conversation
- Guy next to falling guy only has the faintest dawning of something amiss when his arm is nudged
- Woman's hat-brim struck by falling man's hat-brim, leading to instant of sheer terror on woman's face