Baddest Bowl Pick 'Em Ever, version 8.0

I'm having big time issues with formatting on this blog site, so I apologize for the appearance: I stumbled across a crazy show on one of those Wildlife channels the other day. These dudes were "hunting" Canadian geese. Let me get this straight. These are grown men, presumably. For fun, and in the name of sport, they spend their weekends staging about 50-100 fake geese in an open field. These things look like yard ornaments. Then they hide in the brush and blow a duck whistle over and over. The idea is to get a flock of geese to fly in your general direction. As soon as the geese are directly overhead, you blast them out of the sky from about 10 yards away with a high-powered rifle. Listen, I understand the perils of an overpopulated society of geese. But these unevolved degenerates have the audacity to refer to themselves as sportsmen. THAT, I cannot tolerate. Let's get back to the matter at hand. A real sport. OUR chosen sport. A sport that dates back to the Chinese as early as 2300 B.C. That's right 2300 B.C.! Two thousand three hundred years before Jesus himself blew out his first birthday candles and brought us this wonderful season of family feuding, Michael Bublé, and awkward gifts from co-workers. I'm talking, of course, about gambling. More specifically, gambling on the athletic prowess of 18-22 year old young men. Unlike the Hatfield & McCoy lunatics who blast helpless ducks out of the sky, our sport has continued to reinvent itself in parallel with other societal developments. With the help of Al Gore's world wide interweb, a Paypal app on a handheld device, and a few simple functions in some spreadsheet software, we can match wits against some of the finest sports minds in this great nation. And we can put our hard-earned dollars* on the line to do so. *By hard-earned, I mean we woke up, potentially even bathed, put on an ugly Christmas sweater with a turtleneck underneath, drove to work, and leveraged our company's payroll budget to research upcoming bowl matchups. Response this year was out of control. 114 entries. Here's what the payouts look like: 1st $500 2nd $295 3rd $175 4th $100 5th $50 AGLOA $20 held back for the Angie Guidi Lack of Achievement Award, which comes in the form of a t-shirt. Demographics of this group include: The I-71 corridor in Ohio is extremely well represented. Kevin Dietz & Matt Neugebauer from Chicago, IL Ryan Stewart from Phoenix, AZ A pair of twins, Sean and Jimmy "Hotpicks" Davis from Boston, MA A Guidi from Dallas, TX and a couple more Guidis from Northern California Hostetters, including a brother/sister tandem, from Thousand Oaks, Ca, along with Clay, who started doing this pool when he was a pre-teen. Now the kid is a junior in high school and has a job. Ed Jones out of Ft. Myers, FL James Skidmore from Brooklyn, NY Doug & Lindsay Rice out of Indianapolis, IN Matt Jones from Vail, CO Jeff Crouse & Johnny Jenkins from Philly. JJ is our token black guy! Before you entered, this was the largest congregation of white dudes since the Republican National Convention. Thanks for being my Michael Steele. Entire families, like the family of Peter Mueller & Amanda Ford, whose daughter's Sydney & Emma have joined. Also the LaCommare family, whose kids have grown up in this pool and even finished in the money before, buying themselves a new TV for their basement! My wife, my dad (reigning champion), my father in-law, and both of my brothers in-law, neither of whom were married to my sisters in '06 when I ran the first Pick 'Em. A whole bunch of current and former co-workers and friends. And finally, a whole bunch of people I've never met in my life. Thanks for sending $1,140 to a complete stranger.

Baddest Bowl Pick 'Em Ever - version 8.0

Bowl Pick 'Em is back folks. I'm home today with a sick child, who vomited all over my Detroit Lions t-shirt at 6:00 AM this morning. It was a fitting conclusion to this past weekend of football, and beautifully summarizes how I feel about the Buckeyes' and Lions' efforts. Rules haven't changed, but I'll reiterate them here anyhow: Entry fee is $10 and there is no limit on the number of forms you can submit. Preferred payment method is two crisp five dollar bills. You can also PayPal me at kjcarter@gmail.com or send me a check to: Kenon Carter 6087 Varwyne Dr. Dublin, OH 43016 Please try to have forms to me by Friday, December 20th at 6:00 PM EST. I will accept forms up until kickoff at 1 PM on the 21st, but prefer to have them a little in advance. Rules are as follows: Pick the outright winner of all 35 Bowl Games (no point spreads). You will assign confidence points to each selection. Assign 35 points to the pick with which you are MOST confident. Assign 1 confidence point to the pick with which you are LEAST confident. The participant with the most points WINS! S/he who finishes last will win the Angie Guidi Lack of Achievement Award, which is really hard to do. I encourage you to submit a secondary form in an attempt to finish dead last. Harder than you think, tough guy. Payouts will be contingent upon the number of participants and announced on Saturday, December 21st. Last year's winners: John Carter - $325 Dan Bailey - $175 Mike Mackim - $125 Jason Walker - $125 (4th & 5th Place) Angie Guidi Lack of Achievement Award - Joe Lassuy

Final Standings

Congratulations to my DAD, John Carter, for taking home the dough in the 7th Annual Baddest Bowl Pick 'Em Ever.  Pops put together an impressive run, rattling off 11 out of 12 successful picks going back to New Year's Day for a total of 262 points.  Yes, 2013 has been kind to my old man so far! 

I'd also like to congratulate the 2012 winner of the Angie Guidi Award for Lack of Achievement, Mr. Joe Lassuy.  Joe went crazy and submitted TWO entries this year.  His first entry was good for 75th place and his second entry was horrible enought to secure the AGA for LoA, 77th place out of 77 entries.  For his efforts, Joe will be donning a brand new Utah St. Idaho Potato Bowl t-shirt for all of 2013.  It's like when Rick Vaughn was on the news for making the Hall of Shame. 

Also congrats to Jason Walker, who nailed down both 4th and 5th place with his two entries.  I believe that's unprecedented. 

I'll be reaching out to all the winners individually to make payment arrangements.  Congrats on another great Bowl Season and we'll see you next year!

Name	Points	Correct Picks	Points Possible
John Carter $325	488	25	488
Dan Bailey $175	483	27	483
Mike Mackim $125	483	25	483
Jason Walker1 $75	482	26	482
Jason Walker2 $50	481	24	481
Anthony Hofmeyer	478	23	478
Allan Guidi	478	22	478
Robbie LaCommare	475	22	475
Ed Purcell	474	24	474
Reggie Jackson	473	24	473

Updated Standings - thru Jan. 5th

Here are your scenarios:

If Kent St/Notre Dame win:

Ed Purcell

Ryan Stewart

Jason Walker1

Kenon Carter

Dan Bailey (tiebreaker)

If Kent St/Alabama win:

Name

Ed Purcell

Jason Walker1

Ryan Stewart

Dan Bailey

Mike Mackim (tiebreaker)

If Arkansas St/Notre Dame win:

Name

Jason Walker2 (via tiebreaker by ONE YARD)

Dan Bailey

Jason Walker1

Mike Mackim

Ed Purcell

If Arkansas St/Alabama win:

Name

John Carter

Dan Bailey

Mike Mackim

Jason Walker1

Jason Walker2

CURRENT STANDINGS:

Name	Paid	Points	Correct Picks	Points Possible
Ed Purcell		455	23	483
Jason Walker1	15-Dec	446	24	482
Dan Bailey		444	25	483
Jason Walker2	15-Dec	444	22	481
Mike Mackim	15-Dec	442	23	483
Ryan Stewart	20-Dec	438	22	469
Robbie LaCommare	21-Dec	431	20	475
James Hancock	14-Dec	431	23	463
Anthony Hofmeyer	20-Dec	430	21	478
Kenon Carter	BOSS	429	21	457
John Carter	12-Dec	428	23	488
Mike Kerins	20-Dec	428	23	444
Chad Welty		427	21	470
Kyle Robbins	14-Dec	426	21	466
Max P. Hofmeyer	14-Dec	426	22	466
Annie Kress	15-Dec	423	22	463
Max J. Hofmeyer	14-Dec	423	21	461
Paul Dale1	21-Dec	422	22	450
Jeff Gilkey	21-Dec	421	21	441
Mike Melink	14-Dec	420	22	457
Jason Jakubson	4-Dec	419	21	452
Scott Buecker	14-Dec	416	20	465
Paul Dale2	21-Dec	416	19	421
Reggie Jackson	21-Dec	413	22	473
Steve Wochaski	13-Dec	413	20	452
Holy Diver	20-Dec	412	22	453
Derek Galloway	14-Dec	412	22	446
Kevin Dietz2	11-Dec	412	21	435
Andrew Guidi	7-Dec	410	19	425
Allan Guidi	20-Dec	409	20	478
Dave Williamson	12-Dec	409	22	453
Richard Tober	23-Dec	407	21	452
John Tornes	23-Dec	407	20	420
Jeff Zipp	14-Dec	406	22	445
Kevin Dietz1	11-Dec	405	19	440
Mark King	21-Dec	405	20	425
Seth Bancroft 2	20-Dec	403	22	449
John Stromberg	14-Dec	403	19	438
Paul Lacey1	7-Dec	399	22	468
Sean Davis	8-Dec	399	21	411
Joe Smith	14-Dec	395	21	424
Jason Jarrad1	14-Dec	394	20	443
Ed Jones	11-Dec	394	21	428
Scott Pethuyne	21-Dec	388	21	406
Rob Holub	13-Dec	386	19	418
Linda Gease	14-Dec	386	19	411
Lindsay Rice	27-Dec	384	20	417
Eric Hostetter		382	20	443
Jason Jarrad2	14-Dec	381	21	415
Bella LaCommare	21-Dec	377	21	419
John Biemer	14-Dec	377	18	404
Sean Esson	14-Dec	375	20	421
Seth Bancroft1	20-Dec	374	22	423
Frankie Hofmeyer	20-Dec	372	20	431
Clayton Korsan		371	20	407
Jim Dove		368	20	387
Doug Rice	27-Dec	367	20	428
Stacy Carter	BOSS	367	21	417
Corey Ohalek	11-Dec	361	19	421
Paul Lacey3	7-Dec	360	20	411
Jimmy Norris	14-Dec	360	19	394
Mia LaCommare	21-Dec	357	19	403
Ken Pauly	15-Dec	355	17	370
Chris Predieri	4-Jan	347	20	356
Angie Guidi	24-Dec	342	19	393
Preston Canada	27-Dec	342	19	385
Paul Lacey2	7-Dec	329	19	398
Mike Fitzpatrick		326	17	366
Jim Davis		322	16	330
Paul Lacey5	7-Dec	303	18	372
Jeff Crouse		299	17	358
Noah LaCommare	21-Dec	295	15	352
Joe Lassuy1	27-Dec	288	18	312
Julie Carter	12-Dec	286	16	326
Tim Smith	4-Jan	277	12	308
Paul Lacey4	7-Dec	267	18	336
Joe Lassuy2	27-Dec	222	15	270