Confidence

I must have a gambling problem. I think I've watched a total of 4 complete college football games this year. And one of those was really just an excuse to hang out with some friends at bar as we watched the Illini get pounded by Iowa. Still, despite the fact that I know almost nothing about college football I've decided to enter a confidence pool at work.


For those of you unfamiliar with how a confidence pool works, it is as follows. You predict the winner of each of the 32 bowl games. You rank each game with a score of 1-30 corresponding to how confident you are that you picked the winner of the game. You can only use a number once, and you get two byes. For each game that you pick correctly you get a number of points equal to your confidence score. Most points at the end of the bowl season wins.


Confidence pools are even more biased in favor of those who actually know what they are doing, rather than those of us hoping to get lucky since you not only have to get lucky and pick the winner, you also have to be lucky enough to have assigned a high point value to that game.

Regardless of the fact that I have no idea what I am doing I am going to enter said pool with the following picks. No fair to my coworkers who may read this blog, submitting an entry with the exact opposite picks. Although I'm tempted to do that myself. There are probably a number of huge mismatches in some of the lesser known bowls that I'm just not aware of because I have never heard of half of these schools. Middle Tennessee vs Central Michigan? I bet my high school team playing against our cross town rival would generate more interest.

Anyways, here are my picks. Feel free to point out any obviously bad picks or to post your own for bragging rights. Winners are in bold, confidence to the right of the bowl name.

San Diego County Credit Union - 26

#24 TCU (10-2) vs. Northern Illinois (7-5)

Pioneer Pure Vision Las Vegas - 5

#20 Brigham Young (10-2) vs. Oregon (7-5)

R&L Carriers New Orleans bye

Rice (7-5) vs. Troy (7-5)

Papajohns.com - 2

South Florida (8-4) vs. East Carolina (7-5)

New Mexico - 1

New Mexico (6-6) vs. San Jose State (8-4)

Bell Helicopter Armed Force - bye

Tulsa (8-4) vs. Utah (7-5)

Sheraton Hawaii - 7

Arizona State (7-5) vs. Hawaii (10-3)

Motor City - 4

Middle Tennessee St (7-5) vs. Central Michigan (9-4)

Emerald - 10

Florida State (6-6) vs. UCLA (7-5)

PetroSun Independence - 11

Oklahoma State (6-6) vs. Alabama (6-6)

Pacific Life Holiday - 3

#19 California (9-3) vs. #21 Texas A&M (9-3)

Texas - 16

#17 Rutgers (10-2) vs. Kansas State (7-5)

Gaylord Hotels Music City - 15

Clemson (8-4) vs. Kentucky (7-5)

Brut Sun - 21

#25 Oregon State (9-4) vs. Missouri (8-4)

Autozone Liberty - 12

Houston (10-3) vs. South Carolina (7-5)

Insight - 18

Texas Tech (7-5) vs. Minnesota (6-6)

Champs Sports - 6

Purdue (8-5) vs. Maryland (8-4)

Meineke Car Care - 24

Navy (9-3) vs. #23 Boston College (9-3)

Alamo - 27

#16 Texas (9-3) vs. Iowa (6-6)

Chick-fil-A - 23

Georgia (8-4) vs. #14 Virginia Tech (10-2)

MPC Computers - 17

Miami (FL) (6-6) vs. Nevada (8-4)

Outback - 25

#18 Tennessee (9-3) vs. Penn State (8-4) 25

AT&T Cotton - 22

#10 Auburn (10-2) vs. #22 Nebraska (9-4)

Toyota Gator - 28

#12 West Virginia (10-2) vs. #25 Georgia Tech (9-4) 28

Capitol One - 19

#13 Arkansas (10-3) vs. #5 Wisconsin (11-1)

Rose - 20

#7 USC (10-2) vs. #3 Michigan (11-1)

Tostitos Fiesta - 9

#9 Boise State (12-0) vs. #8 Oklahoma (11-2)

FedEx Orange - 8

#6 Louisville (11-1) vs. #15 Wake Forest (11-2)

Allstate Sugar - 30

#11 Notre Dame (10-2) vs. #4 LSU (10-2)

International - 14

Cincinnati (7-5) vs. Western Michigan (8-4)

GMAC - 13

Ohio (9-4) vs. So. Mississippi (8-5)

BCS Championship - 29

#2 Florida (12-1) vs. #1 Ohio State (12-0)

Tie Breaker BCS Championship Game Total Points: 50

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com