WEEK ONE RECAP

• The first week of the college football season is in the books.  From a point spread perspective, several games were decided late in the 4th quarter:  FAU vs Ohio State, Mississippi vs Memphis, Duke vs Alabama and Vanderbilt vs Georgia.  Two games, though, were all-time gut-punching “bad beats:
  • Oregon vs Auburn (-3.5):  0:59:51 – The amount of time Oregon was covering the spread. 59 minutes and 51 seconds of the 60 minute game.  With 9 seconds to play and trailing by 1, Auburn threw a 26 yd TD to cover the spread (ouch) and win the game (double ouch if you’re a Duck).  Had that pass attempt failed, Auburn likely would’ve settled for a game winning field goal attempt.
  • Northwestern vs STANFORD (-6.5):  5951 – The number of expletives verbalized (or internalized) after the last play of the game.  With 30 seconds to play in this sloppy affair, Northwestern was trailing by 3 with the ball on their own 22 yard line….when this happened:

If only No. 73 had recovered it for a safety.  This outcome was eerily similar to another game involving Northwestern:  It was 2013.  NW vs Ohio State (-7).  Down 3 points with 5 seconds to play and the ball on their own 7, NW needed a miracle.  Instead, they got this:

• Tulsa had a historic performance against Michigan State.  Historically bad.  Tulsa rushed for -73 yards.  Yes, 73 yards in the wrong direction.  They went backwards at a faster clip (-2.9 yards/rush) than Michigan State went forwards (2.7 yards/rush).

WEEK ONE RESULTS

• WEEK ONE WINNER:  Monica Aguilar.  Six people went 6-0, but Monica was 9 points better than all of them.  In case you are wondering, she did not make a selection in the NW vs Stanford game, but she did have Auburn.
• Six people went 0-6.
• The overall winning percentage and lock winning percentage were solid:  53.7% and 61.4%, respectively.
• The average score was 66 points, and 76 people scored 100 points or more!
• The “Majority 6” went 5-1.  In other words, the 6 most popular picks went 5-1 against the spread.
• The most popular game of the week was also the most even distributed.  134 picks for Oregon.  140 for Auburn.  Both sides were locked 28 times.
• The most popular pick of the week was Oklahoma State (219 picks).  The most popular pick is rarely a midweek game.
• Houston was the only underdog to receive the majority of the picks.  They covered the spread against the Sooners.