FanPost

Mountain West Connection Pick 'Em: PLAYOFFS and Bowl Pick 'Em

Wow - what a finish to the regular season! The play-in round was a doozy, and Ravenous Ute *just* snuck in over bsgillis to claim the 8th and final playoff spot. Both participants went 11-2 overall and 4-0 in MWC-affiliated picks, but the difference wound up being the tiebreaker. Neither player correctly picked Oklahoma over Nebraska, but Ravenous Ute *did* pick a smaller (incorrect) margin of victory for the Cornhuskers, so he gets the nod. He also had a bonus point advantage over bsgillis if there was any debating this as our procedure (though I clearly stated it was).

Overall, norcaliangelsfan picked up his first weekly victory in 14 attempts, and WolfpackNev collected his impressive 3rd bonus point, which ties him for the lead in that catgeory. It's fitting that 2 of the 4 players who've been with us since Week 1 would pick up the bonus and the weekly win in the final regular season round.

That being said... it's playoff time!!! All our information for the playoffs, including seeding and how non-playoff participants can keep playing... is after the jump.

Here is the seeding for the playoffs, with an explanation of how they work to follow:
#1 dmbase vs. #8 Ravenous Ute
#2 Jeremy Mauss vs. #7 NC Ute
#3 rebelfan1 vs. #6 HawkeyedFrog
#4 norcaliangelsfan vs. #5 VA_Libertarian

The way this is going to work, as I've explained before, is that I've broken this season's bowls into 3 sections, and each section will count as a round (quarter-finals, semi-finals, championship). For each round, playoff participants' records will only be compared to their opponent, with a bonus/tiebreaker for each round determining the advancer if need be (that means some of you who haven't been picking bonus scores might want to start doing so). In other words, if norcaliangelsfan goes 12-1 in Round 1 (for example) and advances to the second round, his record would be wiped clean before facing his next opponent.

With that information out of the way, however... don't forget we're playing for multiple championships here. In addition to our Cup Championship (which will go to the champion of the playoffs), we'll still be playing for the MWC Pick 'Em Premiership, which will go to the participant with the best overall regular season *and* bowl record. In other words, were dmbase to be upset in the first round by a hot-handed Ravenous_Ute, his picks will still go towards the Premiership championship, which he's still in a very good position to win (alongside probably the other top 3 participants - mathematically, it'd be difficult for myself or anyone below me to still win the championship).

For those of you who didn't make the playoffs, your record will still count for the premiership and the overall standings at the end of the contest. You'll also be playing for the Plate Championship, which will go to the participant with the best bowl record who didn't make the playoffs.

Before we get to pickin', here's a rundown of the regular season's picks, as well as the Premiership standings:

Premiership Standings:
*playoff participants highlighted in yellow

Standings_week14_medium

Week 14 Picks:

Picks_week14a_medium
Picks_week14b_medium

Overall Scores (Total):

Overall_total_14_medium

Overall Scores (MWC):

Overall_mwc_14_medium

And, with that out of the way, here's a listing of the bowls match-ups to pick from, as well as their corresponding sections (quarter-finals, semi-finals, championship):
! indicates MWC-affiliated match-up

Section 1 (Quarter-Finals for Playoff Participants):
December 18th:
! BYU vs. UTEP
! Fresno State vs. Northern Illinois
Ohio vs. Troy

December 21st:
Louisville vs. Southern Miss

December 22nd:
! Boise State vs. Utah

December 23rd:
! San Diego State vs. Navy

December 24th:
! Tulsa vs. Hawai'i
Now that Hawai'i is officially a part of the MWC's future football alignment, they will count as an MWC-affiliated game in this round.

December 26th:
Florida International vs. Toledo

December 27th:
! Air Force vs. Georgia Tech

December 28th:
N.C. State vs. West Virginia
Iowa vs. Missouri

Section 1 Bonus/Tiebreaker: Score in the Boise State vs. Utah game.

Section 2 (Semi-Finals for Playoff Participants):

December 29th:
Maryland vs. East Carolina
Baylor vs. Illinois
Arizona vs. Oklahoma State

December 30th:
Army vs. SMU
Kansas State vs. Syracuse
North Carolina vs. Tennessee
Nebraska vs. Washington

December 31st:
Clemson vs. South Florida
Miami (FL) vs. Notre Dame
Georgia vs. Central Florida
Florida State vs. South Carolina

Section 2 Bonus/Tiebreaker: Score in the Florida State vs. South Carolina game.

Section 3 (Championship Round for Playoff Participants):

January 1st:
Northwestern vs. Texas Tech
Florida vs. Penn State
Alabama vs. Michigan State
Michigan vs. Missisippi State
! TCU vs. Wisconsin
Connecticut vs. Oklahoma

January 3rd:
Stanford vs. Virginia Tech

January 4th:
Arkansas vs. Ohio State

January 6th:
Miami of Ohio vs. Middle Tennessee State

January 7th:
LSU vs. Texas A&M

January 8th:

Kentucky vs. Pittsburgh

January 9th:

! Boston College vs. Nevada

January 10th:

Auburn vs. Oregon

Section 3 Bonus/Tiebreaker: Score in the Auburn-Oregon game.

I strongly recommend everyone make all or most of their picks at once, as I won't be making additional posts about the playoffs. When the Quarter-Finals are over (on Dec. 28th), the Semi-Finals start the next day (Dec. 29th), so I'll just be announcing on here what the next round's match-ups are, but you won't realy have time to pick anew. This makes picking the bonus/tiebreaker for each round incredibly important, as it's unlikely you'll be able to look at your opponent's picks and pick differently (if anyone does that anyway).

Also, since we haven't covered this before. I'll still be tracking everyone's MWC-affiliated scores - thus, if norcaliangelsfan and I tie in the first round, the first tiebreaker will still be our MWC records before the tiebreaker kicks in. Thus, if we both go 9-2 overall, but he's 6-0 in MWC-affiliated games and I'm 5-1, I'm out - even if I had a better guess at the tiebreaker score. This competition has always valued MWC-affiliated games with extra weight, and it will continue to do so. This is really going to make an impact in the first round, where 6/8 of the MWC-affiliated games are.

Additionally, for those of you who just want to list straight picks without them being broken up by section or date, I'll put a straight list to cut/copy/paste in the first comment.