Welcome. It's good to have you here. I'm glad you've come. I'm glad you pushed the button that brought you here. I know that took a lot of effort. I would like to reward that effort, handsome stranger.
I have a game we are going to play. Here's how to play the game:
As you can see from this website, there are somewhere between 80 and 90 games involving FBS teams. A great many of these games involve FBS teams playing FCS teams, which means we can't use these games as they don't have any betting lines. But the other ones!
How you'll play is simple. It's first come, first serve. Pick your betting line for the week, using the VI Consensus line. For instance, let's say Notre Dame was playing Indiana, and Notre Dame was picked by Vegas to win by 10 points. The line would look like this: Notre Dame -10. If you wanted to pick Indiana, then, all you have to do is write in your comment, "Indiana +10." If we run out of picks, well, that's it, the game is over for this week. Obviously I'm a bit late this week, as A&M and Carolina kick things off this evening. In the future, I will try to have this post up on Thursdays at 9 AM. So if anyone wants to play, make sure you get in the comment section ASAP.
Now, why would you want to play? Easy. Whoever wins will get, as their prize, a copy of Lou Prato's Penn State Football Encyclopedia or another Penn State-themed gift of their choice and of a similar price range.
Lastly, the scoring will work like this:
1) If your picked team fails to cover the betting line against them, you obviously receive zero points.
2) If your selected underdog beats the spread, you receive points equivalent to the spread. To use the above example, if you picked Indiana, in this hypothetical game, to cover the spread - that is, the final score of the game has Indiana within ten points of Notre Dame - you receive points equivalent to the spread. Thus, ten points for you that week.
3) If your team not only beat the spread, but won the game outright, you'd receive points equivalent to twice the original line. So, 20 points if Indiana won.
4) If you pick an underdog that is playing one of Penn State's traditional rivals - Notre Dame, Alabama, Pitt, Ohio State, and Michigan - and that underdog beats the spread, you receive 1 1/2 times the original spread. If that underdog beats the spread and beats one of Penn State's traditional rivals, you'll receive 3 times the original spread. If one of Penn State's traditional rivals plays one another, obviously this feature becomes moot.
5) If the team playing Penn State is your pick for a given week, and they cover the spread without winning, you receive, as per usual, points equivalent to the line. But if the team playing Penn State covers the spread by winning, you receive only an amount of points I, the game manager, deem equivalent to how much outrage and pain the loss causes to the Penn State fan system. So, if Penn State loses 63-14 to UCF, you'll probably get a lot of points.
Think about it! Makes sense!
With all of that said, there are some tempting lines out here. I'd love to go with Navy over Ohio State. Alabama seems a bit high at 26 points over WVU and their solid coaching staff. I'd love to go with Appalachian State against Michigan, even though the Mountaineers went 4-8 last year. But you know what?
Yeah, actually, screw it, my pick is Appalachian State +34.5 vs. Michigan. Granted, Michigan might just be able to push Appalachian around, but then again, Michigan's offensive line looks like it will be bad this year, with the possibility of eventually becoming average. Eventual average will definitely not be good this early in the season. Probably.
Roll the tape!
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