Black Shoe Degenerates: The Boring Week

Thanks to Penn State barely missing on the cover, a good portion of players, including myself, lost out on some cash (even though the record was solid). The strategy of betting the house and exponentially growing your money backfired on a few folks, who now find themselves with zero dollars on week 3. This development also means there’s a new top 5, given that the top two spots from last week were evacuated.

Richness Factor

TBU

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the standings have yet to be updated. I’ll do that later tonight.

As a reminder, here are the rules:

My rules are:

1. I have to bet on every game I cover.
2. I have to bet at least $25 on each game.

Your rules are:

1. Pick on any game I cover (or all, but it’s not required).
2. Pick only from the games I cover.
3. Pick at least once every week. Any player that fails to pick on any given week automatically loses $100.
4. Still have to put at least $25 down on each game you pick.
5. Pick with or against me. If you don’t agree with what I’m about to pick below, feel free to pick the opposite. Moneyline bets are welcome too.
6. This one should be obvious, but you can’t pick a game that’s already in progress.

In the event that someone reaches a zero balance, they’ll go into the negative numbers. Now that it is necessary, here’s how the process will work. If you want to place a wager on one of the games, you can request a loan of up to 1000. That loan will be applied to your overall budget, your balance will reflect a negative amount in the amount you borrowed. If your wagers win, you “pay off” your debt by first applying any winnings to what you borrowed, and anything left over is yours to keep. Here’s an example:

Your balance reachers zero, and you request a 1000 dollar loan. If you put the full 1000 on a pick and win, you still get 909.9. The difference however is in how your balance shows. Instead of seeing 1909 after a win, you’ll only see 909, because you’re borrowing the 1000.

If you were to lose the bet on a loan, you’d have to take another loan. If you took out another 1000, for example, your balance at that point would be -2000, so you'd have to win twice to get to back to the positive. So on.

The Picks

Purdue +7.5 at Missouri - In Purdue’s two games so far, they lost by seven to a team they were 25-point underdogs to, holding them to 35 points, and won by 23 against a team they were favored by four points. Missouri, on the other hand, has allowed 74 points in the span of two weeks, 43 of those to an FCS school. The tigers already fired their defensive coordinator after two games, and I don’t expect whoever takes over to sprinkle some fairy dust on the defense and make it work in a week.* $100

Penn State -37 vs Georgia State - The subject of everyone’s poorness this week is back at it again, but this time against an opponent closer to Week 1’s matchup. The last time the Panthers played a game, they lost to an FCS school. Expect the points to be plenty on the Nittany Lion side, and don’t be surprised if this is another shutout for the Penn State defense. $150

Because this week’s slate is filled with either suspect lines or really boring games that can’t be predicted one way or another, we’ll make an exception on the rules. Given that I only have two picks to make (and people may like neither of those two picks), I’m allowing picks on any team. Again, this applies only to this week. Any picks for teams not listed by me in weeks other than this one will be ignored.

Record

Last Week: 2-1
Season: 5-2
Richness Factor: TBU

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*Credit to Tom Herman for the quote.