Board 8 > College Football Ladder Contest Week 13: Playoff pushes and last chances

(+) Yeah! (+)

Someone actually moved up a level! I can't remember the last time that happened. I made level 7 way too hard.

Rules
- State which level you're on when you make your pick. Usually it should be obvious, but say it anyway.
- Deadline for making a pick is the start of the earliest game that you're picking. This means that if you are on a level that involves picking multiple teams, ALL of your teams are locked as soon as one of your teams has kicked off. If you don't have a pick in by the start of the early games, you can just pick later games, but if you can't make an eligible pick out of the games that haven't started yet, you can't advance that week.
- Conferences featured in games may be imposed at certain levels, but unless otherwise stated, any game(s) featuring two FBS teams are eligible.
- I'll list some marquee games each week, but you're not restricted to these. If you pick other games, make sure that your lines can be verified.

Level 1: Pick one game against the spread.

Level 2: Down goes Goliath. Pick a ranked team to lose. You cannot pick an underdog of more than 7 points.

Level 3: Pick three over/unders; 2 out of three passes.

Level 4: Three-team teaser. Tease the lines six points in your favor, two wins and a push or three wins needed to pass.

Level 5: Pleaser. Pick one game and move the line 7 points to your detriment.

Level 6: Something fishy in Vegas. Pick one game, please both sides of the spread by 15 points and both sides of the O/U line by 25 points, creating two sets of mutually-exclusive but not all-inclusive picks. If any of these picks is a winner, you pass.

Level 7: Pick one straight-up winner from each of the ten FBS conferences. You may select no more than two double-digit favorites and no more than one of these can be a favorite of at least 20 points.

Level 7:
5tarscream
kevwaffles
TsunamiXXVIII

Level 6:
Paratroopa1

Level 5:

Level 4:
jcgamer107
KCF0107

Marquee games:
South Florida (+11) @ Central Florida (O/U 63.5)
California (+7) @ UCLA (O/U 64)
Ohio State (-11.5) @ Michigan (O/U 50.5)
Indiana (+2.5) @ Purdue (O/U 47)
Old Dominion (+12) @ Middle Tennessee (O/U 49.5)
Alabama (-4.5) @ Auburn (O/U 47.5)
Clemson (-14) @ South Carolina (O/U 46.5)
Notre Dame (-2.5) @ Stanford (O/U 57)
Washington State (+9) @ Washington (O/U 48.5)
Colorado (+10.5) @ Utah (O/U 56)

Told you that games where both teams were 5-6 would also be included on the marquee.
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5tarscream posted...

ACC - NCST (-16.5)
American - CIN
Big 12 - TCU (-25.5)
Big Ten - PUR
C-USA - FIU (+2)
MAC - OHIO
MWC - UNLV (+2.5)
PAC-12 - UCLA
SEC - ALA
Sun Belt - ULL

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My head says to take advantage of the fact that Alabama is actually a single-digit favorite for once...but my heart says that Auburn's going to win.

AAC: Cincinnati
ACC: Virginia Tech
Big 12: TCU (-24.5)
Big Ten: Purdue
C-USA: Marshall
MAC: Ohio
MWC: Boise State
Pac-12: UCLA
SEC: LSU (-10.5)
Sun Belt: New Mexico State
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tag
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Probably not doing this until Friday. Hopefully some of those -10.0 lines go single digit.
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Level 4:
South Florida (+17) @ Central Florida
Old Dominion (+18) @ Middle Tennessee
Alabama @ Auburn (+10.5)
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Level 6

Washington (-25.5) OR Washington State (-5.5) OR Over 73 OR Under 23

Aside from that last one, these all seem like totally realistic outcomes to me.

My patience has paid off!
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ACC - Clemson (-13.5)
American - SMU (-8)
Big 12 - Texas (-7.5)
Big Ten - Penn State (-22)
C-USA - Louisiana Tech (-2)
MAC - Ohio (-6.5)
MW - Boise State (-3)
Pac-12 - UCLA (-7)
SEC - LSU (-9.5)
Sun Belt - Louisiana (-6)

Oh you locked Central Florida, didn't you. You bastard. LSU is valid, though. I listed all the lines out because of that change from your picks in particular. (All lines taken from ESPN.)

I was wondering if Louisville would flip too, but honestly I'm still not sure I would take it. Guess I'll check in again before noon, but best to lock up LSU now.

Used Penn State so I didn't join everyone in a single point of failure with Purdue.
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I did join everyone in picking UCLA and Ohio, though. Might have to think on those.
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Change:

Level 7:

ACC - Clemson (-13.5)
American - SMU (-8)
Big 12 - Texas (-7.5)
Big Ten - Penn State (-22)
C-USA - Louisiana Tech (-2)
MAC - Ohio (-6.5)
MW - Boise State (-3)
Pac-12 - Washington (-9)
SEC - LSU (-9.5)
Sun Belt - Louisiana (-6)

Ah, right, that's a locked line too. That makes that easy.

Guess Ohio is there to stay.

Edited to make the meaningful lines bold again.
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Have we discussed how Chip Kelly is coming to UCLA to single-handedly restore the Pac-12 to relevance?
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Hadn't heard that. I went ahead and opened a discussion topic since more people will read it there if you want to bring it up.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/76026112
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AAC: Cincinnati
ACC: Virginia Tech
Big 12: Texas
Big Ten: Purdue
C-USA: UAB (-20.5)
MAC: Ohio
MWC: Boise State
Pac-12: UCLA
SEC: LSU (-10)
Sun Belt: New Mexico State
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I'm still seeing LSU listed as -10 and having been as such since last night. Trust me, I wish I'd been able to catch them when they dropped to 9.5 for a couple of hours last night.
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Wait, crap, my new pick isn't valid, because NMSU rose all the way to double digits since I made my picks.

AAC: Cincinnati
ACC: Virginia Tech
Big 12: Texas
Big Ten: Purdue
C-USA: UAB (-20.5)
MAC: Ohio
MWC: Boise State
Pac-12: UCLA
SEC: LSU (-10)
Sun Belt: Louisiana-Lafayette
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Taken just now
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You've got a point, though. I use the "VI Consensus" on VegasInsider, which shows the most common line across all sports books, whereas ESPN uses one specific book. But the rules don't specify that, and thus your line is verifiable.

Also, curiously enough, it seems like the "consensus" on NMSU really should be either 9.5 or 9 flat. I'm going back to them.

AAC: Cincinnati
ACC: Virginia Tech
Big 12: Texas
Big Ten: Penn State (-22)
C-USA: North Texas (-11)
MAC: Ohio
MWC: Boise State
Pac-12: UCLA
SEC: LSU
Sun Belt: New Mexico State
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kevwaffles posted...

Taken just now

Yeah, I saw you mention ESPN. I'm allowing it, and taking advantage of it.
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I figure as long as it all comes from the same source it's good, in my personal opinion.

And I see NMSU as -8, so I guess the books are all over the place there.
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We're totally all going to lose on Ohio.
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Level 4: (lines already teased)
Kentucky (+16.5) vs Louisville
West Virginia (+28.5) @ Oklahoma
Michigan (+17.5) vs Ohio State
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I briefly considered going with Buffalo just to avoid this potential situation. Oh well.
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Thank you Kentucky for showing up completely lifeless
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Why did I pick a game in which I knew nothing about either team?
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Hey, I do that at least 5 times a week! lol
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