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The Top 100 and ties will collect season prize money. The list will be updated weekly in this column. Full standings can be found at the Standings link.
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Nail-biter in the Pigskin Special
The Week 1 Special did all of that when Texas A&M appeared headed to an easy Aggies cover over UCLA only to have all hell break loose. The Aggies ended up with the win and the cover of the 3-point spread in overtime, but for the 536 players who picked the game, it produced about an hour of anxiety and nail-biting, which is exactly what it’s supposed to do. It wasn’t until about a week before the start of the season that the game was designated as the Week 1 Special. For most of the summer, the Alabama-Southern Cal game was posted as the tentative Special as it was the game most talked about during the offseason. The change of heart came when it was readily apparent through conversation and informal polling that the picks on the game would be lopsided toward Alabama. “One of the primary criteria of the Special is to get a game that will get attention on both sides,” said The Poolmaster. “We could tell that Alabama was going to be the overwhelming pick so we changed it.” There was a difference of only 26 picks with 281 taking UCLA and 255 on the Aggies. “We will still pick a high-profile game every week,” said The Poolmaster. “But we are going to put more emphasis this year on getting a game that will get action on both sides.” Next up: Giants at Cowboys. For more information on the Special, how it works and its genesis, visit the Pigskin Special page where you will also find a history and how teams that have appeared in it have fared since its inception in the 1999 season. Going viral It was an innocent post meant mainly as an acknowledgement of the start of the college football season for those who follow Pigskin Mania on Twitter and Facebook. The Poolmaster was collecting picks on Thursday afternoon when he glanced at his television and something caught his eye in the telecast of the Louisville-Charlotte game. Rolling the DVR back a few seconds, there it was, a shot of two Louisville football players sitting on the bench. The names on their jerseys: “Samuel” and “L. Jackson.” The Poolmaster snapped a photo of it and posted it on Facebook and Twitter. Within minutes, it was viral.
By the end of the weekend, more than 200,000 people had seen the Tweet, nearly 1,300 had retweeted it and more than 1,400 had liked it. College football websites including SBNation, Bleacher Report, FOX Sports and Yahoo were among those retweeting. ESPN College Football and SportsCenter both captured the photo and tweeted it themselves. It was named the SportsCenter Pic of the Night. Actor Samuel L. Jackson reacted to the photo in his own Tweet. “I’m not anywhere close to savvy regarding social media so I certainly had no idea this was about to happen,” The Poolmaster said. “When another Maniac texted me that it was going viral, I still had no idea. But my phone exploded with notifications of retweets and likes and reactions on Facebook, and it went on throughout the weekend.” To follow Pigskin Mania on Twitter, click on the Twitter logo at the top of the page. If you want to get into our Facebook group, the Facebook logo will take you there and we will grant you permission to be part of the group. We use both media to send updates and comments throughout the season. Week 1 numbers to chew on 739 - The current number of entries. We overshot our estimate of expected entries, but we still topped 700. The number will take a few days to settle as entry fees arrive in the mail. We also had a handful of players who registered, but didn’t make picks so it remains to be seen if they're actually playing. 15 - Number of disqualified picks. Ten of the 15 were picks on games involving FCS (1-AA) teams. Oregon, TCU, Michigan St. and Baylor were all picked in the pool and all opened again FCS teams leading to those picks being disqualified. Only games involving two FBS (1-A) teams are eligible to be picked for the pool. It's very simple. If a team is not in the list of games on the Point Spreads page, that team cannot be picked. Players who collect three or more disqualified picks no longer are eligible for the last-place prize. 19 - Number of perfect weeks. A total of $1,050 goes toward perfect weeks in Week 1, $175 more than the projected weekly average. The projected first place prize of $5,331 is based on a three-year average of perfect weeks adjusting for the number of players and weekly prize money each year. We project an average of $875 in prizes per week this season. Projections will be updated on the Money page throughout the season. 182 - Weeks without a perfect week for Mike Feder. The chase to the all-time pool record of 190 weeks continues. Feder got within 3½ minutes of ending his nearly 10-year streak but a clinching touchdown by Georgia covered the line against Feder’s pick of North Carolina, which turned out to be his only miss. Every player's streak is tracked at this link. 19 - Players who had the first Asshander of the season. It came on Friday night when Temple was hammered by Army as a 16.5-point favorite. 241 - Number of picks on the week's Bandwagon pick, Clemson, which won but didn't cover against Auburn. The Tigers didn't take the opportunity to cover when they chose to run the ball instead of kicking a field goal on fourth down with 40 seconds left inside Auburn's 20. The top 5 bandwagon picks in college and NFL are posted each week on the front page. The number of picks on all teams are on the Bandwagon page. The last word Just before the end of the last game of the week Monday night, one last entry came in accompanied by an entry fee payment. Judging from the comment that came with the payment, the conversation at the home of Rick and Sheila Marris went something like this: Sheila: How'd you do in the pool this week? Rick: I got -0.5. Sheila: Seriously? Rick: Yeah. Sheila: Send them $60. I'm playing. I didn't even make picks this week and I'm already ahead of you. Rick's comment that came with the payment: "My wife says she will just pick opposite from me...guarenteed to win. LOL."
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