Week 14 Recap

The highlight of the week, and perhaps the season, was the incredible Iron Bowl ending with too many Alabama players on the field and Auburn fans being swallowed up by the sideline hedges. The Tigers won as 4-point underdogs, but that was certainly not the largest upset of the week, that honor goes to a certain game that took place in Fort Worth, but we’re not going to talk about that. Upsets elsewhere: Virginia earned a spot in the ACC Championship game by winning as 3-point underdogs; K-State continues to look scary under the new regime, as the Wildcats knocked off Iowa State as 5.5-point home underdogs; and Miami’s disappointing season came to a fitting close with a loss to Duke as 9-point favorites. Ultimately the week produced 14 upsets, only 23% of the available games, but our entrants still made it work – as only two went without a correct selection. In the end, the week was won by PaPa, its second win of the season, thanks to Northwestern’s dominating victory in Champaign as 8.5-point underdogs.

The race for the top spot has grown even closer, as the top 4 are all within 4.5 points. The selections for Championship Week and Bowl Season will be critical in determining the ultimate winner. Ken jumped back into the Top 10 this week, putting up an impressive 4 wins to bring it to 37 wins on the season, an incredible 53% accuracy so far this season. The week’s biggest climber was Seth’s Picks whose 11 points sent it up 4 spots to #27 overall. You can still make your own leap up the leaderboard and earn weekly prizes, so join now. For anyone interested in the complete season-long leaderboard of all participants: click here

Week 15 Picks

With such a small slate during Championship Week, we’ll only be selecting two games. But fear not, as you will still get the opportunity to secure those potential wins and points during Bowl Season where you will get to pick 8 games from the entire bowl slate.

1. Georgia (+7.5) vs. LSU – LSU has deservedly been the darling of the season and they are all but guaranteed to make the Playoff regardless of the result here, so perhaps the motivation is a bit lower…though being the #1 seed and avoiding OSU/Clemson in the Semis is a pretty strong motivation. The Bulldogs lost a bad game in 2OT because one of the greatest college kickers missed 2 FGs and college football consciousness put them on the shelf for two months – “well if they somehow run the table and then beat Bama or LSU in Atlanta I guess we’ll put them in the Playoff.” Well, here we are and UGA has survived a pretty strong gauntlet – although not looking especially exciting doing it, getting wins at Florida and at Auburn is impressive. The D’Andre Swift injury could complicate things, because he is such a dynamic playmaker that if he sits out it will all rest on the arm of Jake Fromm. He’s certainly capable, but will be missing leading receiver George Pickens for the first half as suspension for his fight against GA Tech.

2. Louisiana (+7) vs. Appalachian State – This line simply feels too low, it has my spidey senses going off. Why it feels weird: The Cajuns have never defeated the Mountaineers, their closest game being a 10-point App victory in Lafayette earlier this season, this game will be in Boone; Louisiana coach Billy Napier may have a hard time preparing as he fields nonstop calls and texts from Oxford and Fayetteville and Tallahassee and Columbia asking him to move there; App is coming off destroying perennial Sun Belt power Troy while Louisiana needed a last-minute FG to defeat rival ULM; App won its P5 game (@ UNC) while ULL lost theirs (vs. Miss State); and finally, App still has a slim shot of earning the G5 NY6 bid, but would need to win this game in a dominating blow out fashion. All that to say Napier’s offense could still put on a show and overwhelm the Mountaineers.

Your Picks

You only get two picks this week, so make them count. Fill out your selections in the form below or click HERE if your browser doesn’t show the form on this page. Remember to get your picks in before the start of games you select – Week 15 Schedule. Good luck!