2018 Atlas CFB Pick Em Contest

[NewYorkExpress]

With Alabama's steamrollering of LSU, It's time I guessed what the committee will do for next week's rankings.

1. Alabama (By shutting out LSU, the Crimson Tide have locked themselves into a playoff spot even if they lose the SEC Championship game...at least that's what I'd be arguing if I were on the committee, however, it'll still be interesting to see if they or Clemson are the #1 overall team)

2. Clemson (After watching the Tigers crush Louisville, the schedule gets marginally tougher the next three weeks against Boston College, Duke and South Carolina. Realistically though, Clemson shouldn't be in any danger until the ACC Championship Game, against what'll likely be the Pittsburgh Panthers, and they should win that one too. Assuming Alabama struggles in the SEC Championship Game, but still wins, Clemson might even be the #1 overall seed)

3. Notre Dame (I know I was wrong about Notre Dame being the #3 seed last week, but with Notre Dame's victory over Northwestern the Fighting Irish remain unbeaten. A casual observer might say Florida State or USC is Notre Dame's toughest remaining foe, but neither team has played well this season, meaning the Fighting Irish's toughest challenge left is Syracuse at Yankee Stadium in two weeks, which is quite strange when you think about it)

4. Michigan (Michigan has the best loss of the one loss teams (Notre Dame), and has two gimme games against Rutgers and Indiana before traveling to Columbus to face Ohio State for what will probably decide the Big Ten and a playoff spot, as barring disaster, the Big Ten East winner will win the Big Ten)

Just missed: Georgia, Washington State, West Virginia, UCF

[NewYorkExpress]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

[RINO Tom]

Congrats Tom! And more importantly, congrats America! The witch is dead!

Makes me feel a little better about the shellacking they put on Illinois, LOL.  Though I am under no illusions that Illinois is anything other than a bad football team at this point in time, their losses have, arguably, all been to good teams.  How they fare against a Maryland team that just got put down like a sick pet vs. Iowa will tell me much more.  Need to check out this week's picks and try to stay near the top.

Did you learn enough about Illinois this week?

Yes, more than I cared to.   Glad I have a wedding this Saturday.

I am a rather superstitious sports fan, so ... would you mind posting this again??  LOL

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

No sup for you. Come back - one year!

[Dereich]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

I was shocked that the Yahoo! shows BC as the favourite. The actual spread is 17.5. You could become a very rich man if Clemson were the underdogs.

[NewYorkExpress]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

Clemson had a lot of trouble with both Syracuse and Texas A&M, so a Boston College win is very possible.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

Clemson had a lot of trouble with both Syracuse and Texas A&M, so a Boston College win is very possible.

Question: have you watched a Clemson game this year and can you tell me who was under center for those early season games? (Particularly second half Syracuse)

[Sirius_]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

Clemson had a lot of trouble with both Syracuse and Texas A&M, so a Boston College win is very possible.

Question: have you watched a Clemson game this year and can you tell me who was under center for those early season games? (Particularly second half Syracuse)

Kelly Bryant and Trevor Larwence split the time until Bryant left. Chase Brice was in against Syracuse in the 2nd half. Both Larwence and Brice look much improved.

[NewYorkExpress]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

Clemson had a lot of trouble with both Syracuse and Texas A&M, so a Boston College win is very possible.

Question: have you watched a Clemson game this year and can you tell me who was under center for those early season games? (Particularly second half Syracuse)

True, but you could make the argument that Boston College is playing better than any of their past four opponents, with the possible exception of NC State, and even Syracuse in particular has had a better season than NC State.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

Clemson had a lot of trouble with both Syracuse and Texas A&M, so a Boston College win is very possible.

Question: have you watched a Clemson game this year and can you tell me who was under center for those early season games? (Particularly second half Syracuse)

Kelly Bryant and Trevor Larwence split the time until Bryant left. Chase Brice was in against Syracuse in the 2nd half. Both Larwence and Brice look much improved.

Thank you Ninja for providing an answer to Our Dear Friend. Sorry if Chase Brice's improved stats during garbage time don't help my narrative, but #1 High School QB getting increased full-time reps with the first team offense was the correct answer.

[Dereich]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

Clemson had a lot of trouble with both Syracuse and Texas A&M, so a Boston College win is very possible.

Question: have you watched a Clemson game this year and can you tell me who was under center for those early season games? (Particularly second half Syracuse)

True, but you could make the argument that Boston College is playing better than any of their past four opponents, with the possible exception of NC State, and even Syracuse in particular has had a better season than NC State.

Boston College's best performance of the year was a few weeks ago when they beat Louisville 38 to 20. Pretty good! But Clemson just hung 77 on Louisville while holding them to 16. And that's with Clemson not even play their first team for a good part of the second half. Looking at the schedule, BC's ranking is really inflated. They've beaten a suffering Miami, a crumbling VT, Wake, and a couple of non-power conference teams. There isn't much reason for optimism based on BC's record.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Taking Boston College over Clemson...wish me luck!

What gives you any faith whatsoever that the Fightin’ Dabos won’t obliterate BC the way they did their last four opponents?

Clemson had a lot of trouble with both Syracuse and Texas A&M, so a Boston College win is very possible.

Question: have you watched a Clemson game this year and can you tell me who was under center for those early season games? (Particularly second half Syracuse)

True, but you could make the argument that Boston College is playing better than any of their past four opponents, with the possible exception of NC State, and even Syracuse in particular has had a better season than NC State.

Boston College's best performance of the year was a few weeks ago when they beat Louisville 38 to 20. Pretty good! But Clemson just hung 77 on Louisville while holding them to 16. And that's with Clemson not even play their first team for a good part of the second half. Looking at the schedule, BC's ranking is really inflated. They've beaten a suffering Miami, a crumbling VT, Wake, and a couple of non-power conference teams. There isn't much reason for optimism based on BC's record.

It's downright absurd to have BC ranked over Purdue. And obviously Mizzou should be ranked over Purdue, but the anti-SEC polling bias is also keeping Auburn and South Carolina unranked when Cincinnati and NC State somehow are. Frankly, even Syracuse is my #26, but I can understand ranking them. Between Syracuse and Washington State, it's clear that the voters are only here to play matchmaker for the late season to make Washington State and Notre Dame have hype-able storylines just like Clemson-BC.

[NewYorkExpress]

Playoff Rankings for this week are out:

http://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings/_/poll/21/week/11/year/2018/seasontype/2

1. Alabama

2. Clemson

3. Notre Dame

4.  Michigan

Other Notables


5. Georgia

6. Oklahoma

7. LSU

8. Washington State

9. West Virginia

10. Ohio State

12. UCF

13. Syracuse

14. NC State

17. Boston College

23. Fresno State

[GeorgiaModerate]

For a brief moment, I thought about picking BC over Clemson.  But I got over it.

[NewYorkExpress]

For a brief moment, I thought about picking BC over Clemson.  But I got over it.

Go for it. It can't be any crazier than the concept of taking Mississippi State over Alabama, right?

[NewYorkExpress]

Taking Syracuse over Notre Dame. Wish me luck.

Also, I'm undecided in the UCF/Cincinnati game. I took UCF, but I can be persuaded to go the other way.

[Alabama_Indy10]

For a brief moment, I thought about picking BC over Clemson.  But I got over it.

Go for it. It can't be any crazier than the concept of taking Mississippi State over Alabama, right?

Did you take Mississippi State?

[NewYorkExpress]

For a brief moment, I thought about picking BC over Clemson.  But I got over it.

Go for it. It can't be any crazier than the concept of taking Mississippi State over Alabama, right?

Did you take Mississippi State?

No, and I'm glad I didn't.

I've been burned picking against Alabama and Clemson enough this year, so I couldn't pick against both of them.

[RINO Tom]

Even though the Iowa-Illinois matchup is too utterly irrelevant to make it into our pick 'ems, I did pick the Illini in my work league.   Of course, my actual prediction is Iowa wins 42-31, but hey ... what the hell, why not?

[Alabama_Indy10]

Being hopeful and picked Cincinnati today. This clown show needs to end.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Being hopeful and picked Cincinnati today. This clown show needs to end.

538 makes a pretty good argument that UCF is only the third-best Group of Five team, behind Fresno State and Utah State: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ucf-might-not-even-be-as-good-as-fresno-state-let-alone-georgia-or-michigan/.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Ohio State is behind Maryland 14-3 and is fortunate it isn't more; they recovered a Maryland fumble deep in OSU territory.

[Alabama_Indy10]

Being hopeful and picked Cincinnati today. This clown show needs to end.

538 makes a pretty good argument that UCF is only the third-best Group of Five team, behind Fresno State and Utah State: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ucf-might-not-even-be-as-good-as-fresno-state-let-alone-georgia-or-michigan/.

I believe that's a very good argument. They whine about how only Power 5 teams get enough exposure to be able to make the playoff but the only reason they are ranked as high as they are is because of the exposure they got last year. It's definitely not because of anybody they have beat this year.

[NewYorkExpress]

Being hopeful and picked Cincinnati today. This clown show needs to end.

538 makes a pretty good argument that UCF is only the third-best Group of Five team, behind Fresno State and Utah State: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ucf-might-not-even-be-as-good-as-fresno-state-let-alone-georgia-or-michigan/.

You've convinced me. I just switched my UCF pick to Cincinnati.