HI R U UP

 

So it’s been a few months since I’ve posted on here, and to be honest, it’s been a few months since I even checked on anything around here, but here I am.

Here’s a recap of what’s happened since I last posted about bowl game betting:

I had a bachelor party in Nashville, I was married at the Horseshoe, the Buckeyes were upset by a much better Shocker team in the Elite 8, I went to a bachelor party in Vegas, the Tribe is playing a lot better than last year (TIED IN FIRST PLACE FOR A FEW HOURS IN MAY YUP) and the Nats struggled out the gate but seem to be getting back to their road to the NLCS vs the Reds ways.

Anyway, the reason I am back is because work is slow (I’m finally good enough to get things done instead of waiting for my co-workers to be free to ask them how to do things) and college football is right around the corner.  Actually not, but spring ball is over and I have a few thoughts.  Also, uni things have been blowing up, with college teams re-branding their whole sports programs and the NFL teams getting some new digs…AND there are two HORRIBLE MLB teams that I have been betting against and parlaying with some really good NBA teams (EL HEAT) that have been making me money, sometimes.

I figure I should post a little here and there so that’s what I’ll try to do, until I get slammed at work again.  I’m still on twitter ( @jamiedupler ) if you really care what I think about when I’m sitting in my cube in downtown Columbus.  I’ll try to post a little here and a little there until August when the highlight of my sporting year kicks back up again.  Peace

Straight Ca$h Homey: 2012 Recap

Well the season has come to an end.  As many of you know, I did not repeat at the NCAA COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEKLY PICK EM CHAMPION OF ALL CHAMPIONS as I finished in a stellar 13th out of 15th with a total record of 50-54-1.  I went 7-7-1 in money games and came out owing a total of $1.  Not too bad for someone who finished only a few steps up from the basement.

 

Unlike last year where I won by 3 games and finished 67-35-3, there was an actual tie for the winnings.  Brad and Chris both went 60-43-2.  Brad was crowned winner due to more money game Ws (9 to 8).  The leader coming into Bowl Week, Mike Trapp, finished 3rd with a 2-4-1 week and an overall record of 60-44-1, 0.5 game out.  Hale finished 4th at 58-46-1, 2.5 games out.  Holy hell that is awesome.  I would have been sweating off my nuts if it came down to that crap.

 

As you can see below, we were down as a whole from the remarkable season we (and I) had in 2011.  This year was more of the norm.  A lot of big teams didn't cover, there were a few good surprises (Notre Dame, Ohio State, TAMU, Oregon State, Penn State), a few duds (Southern Cal, Wisconsin, Houston, Arkansas) and a few standards (Alabama, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Baylor).

 

This year was a little bazaar because I didn't hit too many money games (.500 is unacceptable for stone cold lead pipe locks), and a 6-1 week twice, which helped me get out of my $100+ hole.

 

A few things I learned:

-Go with your gut.  Don't over think it.  You like a 'dog at home? Take that 'dog at home.  You think a blowout is in store? Take the double-digit favorite.  Look at the lines, get your likes, look again, and go with them.

-The first few weeks, you have NO IDEA about ANYTHING!

-Bowl week, you have NO IDEA about ANYTHING!

-I love betting on the 10:00pm games, however I didn't stay up to watch the entire game the entire year (#parent).  I do like not knowing and looking up the score Sunday morning, but I would like to bet on more games I can actually watch!

 

Overall I was under .500, close to .500, but needed two weeks of 6-1 to get there.  Trap games are really traps, and when Saban has time to prepare, look the f8ck out!

 

Side note: I made a couple 6-point teaser parlays once I got a hold on a few teams and ended up + $100 on bovada.  I don't really write about 6-point teasers because it kind of defeats the purpose of picking games. 

 

Anyway, this year was really fun, even when I was out of it in, say, week 6.  Once again, these are my picks, and if you are betting on college kids playing other college kids in football to pay your rent, uhhh good luck?!  I'll see you guys in August.

A few notes from Hale:

(all results are as a group)	Last Season	This Season	Year Over Year %
Overall %	55.4%	51.6%	(6.9%)
Money Game %	60.6%	54.2%	(10.6%)
% of Players Under .500	0%	40%	---

Straight Ca$h Homey Bowl Week: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Don't expect a lot of banging
New Year's Day

Finally some quality bowl games.  No more Monday Night or Thursday Night Jags-Jets games (MY GOD I CANNOT TAKE ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE GAMES MY GOD)...There is a great race for the title, as a 3-way tie approaches this final week.  I, however, am no where close to it.  Just playing for my pride at this point (and the last 7 weeks). 

Bowl week is always hard, like the first week, due to a few factors.
1 - Everyone is healthy
2 - Everyone is rested, which allows a hot team to cool off and an underachieving team to kick off next year
3 - Mental states.  Is a team really happy to be bowling, and is their opponent disappointed by their bowl?  How about their coach (if they have one)?  A lot of psychos show up around the New Year.

Those are major major major factors that make a seemingly sure-handed blowout become a potential upset.  The worst thing I fall into is taking a huge big-time program favorite and have them completely not show up (see: Oklahoma every year).  Therefore, I have leaned in my TOTAL BOWL BLOWOUT PICKEM SPECIAL to the underdogs (and by underdogs I mean teams that are favored by less than double digits...old habits die hard y'all).  These picks, however, are pretty standard for yours truly.  TO THE BOWL WEEK PICKS...

Thursday 12/27
HOLIDAY BOWL - 9:45 ESPN
Baylor Pick vs. UCLA
My favorite non-major bowl because the Big Ten is out of the Alamo and usually involves top teams that had a few bad losses.  Baylor has been a surprise and I like them against Jim Mora Jr.

Saturday 12/29
PINSTRIPE BOWL - 3:15 ESPN2
West Virginia -4 vs. Syracuse
Dub V gets their bowl on and runs away in Yankee Stadium

ALAMO BOWL - 6:45 ESPN
Oregon State -2 vs. Texas
Texas has been overrated the entire year.  Oregon State has been underrated the entire year.  I would take the Beavers up to -6 here.

BW3 BOWL - 10:15 ESPN
TCU -2.5 vs. Michigan State
Very close to being the money game.  TCU can handle Sparty's pound-n-ground and could easily run away against the very disappointing green and white crew in the 3rd.

Monday 12/31
PEACH BOWL Chick-Fli-A Bowl - 7:30 ESPN
LSU -3.5 vs. Clemson
Oh man, this game could go either way.  Except you know, it's Clemson against a national SEC power.  I'm taking LSU all day on this one.  A great way to end the year.

Tuesday 1/01
HEART OF DALLAS BOWL - Noon ESPNU
$$$ Oklahoma State -17 vs. Purdue $$$
Purdue is f8cking awful and Okie State can put up some points like men.  It's going to be 24-0 after the 1st quarter.

GATOR BOWL - Noon ESPN2
Northwestern +2 vs. Mississippi State
The only reason why Miss. State is a favorite is because they play in the big bad SEC and any team would lose 5 in a row in that gauntlet.  F8ck that.  The Wildcats are for real.  They should win by at least 10, or at least be up by 10 in the 4th until they give up the lead and lose by 3.

Michigan's Bowl Uni - 2013 Outback Edition

Michigan is once again changing their uniform.  This time, for the Outback bowl.  They are also changing their helmet.  They are going to wear matte navy and maize, which is the trend that seems to be dead (unless it's all black errthing).  The jerseys don't look too bad, which follows their uni changes.  I like the gold numbers and the blue on the shoulders look fine.  I can't tell if they have block Ms on the sleeves or numbers, but either way, it's better than their normal whites with yellow lines all over the place.  Grade: B+ (C- if you are a traditionalist)

After I keep looking at it, adidas has done some pretty good work (Texas A&M, Mississippi State) and some bad work (Wisconsin, Nebraska) and this falls with Michigan's past uni changes.  They want to keep it as classic as they can.  I really like it as a non-die-hard Michigan Man.  The Outback Bowl patch though...

Source: All over the Internet, but I'll give it to Michigan Football's twitter

New Cincinnati Football Helmet for bowl game

They look sweet with the checker pattern and the claw stripe up the back.  This will also be their alternate helmet for next year.  I imagine they will have some sort of pride uni from adidas to match these.  I'm guessing either an all red-out (similar to Arizona) or Black on red with these helmets.  Well done UC.

Grade: A-

From: Uni-Watch

Go Get 'Em Bert

The most surprising move on the college football coaching carousel comes in the form of my most hated program/coach moving down to the SEC to take over the tire fire known as the Razorback football.  I'll be quick and to the point: I have no idea why this is happening, from both sides.  Bert is leaving Wisconsin and is taking his 4TE/Goal line offense down south to rebuild an Arkansas program that was top ten in 2010 and supposed to be back in 2012.  I have two major problems with Bert going to Fayetteville:

1) How is he going to get the players Petrino got?  Nobody down there knows or cares about the Rose Bowl or the Big Ten.  Nobody down there knows or cares about ground-and-pound 3 and 4 tight end sets.  (Nobody = 17 and 18 year olds)
2) He has to face Alabama and LSU every year and running the ball 50 times at them will not and does not work.

Also, why would he leave Wisconsin?  He has built a good program and with Penn State being down for 5-10 years, they are now the 3rd most known program in the Big Ten with back-to-back* Rose Bowls and a good thing going.  He got a minimal raise to move to a program that would be even with Wisconsin at best.  It makes no sense.  He's from Illinois.  He played at Iowa and has a program up in Wisconsin.  Next year, his out-of-division SEC opponents are Florida and South Carolina.  They will be lucky to be .500.  At least Wisconsin can go get Chyrst from Pitt (sorry Mark May but it's karma, bitch).

I just don't get it.  I say he lasts at most 4 years with an average SEC team and then comes back to the Midwest, probably to Iowa when Ferentz gets run out of Iowa City.  Good luck fat man, you're going to need it.  I really hope you get a chance to go for 2 up 40. Against another SEC team, douche.

Straight Ca$h Homey Week 14: KING KONG AIN'T GOT SH*T ON ME

So yeah, that just happened.  6-1, money game, best record, and money for going 6-1.  I went from owing $77 to having $23 in my favor.  I'm still 9+ games back from the lead with the two most sketchiest of weeks ahead, but yeah, s*ck on dat.  Ohio State beats Michigan, the Browns beat the Steelers and Wisconsin loses.  The irony is that I would have gone 7-0 if I took my heart and not-took-Clemson and instead I thought Bucky had an ounce of fight left in them and it turns out that Penn State, yes Penn State of 2012, has more wins than the "Top 10" program in Madison.  F*CK YOU BADGERS!!!!!  Championship Week is upon us.  However not really because I am not making my trip to Indy to see the 12-0 Buckeyes play for the B1G Championship and so Championship Week is not really Championship Week at all.  TO THE PICKS!!!!!!

MAC Championship:
17Kent State +6.5 vs. 21Northern Illinois (Detroit)
7:00 ESPN2 FRIDAY
I have been known to go against the Flashes this year, but just under a touchdown with a 1-loss ball club and a win gets them into a BCS Bowl.  Hell yes I'm taking the Ohio team for the Mac Champ.

PAC12 Championship:
$$$ 8Stanford -8.5 vs 16UCLA (Stanford) $$$
8:00 FOX FRIDAY
So this is a repeat of last week when Stanford dominated the Bruins, but some feel like UCLA took it easy so they wouldn't have to face Oregon.  Uh OK YEAH THIS IS DIVISION 1 FOOTBALL. Stanford ROLLS.  BIG. Like 42-21 big.

West Virginia -20 vs Kansas
2:30 FX
No Kentucky, no Colorado, no Auburn this week.  However, my home-away-from-home-take-me-home got back on the winning track at Ames last week (and covered) and now they get the hapless Fightin' Weis'.  20 is huge, but Geno is going to score and Austin will not be stopped.  'Neers ROLL.  BIG.  Like 49-0 big.

SEC Championship:
2Alabama -7.5 vs 3Georgia (Atlanta)
4:00 CBS
Over a touchdown seems big, but has Georgia shown up in a big game outside of beating Florida this year (6 turnovers)?  Has Alabama not shown up in a big game?  I expect Bama to pull away after forcing Murray to beat them up top.  Damn I wish this was 4.5.

6Kansas State -11.5 vs 18Texas
8:00 ABC
I have no idea why Texas is ranked at all.  They are the same ole Texas of the last few years.  Klein and Co make a statement and knock Texas the f*ck out.

ACC Championship:
Georgia Tech +14 vs 13Florida State (Jacksonville)
8:00 ESPN
Both are coming off losses to their in-state arch rivals.  Only GT looked like shit.  Two touchdowns.  FSU beat Miami by 13.  And they lost their dcoord to UK.  The week of playing an option team.  Closer than the experts think.

B1G Championship:
12Nebraska -3 vs Wisconsin (Indianapolis)
8:17 FOX
F*ck you Badgers.  7 wins and in the championship game.  GO HUSKERS!  (Ohio State beat both these teams so I am rooting for the BUCKEYES!)

Straight Ca$h Homey Week 13: GET IN MY BELLY

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Showdown Saturday is here, just in time as you are released from your turkey coma.  A lot of people don't like the Michigan game after Thanksgiving, but I love it.  No work on Friday, and it caps off a great holiday break.  Also next year, it will give the Buckeyes one week less of layoff before the championship game.  Last week I took some 'dogs and ended up 4-3 with the money game as Northwestern went in to Sparta and beat them straight up.  This week I am going with a lot of heavy hitters and taking the biggest spread as my money game.  I also have tonight's game, a game tomorrow and the rest on Saturday.  I also came out of the basement and now I am second to last and owe $77.  A far cry from last year, but my head is up and my picks are in...on to week 13...

Record Last Week: 4-3, $
Record to Date: 38-41-1, 5 money games, 11.5 games back
Place: 14th out of 15

Thursday:
TCU +7 at 16Texas
7:30 ESPN
The Longhorns have been playing better, but they couldn't really play worse than they did at Kansas.  TCU has shown up this year, and a whole touchdown is a lot of points.  Patterson is good at either stopping the spread or keeping up with it, and I think Texas may be a little down not playing A&M anymore.

Friday:
West Virginia -1.5 at Iowa State
3:30 ABC
Going with my heart on this one.  I think WVU walks in Ames and blows them out of the cornfields.  Anything under 10 and I like them 'neers.

Saturday:
Ohio State -4 vs 19Michigan
12:00 ABC
I mean come on.  Michigan is now running more pro-style with Gardner under center and their best injured player who is a quarterback at running back and running power plays.  Michigan's defense came back to Earth this year and I think Ohio State wins by at least 10.  It could be close because RIVALRY GAME but really, Ohio State wins 55-14.  #hateweek

5Oregon -10 at 15Oregon State
3:00 P12N
Oregon bounces back and puts a whoopin' on State in the Civil War.  Either that, or OSU beats them outright at home and Chip Kelly goes to the Eagles next week.  If you win, your uniforms looks sweet.  You lose, you look like f*cking clowns.  Back to warp speed please Ducks.

$$$ 2Alabama -31.5 vs Auburn $$$
3:30 CBS
This could be a literal murder.  I'm going 55-0 Alabama.  Chizik should have been fired after going to overtime with Monroe.  There is a new NCAA Investigation (don't get me started) and Auburn is runaway Tire Fire of the Year, which after the Razorbacks motorcycle wreck, seemed impossible.  Alabama got up 24-0 on Cam Newton, what in the hell are they going to do against this Auburn team?!

Wisconsin +2.5 at Penn State
3:30 ESPN2
Bucky ends their season with a W in Happy Valley.  Could be close, but I think Wisky pulls away because Penn State doesn't really have anyone.

1Notre Dame -6.5 at USC
8:00 ABC
I keep telling myself, how in the hell does USC score on these guys with a backup freshmen quarterback?  Then I look at the wideouts and Silas and I think they could put up some points.  However, a team that struggles with Matt freaking Barkley behind center will for sure struggle against a top 5 defense.  Notre comes in as a team that has shown up big in big games against a team that has no-showed in big games.  Under 7?  I'll take this all day (which is exactly what Vegas wants).  Notre Dame wins and heads to the National Championship game.  Unbelievable.

Games I like and will keep an eye on:

Rutgers +2 at Pittsburgh

12:00 ESPN

I took Rutgers as a 'dog at UC and they won outright.  They do the same at Heinz Field.

 

12South Carolina +4 at 11Clemson 

7:00 ESPN

Clemson.

 

Louisiana Tech +4.5 at San Jose State

10:30 ESPN2

Tech was down by 3 touchdowns in the second half last week (to 1-loss Utah State) and ended up forcing OT.  They go to San Jose and get that W.  #WACATION

Ohio State "Rivalry" Nike Unifroms

Nike came out and said they were paying homage to the 2002 team.  Then they said they were going to pay respects to the 1968 team.  They did neither.  This looks like a uniform from the Mario level where everything is huge.  I don't mind them and will use them in NCAA '14, however, for the Michigan game, where you can see all the Buckeyes they have earned the entire year, and for this year to be THE last game, I think I am with everyone else when I say that these should have been worn for the Nebraska game, not for THE game.  This game will be the most watched and I get it, Ohio State has now done this for 4 years (3 out of 4 Michigan games).  I just want a normal-looking Ohio State-Michigan game.  These are all the pictures from the pep rally tonight from the Ohio Union.  The numbers are reflective, but won't be that big of deal on a gray November day at noon.  The stripes are all exaggerated, and there are 7 Buckeye leaves on the back collar.  The helmet will feature no Buckeye stickers and is a "dull chrome".  It looks like the scarlet stripe has texture to it, probably Buckeyes or buckeye tree bark.  No black tv numbers (1968) or normal stripes like in 2002.  Good effort, wrong game.  It would be a lot cooler if Nike only chose special teams.  When every team and their mother are doing special uniforms every week, the teams that don't change shit seem to stand out more.  Dream senerio?  1990-2000s throwbacks but used as normal jerseys with the big Steeler gray stripes.  Whatever.

Uniform: B
Timing: F

This picture comes via @BenAxelrod a must follow for Ohio State fans.
Like years in the past, former Buckeye running back Raymont Harris is the model.

New VT helmets

These were worn against BC this past weekend.  All white, with a new Hokie bird on one side, TV numbers on the other.  I don't mind the look if the rest of their set was non-traditional, but with the classic look, the helmet looks 1)stupid 2)out-of-place and 3)trying too hard/ripping off Boise State.  If you're going to rock the UCLA stripes on the shoulders and the same stripes down the pants, go ahead and put those same exact stripes on your helmet.  If you want to go psycho, go all in, like Maryland or Boise or Oregon.  Don't class up the joint with a suit and then wear a neon trucker hat.  All class or all psycho.  And I would like to see the numbers on the helmet match the numbers on the jersey.  Alabama doesn't so not a huge deal though. Grade: C-

Source: Nike Blog