Winning a Pick-Em Pool not tha...

November 15th 2022

If I’ve learned anything this year I’ve learned that selecting winning teams in a Pick- Em pool is not as easy at it looks. I win some, I loose some. I suppose if it was easy everyone who bets football or any other sport would be rich right? If it was true the casino industry that runs sports books would be closing up shop left and right correct? Well, not to many of us are getting rich these days and the casinos are doing a booming business, so go figure. In spite of having a fifty/fifty record, picking teams has made my life infinitely more interesting, at least Thursday thru Monday night. I’ll leave Tuesday and Wednesday for life’s more serious concerns. As the season progresses and teams get better it’s becoming more of a challenge to pick a winner especially when you count in point spreads but I’ve always said that in life the adventure is the challenge, or is it the other way around? I’ll let you decide.

Speaking of challenges and adventures, let’s take a look at the present state of affairs in The NFL and College football season. I’ll discuss along the way some of my more successful and rather unsuccessful picks.

My pre season pick to win the College Football Championship was Texas A&M. That’s right I’m not afraid to admit it. I wasn’t alone in this prediction. Many “Experts” agreed with me. They texted and discussed it with me in length. Great talent, stellar coaching, high hopes. The result was a complete bust. A total dumpster fire. Apparently the “Experts” in the media and the gaming industry were wrong once again and I fell for it. The Aggies now are a pathetic 3-7 and won’t even make The WaWa French Fry Bowl. They even lost to a 2-6 Auburn team with an interim head coach. The Casinos are laughing all the way to the bank with my 20 bucks and my pride is forever scared.

A month or two ago I predicted that the College Champion would hail from The SEC, right? Definitely a Sure Thing Pick right? Now I’m not so sure. I might loose my second big pick of the year as a robust and consistent Texas Christian University has now gone 10-0 and this past weekend handed a strong Texas team a big W in Texas’s home stadium. TCU is definitely in the final four. Who would have thought it? What were the odds? Once again the casinos are laughing. Go ahead, take my money and my pride because I have no use for either.

As we approach Thanksgiving week it looks as though the College Football Championship series will be hopefully predictable. I’m not laying any bets or odds or picks yet but it looks like Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State and TCU are in. However, Michigan still plays Ohio State and Georgia plays in The SEC Championship Game. If one, or perhaps both these teams loose that leaves us with several open doors and a crazy scenario that will allow an additional unpredicted team( or teams) to sneak into the playoffs. Don’t worry folks I’m not making any picks on this one, I’ll just wait and enjoy the games. At this point, I’m leaning towards a Georgia Championship but I’m not writing anything in stone yet.

Let’s move on to The NFL. My predictions and picks fared a little bit better at least so far in the season. My hopes and expectations not so well. My Pick-Em pride is still somewhat intact but hey the season is a long way from over. Give it time.

It is now week nine in the NFL.Teams that I thought early on would be there in playoff contention at this point have literally folded. This would include The Pittsburgh Steelers, The Las Vegas Raiders, The Arizona Cardinals, The Chicago Bears and last year’s Champions The LA Rams. I no longer consider any of these teams viable picks. They’ve ruined it for me. For these teams I can only predict one thing, pain. The Rams actually seem to be cursed in some way as they are a dismal 3-6. Is there a post Super Bowl Jinx? You tell me. Maybe it’s the Campbell’s Soup Commercials. Who knows? They are in the middle of a major melt down and seem destined to miss the playoffs. Last year they were the darlings of The NFL, this year they are the door matt.

Speaking of Super Bowls, Tom Brady and Tampa Bay are now 5-5 and leading their division. I wouldn’t put them in the Super Bowl discussion yet but one never counts out Tom Terrific. Are we witnessing a resurrection of some type? Has Team TB rediscovered The Fountain of Youth? I had Seattle picked to go deep in the playoffs but they were easly handled by number 12 and company in Munich. I don’t think Tom’s final chapter is written yet. If anything it’s exciting to watch him play. I’ve read that there were a million requests for tickets for a sold out 75,000 seat stadium in Munich, Germany and I don’t think it was because of Geno Smith playing. I’ll let you decide.

A week or two ago I mentioned that The Minnesota Vikings weren’t getting much love around the NFL even with just one loss. I’ll say this, Kirk Cousins are the Vikings are for real. Going into Buffalo and winning a pivotal game ( many are saying it was The Game of The Year) over The Bills proved that. Sitting at 8-1 The Vikings control their own destiny. I’m still wondering what excuses Bills Mafia will come up with for loosing this one. I picked The Bills in this game, and lost. Coming away from this game I realized that not only is Josh Allen a phenomenal player it maybe possible that he is trying to do too much to eek out a win. Of course, fumbling in your own end zone with less then a minute left in the game doesn’t exactly help your cause either. One guy can’t do it all. Many people have the 6-3 Bills pegged to win it all this year but I’m not sold yet.

Looking back at the previous nine weeks I would have to say the my pick-em strategy has evolved. If anything my strategy has grown smarter, I think. I no longer go with my “gut feelings” and emotions. At some point in time I decided that facts and data were more important. There’s been too many disappointments. I’ve paid more and more attention to raw numbers and records. Home field advantage doesn’t really mean squat at this point of the season(Buffalo) and the weather affects both teams on the field. I think we’ve all learned that one player does not a winning team make, it takes everyone doing their job on both sides of the ball. Then, of course, just when you think you’ve got a winning system down and your pick-em pool looks like a perfect selection, that one unknown and unexpected play rises up and changes the course of the game. In the case of this week’s Monday Night Football Game the Eagles discovered this truth as they finally suffered a loss to the hapless Washington Commanders. In football only the unknown is constant. There’s always The X Factor right?

At some point in time we have to realize that football is not the only game in town. I know it’s hard but it wouldn’t be right to not prepare everyone for the future as there are other stories floating around out there. The NBA, NCAA Basketball and NHL Hockey are all in full swing.

Thanksgiving week marks the start of The World Cup Football(Soccer) tournament in Qatar and The United States has a team qualified to play in it. This month long event pits national teams on a world event like no other. If you haven’t seen a game in the past I’d encourage you to make time for it this year as it only comes around every 4 years. This tournament is all about national pride and the matches can be as hotly contested as any NFL or College rivalry. It’s definitely on my “Must See” list. This year the U.S. begins its campaign by playing Wales, England and Iran with all three matches coming inside a span of ten days. I haven’t seen any pick-pools focused on The World Cup Tournament but if there was one let’s hope my picks would fare a bit better the my football picks! Watch out for The X Factor everyone!

Kev