By Phil Steele
Phil Steele’s 2012-13 Bowl Confidence Contest
Part of ESPN’s Bowl Mania!
Are you ready to take Phil Steele on in a head-to-head matchup? Pick the winners of all 35 bowl games and then rank them in confidence from 1-35 with 35 being your most confident pick and 1 being your least confident pick. See how you stack up against one of the nation’s top college football analysts by entering the 2012-13 Bowl Confidence Contest in conjunction with ESPN’s Bowl Mania! Read more…
By Phil Steele
Phil Steele’s 2012-13 Bowl Confidence Contest
Part of ESPN’s Bowl Mania!
Are you ready to take Phil Steele on in a head-to-head matchup? Pick the winners of all 35 bowl games and then rank them in confidence from 1-35 with 35 being your most confident pick and 1 being your least confident pick. See how you stack up against one of the nation’s top college football analysts by entering the 2012-13 Bowl Confidence Contest in conjunction with ESPN’s Bowl Mania!
Read more…
Every year people ask me who my favorite team is. It is the team I pick #1. Last year I rooted AGAINST Alabama almost every week as my magazine was about the only one out there not to pick them to win (or even play in) the title game. This year I picked them #1 and it was not easy but I will admit I rooted for the Tide each week and they held LSU to under 100 yards (4 to 1 yardage edge) last night in a dominating 21-0 national title win!!!
The Daily blog will be undergoing some changes in the next couple of days now that the college football season is complete. Tomorrow’s blog will give you some bowl notes on 15 bowl games with also some top bowl performances from a stats perspective in Friday’s blog. Later on this week you will get my forecasts for the NFL Divisional games played that day including my computer’s projected box score of the games.
Starting next week I will be going to a Monday, Wednesday and weekend blog format until magazine season is over in late spring/early summer. In early February, my projection of what the Preseason AP top 10 will be for 2012 and that will be coming after January 15th when juniors have to declare or not declare for the NFL Draft. I also will be updating you with 2012 NFL Draft and 2012 Frosh Recruiting updates. Read more…
The Bowl confidence contest is under way and Congratulations to the top player (Noles 1959) who has a perfect score thru the first three games with a perfect 102 pts. However many times the players that rank in the top early are those that wagered the most pts and if you are not on the top leaderboard right now, naturally you still have plenty of opportunities to rise up/fall down the standings in the coming weeks.
Two years ago we expanded the contest to nearly 1200 contestants, which was double from any other previous season and last year we more than doubled the number of contestants with nearly 3000 entries! This year we topped that 3000 mark and have our largest entry pool to date!
So far thru 3 games a lot of people already have one loss as 80.6% of you picked San Diego St and they were beaten by Louisiana on the final play. Also 43.5% of you had Ohio winning so the remaining 56.5% of you who picked Utah St in the Potato Bowl bowl also lost. Most of you (72.6%) had Temple winning and that came as no surprise as they rolled over Wyoming. Only 900 out of more than 3000 remain perfect. Here are the top 10 picksheets so far after the first 3 bowl games.
Top 10 Overall Standings
|
Rank |
Picksheet |
W
|
L
|
Points
|
|
1
|
Noles 1959 |
3
|
0
|
102
|
|
2
|
razorbacker1 |
3
|
0
|
96
|
|
3
|
FWRick |
3
|
0
|
93
|
|
4t
|
DawgBone |
3
|
0
|
90
|
|
4t
|
wolverine40 |
3
|
0
|
90
|
|
6
|
farmdog62 |
3
|
0
|
89
|
|
7
|
mbranch |
3
|
0
|
87
|
|
8t
|
football99 |
3
|
0
|
85
|
|
8t
|
PitDawg |
3
|
0
|
85
|
|
10t
|
justknox |
3
|
0
|
84
|
|
10t
|
scbeatty78 |
3
|
0
|
84
|
Read more…
The last couple of years I have had a Bowl Confidence Contest that generated a lot of interest on our site and we had hundreds and hundreds of entries. Two years ago we had the biggest entry pool yet with nearly 1200 entries and it was a huge success with more than double the amount of entries compared to ‘08! Last year we outdid ourselves again with an incredible 2922 entries! Congratulations again to Jim Martin the winner of the 2010-11 Bowl Confidence Contest!! Jim finished with an amazing 518 points and took home the grand prize of $250 and a set of 2011 magazines. Jim Logue finished in 2nd with 503 points and got $100 and a set of magazines while Rob Simunovic finished in 3rd with 494 points and got $50 and set of magazines. The last couple of years I was at a disadvantage as I posted my plays first and they were up for everyone to see before they made their plays but I am pleased that I routinely finish in the Top 10%.
This year we will again have a “Bowl Confidence Contest” and I hope there will be many more participants! Like the last couple of years I will update two categories after each bowl game. The first category is total points. If you picked a team and they won their bowl you receive the points that you risked. Sometimes the early leaders are the ones that risked the most on the early bowls and they fall by the wayside as the contest goes on. Sometimes the early leaders in this category will remain at the top through it all it all. I will also keep track of those that have the best win percentage of their points. The morning after each bowl game I will list the current leaders in two categories on the website. Like last year we will have great prizes with 1st place getting $250 and a set of 2012 magazines!! 2nd place receives $100 and a set of magazines and 3rd place $50 and a set of magazines!!
You can enter the contest by simply clicking here. To enter, just go to the sign up page and log in your information. Then after that go to your picksheet page and simply pick who you think will win each of the 35 bowl games. You then award your confidence points to each. The team you think will definitely win their game would get 35 points and the team who you picked at the bottom which was very tough for you to call would get 1 point. For each team that wins their bowl game that you picked correctly, you get the confidence points you assigned to them. Those with the highest points are the winners. The first bowl game takes place on December 17th at 2:00 PM EST and Good Luck!!
One Bowl Entry Per Person Please!! For more contest rules click here and if you have any questions or concerns please email brandon@philsteele.com.
Also make sure to check PhilSteele.com everyday for complete information and coverage on all the bowl matchups. Later this week on the homepage click on the Bowl Matchups link, where you will find all 35 bowl games. Click on the bowl logo for each game to get all the information you need to become an expert! Start doing your homework now and get your 35 bowl predictions done.
The Daily blog will be undergoing some changes in the next couple of days now that the college football season is complete. Tomorrow’s blog will give you the final conference standings from the bowls plus the top performances from all the bowl games both team/individual. Later on this week you will get my forecasts for the NFL Divisional games played that day including my computer’s projected box score of the games. Starting next week I will be going to a Monday, Wednesday and weekend blog format until magazine season is over in late spring/early summer. Next week may feature my projection of what the Preseason AP top 10 will be for 2011 and that will be coming after January 15th when juniors have to declare or not declare for the NFL Draft. I also will be updating you with 2011 NFL Draft and 2011 Frosh Recruiting updates. Read more…
NEW MEXICO BOWL
BYU continued their impressive finish to the season with a 52-24 rout of UTEP. Jake Heaps became the first BYU frosh QB to start a bowl game and hit 25-34-264. This one was a demolition as at one point in the 1H BYU had a 228-(-1) yd edge and led 31-3. UTEP had a shot to get back in it trailing 31-10 as they had a FD at the BYU3 with :04 left in the half but their pass fell incomplete and their scoring opportunity was lost. Trailing 38-17 UTEP was int’d and BYU drove 46/5pl for a TD to make it 45-17. For the game BYU had 28-13 FD and 514-233 yd edges. Another key for UTEP was the fact that QB Trevor Vittatoe was playing on a left ankle in need of surgery which he postponed until after the game and clearly was hobbled. His ankle was taped and he wore a shoe 3 sizes bigger. Also RB Donald Buckram was supposed to be close to 100% but got only 6 carries for 10 yds. Read more…
