Once again, we’ve made it to the end of the college football season, and it’s time to announce the winners of the 2018 e-Systems College Football Pool!  It was a tight race at the top, but congratulations to the overall winner:

AllySun

AllySun finished the season with 2,494 points.  Just two points behind, JagRag was second with 2,492 points, and Paul Herron was third, with 2,477 points.  Congratulations to each of these players for their spectacular performances!  Each will receive a special prize for their accomplishment.

AllySun put on a dominant performance throughout the season. In fact, she nearly pulled off a wire-to-wire win!  After tying for the week 1 win, a second-place finish in week 2 took her out to a solo lead she would only relinquish for one week before taking it back for good in week 8. Despite not winning an individual week, she tied for first three times (weeks 1, 3, and 14), never finished outside of the top 10 in any week, and only finished outside of the top six four weeks all season. Now that’s impressive! AllySun has always been a very consistent performer in our pools over the years, with many top-5 finishes, and this is her second overall win! Congratulations again to AllySun!

In the first half of the game (weeks 1-7), the top three performers were Crimson Gator (1,387 points), AllySun (1,384), and Paul Herron (1,377).  In the second half of the game (weeks 8-14), the top three were JagRag (1,123), AllySun (1,110), and Paul Herron (1,100). Well done!

The players who picked the most games correctly (216 out of 269 –80.297% correct) were AllySun and Crimson Gator. JagRag was next with 214, and bamaken and Paul Herron followed with 213. Great job to each of these consistent pickers!

There were three multiple-week winners this year, including two three-week winners! In weeks 2, 6, and 9, bamaken won. JagRag won weeks 3, 11, and 14. WarTiger91 won both weeks 8 and 12.  Other weekly winners included: JagAL (1), El Dude-arino (4), Bamarock (5), CrimsonWhite (7), verntroyer (10), and Crimson Gator (13). Congrats to all of the weekly winners!

The tie-breaker award, which goes to the player who did the best overall in picking tie-breaker amounts over the season, was won by bamaken, who was off by only 156 points total over all 14 weeks!  In second was JagRag (175), and AllySun and Jeff4Bama (196) tied for third.  Good job!

How did we all do?

Picks: 4,176 / 5,429 (76.920%)
Points: 48,250 / 57,220 (84.324%)
Best week as a group, by picks: week 2 (473 / 529 – 89.414%)
Best week as a group, by points: week 12 (4,578 / 4,807 – 95.236%)
Seven weeks with 80+% of picks correct
Four weeks with 90+% of possible points gained

There were no perfect weeks this year, attesting to the difficulty of this year’s picks.  Since my records began in 2009, this was the second-hardest season in terms of picking games correctly and the third-hardest in terms of percentage of possible points gained. Aside from ten 1-miss weeks in the abbreviated week 14 slate, there were five 1-miss weeks throughout the season: AllySun and bamaken in week 2, Bamarock and Crimson Gator in week 5, and Paul Herron in week 7.

Everyone will receive a prize for participating this year! If you aren’t sure that we have your current mailing address for shipping, please respond to this e-mail and we will update our records.

On behalf of all of us at e-Systems, thank you again for participating in our 15^th annual College Football Pool. We love the  college football season, as I’m sure you all do, and we hope that this pool continues to add fun and excitement to your college football experience over the season! I hope that all of you will join us in 2019, when we’ll do it all again! In the meantime, we hope you will think of e-Systems for all your custom application and system needs.  We’re just as much fun to work with!

All the bowl matchups have been set, the College Football Playoff has been filled out, and we’re looking ahead to bowl season. But first, there’s one more regular season game to play. It’s a game that has been played since 1890, and features teams that combine for four national championships and five Heisman Trophy winners. It’s simply known as “The Army-Navy Game”. It will be played for the 119th time this Saturday in Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. This marks the 88th meeting in Philadelphia, a “middle ground” between West Point, New York and Annapolis, Maryland. The game has not been held in an on-campus stadium since World War II, and aside from the 1983 meeting in the Rose Bowl, the game has always been played east of the Mississippi River. Navy holds a 60-51-7 lead in the series, but Army has won the last two games, including a 14-13 nail-biter last year.

The bowl season is fast upon us. There are 41 such games this year, with wide-ranging locations (one of which is outside of the country!) and traditions (the Music City Bowl features a Nashville “hot chicken” eating contest between members of the participating teams). But why do we call these post-season games “bowl” games? The answer goes all the way back to the “Granddaddy of them All”, the Rose Bowl Game. The first such game was not known as the “Rose Bowl” at all; rather, it was called the “Tournament East-West Football Game”, as the game was part of Pasadena, California’s annual Tournament of Roses. It was held in 1902 between Michigan and Stanford. The stadium itself wasn’t completed until 1922, so the first January 1 game played in the stadium was in 1923. It made sense to name the game after the stadium, and thus the 1923 game was the first known as the “Rose Bowl Game”. Later, as other cities sought to bring in tourists around the New Year and introduced the idea of post-season college football games, the games were known as “bowl games” even though they weren’t always played in bowl-shaped stadiums.

Scanning through the season-ending statistics, there are some pretty interesting nuggets to find:
* UMass wide receiver Andy Isabella finished the season with 1,698 receiving yards, 288 more than the #2 player in the nation.
* Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor finished with 1,989 rushing yards; Memphis RB Darrell Henderson finished with 1,909. No other back had more than 1,600.
* New Mexico State running back Jason Huntley returned three kickoffs for touchdowns. There were four players that returned two punts for scores, but only one listed as a linebacker – Oklahoma’s Curtis Bolton.
* Houston’s D’Eriq King was responsible for 27.5 points per game – more than the team scoring average for 49 FBS teams.

In small-school news, the Division II playoffs have reached the semi-finals, and there’s a 75% chance we’ll have a first-time (football) champion! Valdosta State (Georgia) has won three Division II football national titles (2004, 2007, 2012). Minnesota State has never won a national title in football, but the Mavericks won a Division II hockey title in 1980. Ferris State (Michigan) has never won a football national title, but the Bulldogs could pull off a somewhat rare feat with two more wins: simultaneous football and men’s basketball champs (the basketball team won the Division II title earlier this year). We’ve talked about Notre Dame (Ohio) before in this space, but to recap, the Falcons have only played football since 2009 and have never won a title. They have won a Division II wrestling title (in 2014). The finals will be held in McKinney, Texas, on December 15.

Congratulations to JagRag, who wins week 14 (their third weekly win!), scoring 35 points and breaking a five-way tie for first place by hitting the tie-breaker on the nose! Also finishing with 35 points were Jeff4Bama, Ragnor, AllySun, and Paul Herron.

Stay tuned for the season wrap-up and the announcement of the winners!

For the first time in FBS history, every conference will hold a championship game, making ten in total. In order of their kickoff, here’s a quick preview of each (all times ET):

MAC Championship: Northern Illinois vs. Buffalo, November 30 @ 7 PM. The Huskies are 7-5 overall (6-2 in the MAC), but are entering the championship on a two-game losing skid, having dropped close games to Miami (OH) and Western Michigan. The 10-2 Bulls are coached by Lance Leipold, who is perhaps best-known for coaching Wisconsin-Whitewater to six Division III national titles before making the jump to Buffalo.

Pac-12 Championship: Utah vs. Washington, November 30 @ 8 PM. This is the first of six rematches in conference title games; the Huskies took the regular-season meeting 21-7 in Salt Lake City on September 15. Both teams are 9-3 and have won their last three games. The teams feature the two best defenses in the Pac-12; the Huskies are 8th nationally in points allowed at 16.5; the Utes are 17th, at 19.3. Washington is 13th in yards allowed per game; Utah is 15th.

Big 12 Championship: Texas vs. Oklahoma, December 1 @ noon. The second of the rematches, Texas gave OU their only regular season loss in a classic 48-45 Red River Shootout game. Oklahoma is led by Kyler Murray, a Heisman hopeful; he commands an offense that is averaging 50.3 points per game, #1 in the nation. Tom Herman has brought Texas to the brink of their first conference championship since 2009, but they’ll have to bring down their nemesis twice in one season to win it. Their three losses this year have come by nine total points.

Sun Belt Championship: Louisiana vs. Appalachian State, December 1 @ noon. The third of the rematches. App State beat Louisiana 27-17 in their earlier meeting. The Ragin’ Cajuns have a balanced offensive attack that averages 218 yards passing and 230 yards rushing per game. The Mountaineers feature a tough defense that is only allowing 15.4 points per game, fifth-best in the country, which contributes greatly to their almost 22 point per game average margin of victory, good for 7th overall.

Conference USA Championship: UAB at Middle Tennessee, December 1 @ 1:30 PM. The fourth of the rematches. The teams played this past weekend, also in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The Blue Raiders won 27-3. Nevertheless, UAB coach Bill Clark is leading a program no one thought would be here so soon. After only two years since being restarted, UAB has their first division title, their first national top-25 ranking, and a 9-3 record going into this game. Can they follow it up with their first conference crown? They’ll have to figure out the Blue Raiders’ defense better this time around; the Blazers were held to eight first downs and 89 total yards last weekend.

AAC Championship: Memphis at UCF, December 1 @ 3:30 PM. The fifth rematch; UCF pulled out a 31-30 win in Memphis on October 13. The Tigers have Darrell Henderson, a potential first-team All-American at running back. He’s one yard short of 1,700 this year for Memphis’ attack that is averaging 43.8 points per game, sixth-best in FBS. UCF comes into the game having to replace their all-everything quarterback, McKenzie Milton, after a devastating injury in last week’s game against South Florida. Their backup, Darriel Mack, played quite well against USF, but the Knights were held to a season low in points against the Tigers in their earlier meeting; is this where the 24-game winning streak finally ends?

SEC Championship: Alabama vs. Georgia, December 1 @ 4 PM. The game featuring the highest-ranked opponents, a rematch of last year’s national title game, an almost-certain Heisman Trophy finalist, Saban vs. Smart Part II…there’s plenty to digest about this game. But let’s start with this tidbit: the Crimson Tide is the first team since Yale in 1888 to win its first twelve games of the season by over twenty points each. On the other hand, in each of its victories, Georgia has outscored its opponents by at least two touchdowns. In its loss, LSU beat UGA by twenty, so neither have played a close game…since last year’s title game against each other.

Mountain West Championship: Fresno State at Boise State, December 1 @ 7:45 PM. The sixth rematch; Boise State won 24-17 against the Bulldogs on November 9. The rivalry between the two schools is played for the Milk Can, but that won’t be on the line this time. Instead, there’s a very real possibility that this game might be for a New Years’ Six berth (provided UCF loses to Memphis earlier in the day). The Broncos’ dual threats of Alexander Mattison (1,215 yards rushing) and Brett Rypien (3,580 yards passing) face a Fresno State defense that has allowed 13.5 points per game this year, second-best in FBS.

ACC Championship: Clemson vs. Pittsburgh, December 1 @ 8 PM. Clemson is a huge favorite in this game, and for good reason. The Tigers have won by an average of 31.7 points per game, and only two games were closer than twenty points. They’re 5th in scoring offense, 3rd in total offense, 4th in scoring defense, and 7th in total defense. Pittsburgh…is 7-5 and has been beaten by over twenty points three times this year. But take heart, Panthers fans! The 2016 national champion Clemson team had a 14-1 record. The one? A 43-42 loss…to an 8-5 Pittsburgh team.

Big Ten Championship: Northwestern vs. Ohio State, December 1 @ 8 PM. Northwestern has the strangest record of any Power 5 conference championship game participant: 8-1 in-conference, 0-3 outside of it. The Wildcats lost to Duke, Akron, and Notre Dame out of conference, but have only a 20-17 loss against Michigan in Big Ten play. If Northwestern wins, they’ll take their first trip to the Rose Bowl since 1995, when Pat Fitzgerald was not the coach, but rather the star linebacker. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes are 11-1, but not necessarily with a bullet; they lost by 29 to Purdue and have single-digit wins over both Nebraska and Maryland. Is that team the one that shows up, or the one that just won 62-39 against Michigan?

In small school news, there is a conference championship game to be played in the FCS as well. The SWAC Championship features Southern against Alcorn State. This game is also a rematch of a regular season contest; Alcorn State beat Southern 20-3 on September 29. Alcorn State’s offense is the best the SWAC has to offer, averaging 471.3 yards per game (14th in FCS); Southern comes into the game on a five-game winning streak since that loss to Alcorn State, including a 38-28 win over rival Grambling in the Bayou Classic last weekend. The game was originally scheduled to be played at Birmingham’s Legion Field, but due to the potential of UAB playing the Conference USA championship game there on the same day, the conference made the decision to play it on the campus of the team with the highest ranking. Therefore, the game will be played on the campus of Alcorn State in Lorman, Mississippi. The winner of this game will face North Carolina A&T in the Celebration Bowl on December 15; the winner of that game is considered the de facto HBCU national champion.

Congratulations to Crimson Gator, who wins week 13 with 200 points! JagRag took second with 199, and AllySun was third with 198.

Standings after thirteen weeks:

1st	AllySun	2,459
2nd	JagRag	2,457
3rd	Paul Herron	2,442
4th	bamaken	2,418
5th	Jeff4Bama	2,406
6th	Crimson Gator	2,400
7th	Ragnor	2,391
8th	BEVO	2,364
9th	El Dude-arino	2,359
10th	Pachyderm	2,358

It all comes down to this. Conference championship week. Just eight little games. The overall season championship looks to be a two-picker race, but there’s individual week honors up for grabs, and people can still improve their standings, so do your best! The first game this week is the Pac-12 Championship, Friday, November 30 @ 8 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

Cupcakes taste good, but they’re not very filling. Likewise, college football games featuring a “cupcake” opponent tend to be fun for a little while, but not very enthralling over sixty minutes. Fortunately, we were treated to some heartier fare as well. We start in Stillwater, where West Virginia saw its College Football Playoff hopes expire in a classic 45-41 Big 12 shootout loss to Oklahoma State. The Cowboys, who trailed 31-14 at the half, roared back in the second half behind the play of quarterback Taylor Cornelius. Cornelius ended up with 444 yards of total offense, including 106 on the ground, and accounted for all six Oklahoma State touchdowns (1 rushing, 5 passing). West Virginia, however, can still make the Big Twelve title game, but it must beat Oklahoma at home on Friday, something the Mountaineers have not managed to do since joining the Big Twelve in 2012.

From there, we proceed to Tallahassee, where Florida State still has a chance to extend some lengthy streaks. The Seminoles managed to upset Boston College 22-21, due to a 74-yard touchdown pass from Deondre Francois to Tamorrion Terry with 1:49 left in the game. With the win, FSU is 5-6, and everything boils down to the annual showdown with Florida. If Florida State can pull off their second straight upset, it’ll extend their 36-year bowl streak (if one allows for vacated bowl appearances in 2006 and 2007) and their 41-year streak of seasons with winning records. Both are currently the longest in the country.

The second-longest bowl streak is 25, held by Virginia Tech – but again, perhaps not for long. The Hokies are 4-6 (having had a game cancelled to the hurricane earlier this year). Beating rival Virginia this Saturday in the 100th Commonwealth Cup game would be satisfying, but would only move VT to 5-6 – still not bowl-eligible. What to do? In a very rare (if not unprecedented) move, Virginia Tech has agreed with Marshall (who also had a game cancelled due to the hurricane) on a game that is contingent upon the Hokies beating UVa. If the Hokies win, they and the Thundering Herd will play on December 1, and Marshall will be paid $300,000. If Virginia Tech loses, the game won’t be played, but Marshall gets a $100,000 check anyway. In addition, the teams agreed to play a future home-and-home series. It all adds up to a pretty nice deal for a Conference USA team. By the way, the Thundering Herd is 7-3 at this point, so they won’t exactly be a pushover…

In small-school news, undefeated Notre Dame is looking to win the national championship. No, not that Notre Dame. This Notre Dame is a a small liberal arts college in Euclid, Ohio. Known officially as Notre Dame College, it has about 2,100 students, and was an all-women’s school from its inception in 1922 until 2001, when it became coeducational. The Falcons began playing football in 2009.  They joined Division II in 2012 and the next year became part of the new Mountain East Conference. This year, they’ve outscored opponents 390-193 on their way to an 11-0 record and their first Mountain East conference championship (which gives them one more than that “other” Notre Dame). They’ll take on Hillsdale College (Michigan) this Saturday in the second round of the playoffs.

Congratulations to WarTiger91, who wins week 12 (their second weekly win!) with 250 points! HostileNoles was second with 248 points, and Paul Herron and JagAL each had 246.

Standings after twelve weeks:

1st	AllySun	2,261
2nd	JagRag	2,258
3rd	Paul Herron	2,252
4th	bamaken	2,227
5th	Jeff4Bama	2,221
6th	Pachyderm	2,215
7th	Crimson Gator	2,200
T-8th	Ragnor	2,198
T-8th	BEVO	2,198
10th	El Dude-arino	2,185

Welcome to Rivalry Week! This weekend features the most important games of the season for many teams. Some are playing for a chance at a conference title. Others are going for a bowl (or a better bowl) bid, and some are just trying to be a spoiler. In rivalry games, just “beating those other guys” is enough reason! In any circumstance, each team will lay it all on the line this weekend. Don’t forget to get your picks in due to Thanksgiving! The first game is Thanksgiving night – the 115th Egg Bowl between Mississippi State and Ole Miss – Thursday, November 22 @ 7:30 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

We only get thirteen full weekends of college football, so each one is to be appreciated and savored. But the feeling held by many is that this particular weekend is the least-anticipated one of the year. Lots of Power 5 teams intentionally schedule “paycheck” games against smaller schools in order to hopefully ensure easy wins, resting players for rivalries and championship games. These games are usually the ones with the lowest attendance and lowest television ratings of the year. In the South, people would tell you if you absolutely have to have a fall wedding, this is the weekend to do it. But these games, as we have discussed before in this space, are really important to the smaller schools for several reasons. And so, in honor of these teams, I present to you the first all-“small-school news” update! This update focuses primarily on the rivalries between teams in the lower divisions.

In FCS, this weekend is the last of the regular season, and is thus rivalry week.  Notable rivalry games include:

• The 135th edition of “The Game” between Harvard and Yale.  This year, the teams will meet in Fenway Park in Boston. Neither school is having a great season – both are 5-4 – but winning this game will be a major point of pride. Yale leads the series 67-59-8 and has a two-game winning streak over the Crimson.
• The 154th game in “The Rivalry” between Lafayette and Lehigh. The teams have met the most times in college football history. Lafayette holds the series advantage 78-70-5; Lehigh has won the last three meetings. Lehigh is located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Lafayette in Easton, Pennsylvania, about 25 minutes away. This year, the teams will meet in Lafayette’s Fisher Stadium, also known for hosting the annual cross-state Thanksgiving Day football game between Easton Area HS (PA) and Phillipsburg HS (NJ).
•  The 52nd “Battle of the Blue” between Delaware and Villanova. The teams first played in 1895, and annually from 1964 to 1980, at which point Villanova dropped football. Beginning in 1988, the Wildcats again began to play football, and the rivalry picked back up, having been played every year since then. Villanova has the series lead 29-21-1, and has won the last six meetings. The schools are separated by about 50 minutes between Newark and the outskirts of Philadelphia.

In Division II, the regular season is complete, which means that several classic rivalries within the division were played recently. They include:

• The 92nd “Battle of the Ravine” between Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State University. These two teams may hold the record for the closest rival – they’re literally across the street from each other! North 10th Street in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, separates HSU’s Carpenter-Haygood Stadium from Ouachita’s Benson-Williams Field. A unique tradition between the schools is that the visitors walk from their own locker room to the opponent’s field at the beginning of the game. This year’s edition was won by OBU 38-10, improving their record to 11-0. With the result, the series between the two is knotted 43-43-6.
• The 78th meeting between the University of Central Oklahoma Bronchos and the Northeastern State (OK) RiverHawks. The teams first met in 1912, but played sporadically until 1929, after which only World War 2 prevented them from playing annually until 1979. Starting in 1998, with Northeastern State’s move to Division II, the teams began playing for the President’s Cup. UCO won 62-0 this year to expand its lead in the series to 49-27-2 and its win streak to five games. When the teams both competed in the NAIA, they met in the 1982 NAIA Playoff semi-finals, which UCO (then Central State) won 21-0 on its way to the NAIA championship.
• The 48th “Battle of the Valleys” between Grand Valley State and Saginaw Valley State. These two Michigan schools have met at least once each year since 1975 (they’ve faced each other four times in the NCAA Playoffs). Grand Valley has a 37-11 series advantage. The series is also well-known for the fundraising efforts of the two schools; each college’s student body chooses a charity for which to raise money and the two compete to see which school can raise the most. The fundraising series even has its own trophy to the winner; named “Victoria”, it’s a large V mounted on a pedestal.

Division III has also completed its regular season, and so some long-time rivalries were renewed:

• The 133rd “Biggest Little Game in America”, between Amherst and Williams. This is the most-often played Division III game, having been played since 1884. Amherst won this year’s game 45-14, but Williams holds a 72-56-5 lead in the series. The rivalry predates football – in fact, it goes back to the founding of Amherst in 1821! The then-president of Williams defected, along with several professors and a portion of the student body, to found what would become Amherst College. The schools, which each only consist of about 2,000 students, regularly have crowds of over 10,000 for this game. College GameDay hosted from Williams for the 2007 edition of this game.
• The 116th battle between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union College, schools separated by 35 minutes in east-central New York.  This game has been played for the “Dutchman’s Shoes” since 1950. The trophy consists of a wooden base with a pedestal on which the aforementioned shoes are placed. One is RPI red with an “R”, the other Union garnet with a “U”. Union won this year’s game 34-10 to improve its record in the series to 82-30-4.
• The 125th Monon Bell game between Wabash and Depauw, two small schools in Indiana. Wabash won this year’s meeting 24-17 to take a 62-54-9 series lead. The namesake bell is a 300-pound former locomotive bell from the Monon Railroad, which ran through both school’s towns, located 27 miles apart on US Highway 231. The schools have played each other every year since 1911.

Congratulations to JagRag, who wins week 11 (their second weekly win!) with 218 points! BEVO and JagAL were tied for second with 215 points, and AllySun and Liquid Heat were next at 211.

Standings after eleven weeks:

1st	AllySun	2,019
2nd	JagRag	2,013
3rd	Paul Herron	2,006
4th	bamaken	1,992
5th	Jeff4Bama	1,976
6th	Pachyderm	1,973
7th	Crimson Gator	1,960
8th	BEVO	1,959
9th	Ragnor	1,955
10th	El Dude-arino	1,947

There are twenty-two games this week, the most we’ve had to pick since week four! It’s a chance to make up some ground before (FBS) rivalry week! The first game this week is Boise State at New Mexico, Friday, November 16 @ 9 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

For the past few years, the Big Twelve has become known primarily as an offense-first conference. Several of the top teams in the conference run a variant of the Air Raid-style offense that can basically be described as “basketball on grass” due to its quick tempo and emphasis on the passing game. The two top games in the conference over the past weekend showed off the Air Raid at its explosive best. West Virginia rang up 578 yards of offense, but needed a two-point conversion to overcome a late deficit and win 42-41 over Texas in Austin. Oklahoma and Texas Tech didn’t quite put up the numbers the two teams did when they met with Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes, but while the Sooners finished with 683 yards of total offense, they had to hang on at the end for a 51-46 win over the Red Raiders in Lubbock. West Virginia and Oklahoma are both 5-1 in conference play.  They play each other in the final game of the regular season in Morgantown, West Virginia; it’s possible that they might end up playing again the very next week in the Big Twelve Championship Game in Arlington.

Florida State – Notre Dame is a game that sounds as if it should always have some national interest. Thanks to the Irish, that’s partly true, but the Seminoles are having a down year, making the game lose some luster. Still, this marks the 25th anniversary of the 1993 matchup between the teams, which pitted 9-0 and #1 FSU versus 9-0 and #2 Notre Dame in South Bend. It was marketed as a “Game of the Century”, and ESPN made a decision that changed the face of college football Saturday mornings forever by deciding to air College GameDay on location at Notre Dame, the first time they had broadcast from a college campus. The Irish went on to win, 31-24, but fell in an upset to Boston College the next week to dash their national title hopes.  Florida State finished #1 in the polls after beating Nebraska 18-16 in the Orange Bowl, but Notre Dame fans forever feel that the 1993 championship should be theirs due to the head-to-head win. With a win this weekend, Notre Dame can continue their march for their first title since 1988…

The renaissance continues in Birmingham. UAB football is alive and well. The Blazers, who you might remember did not field a team at all in 2015 or 2016 due to the shutdown of the program, were the comeback story of the year in 2017. UAB finished 8-5 with a bowl appearance. This year’s edition already has eight wins, as they stand 8-1 and 6-0 in conference play. The eight wins ties the most in UAB’s history as an FBS program.  But there are bigger heights to ascend, and with a win this weekend against Southern Miss, UAB can reach a new one: division champs. The Blazers have never reached the Conference USA championship game, but would have a very real probability of hosting it should they win this weekend. A stingy defense is the Blazers’ calling card; UAB’s scoring defense is #1 in the country, at 12.1 points per game allowed, and fourth in total defense, at 271.4 yards per game allowed.

In small-school news, UAB’s points per game allowed is impressive, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Colgate. In FCS play, the Raiders have allowed 23 points all season – two touchdowns and three field goals. (They did lose 33-7 to FBS Syracuse in their season opener, but hey, the Orange are 7-2 this year. Let’s give ’em a break.) Even more impressive, 17 of those points were in one game against Holy Cross, meaning they’ve given up a total of six points in their other seven games. Colgate takes an 8-1 record with five shutouts into this week’s game against Lehigh, having already clinched the Patriot League championship and its berth into the FCS playoffs.

Congratulations to verntroyer, who takes week 10 honors with 200 points! El Dude-arino was second with 197, and AllySun had 195 for third.

Standings after ten weeks:

1st	AllySun	1808
2nd	Paul Herron	1796
3rd	JagRag	1795
4th	bamaken	1785
5th	Jeff4Bama	1778
6th	Pachyderm	1763
7th	Ragnor	1755
8th	Crimson Gator	1753
9th	BEVO	1744
10th	El Dude-arino	1743

There are 21 games on the schedule this week, so as the season begins to wind down, there’s still time to make a move! The first game this week is Wake Forest at NC State, Thursday, November 8 @ 7:30 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

It was not a good day to be in the top 25. Eleven ranked teams were licking their wounds after losses in Saturday’s games, and seven teams fell out of the rankings entirely, marking the largest turnover in the rankings since the AP went to a 25-team format in 1989. A couple of teams find themselves in unfamiliar territory – ranked! Syracuse is ranked for the first time since the end of the 2001 season after a win 51-41 over NC State took the Orange to 6-2, breaking the second-longest current drought of top-25 appearances (Indiana hasn’t been in the top 25 since 1997).  Virginia is ranked for the first time since 2011 after winning “The South’s Oldest Rivalry” against North Carolina 31-21.

As we turn the calendar forward and (soon) turn the clock back, let’s check in on each of the conference races. For the first time, every conference is holding a championship game, so there’s a lot to look forward to in early December, but first you have to get through the gauntlet that is November!

American: the East features two teams unbeaten in conference play: UCF and Temple, both 4-0. They play each other this week, so the winner is in the driver’s seat going forward. Cincinnati and USF each are 3-1 and not out of it, although the Bearcats lose the tie-breaker to Temple. In the West, Houston is in command, holding a two-game lead over SMU and Tulane.

ACC: Clemson is the overwhelming favorite in the Atlantic, with a 5-0 mark. A win over Boston College in two weeks clinches the division for the Tigers; if BC pulls the upset and can win out, they would win the division.  The Coastal is wide-open, with Virginia currently the front-runner at 4-1.  But Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh are each 3-1, and none of the three have played each other yet.

Big 12: remember that unlike all of the other conferences, the top two teams advance to the conference championship. Texas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia all stand at 4-1; the Longhorns hold a head-to-head tie-breaker over the Sooners. Iowa State and Texas Tech aren’t completely out of it, but can’t afford another loss.

Big Ten: In the East, Michigan has a 5-0 mark and looks to be cruising. But the Wolverines must get past Penn State this weekend, and then a familiar foe awaits in Columbus on November 24…Ohio State, who sits one game back. Michigan State, Penn State, and Maryland aren’t eliminated, but need some major help. The surprise leader in the west is Northwestern, which holds a 5-1 mark going into November. But the Wildcats must venture into Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes, and they, Wisconsin, and Purdue are all at 3-2.

Conference USA: The Eastern Division’s Florida International is 4-0 and has a win over Middle Tennessee, one of two East teams with one conference loss, who holds a win over Marshall, the other such team. FIU probably wishes the transitive property applied to college football, but alas for them, they’ll have to play the Thundering Herd on November 24. The West’s darling is UAB, who is 5-0 in conference and effectively has a two-game lead over second-place Louisiana Tech due to a 28-7 win earlier this year. The Blazers can wrap up the West with two more conference wins in three games.

MAC: Buffalo is the beast of the East, with a 4-0 record. However, there are two 3-1 teams (Miami (OH) and Ohio), and the three play each other in the next 2 1/2 weeks, so things will shake out by mid-November. In the West, Northern Illinois has a 4-0 mark but has yet to play 4-1 Western Michigan. All other teams have at least two losses.

Mountain West: how about Utah State? The Aggies are 4-0 (and 7-1 overall and #18 in America!), and are the current leaders of the Mountain Division. But they still have to visit “The Blue” in Boise, where the Broncos, currently 4-1 and in second place, awaits them.  The West Division’s leader is Fresno State, with a 4-0 mark (and #20 in the AP poll), but they also have to go to Boise, and they play second-place San Diego State the week after that, so the Bulldogs have their work cut out for them.

Pac-12: The North’s current leader is Washington State, the only team in the conference with one loss. They also hold tie-breaker wins over Stanford and Oregon. Washington is next at 4-2, but Stanford is 3-2 and has a win over the Huskies, so they’re not completely out of it either. In the South…well, literally anyone can still win it! Utah has a 4-2 mark and leads the division, but every other team in the division has exactly three losses. I won’t even try to get into who owns tie-breakers over whom…we’ll just let that one play out.

SEC: the easiest one on the board. It pretty much all comes down to two games, both coming up this weekend. The winner of the Georgia-Kentucky game clinches the East division. In the West, if Alabama wins their game against LSU, they also win the division title. LSU doesn’t clinch if they win, but as long as they beat Arkansas and Texas A&M as well, the Tigers would take the crown.

Sun Belt: the East division has two teams sitting at 4-0 – Georgia Southern and Troy. The Eagles have a win in hand over Appalachian State (currently 3-1); the Trojans play App State in the final game of the year. Troy and Georgia Southern meet on November 10. The West is wide open. UL Monroe and Louisiana (I still want to call them UL-Lafayette) are both 2-2; Arkansas State and South Alabama are 1-3. There’s still a long way to go before anything’s set in stone!

In small-school news, a team that was started in 2015 is second in the nation! Kennesaw State, which didn’t have a football team for the first 53 years of its existence, began play in FCS in the Big South Conference in 2015 and immediately found success. Last year, the Owls were 12-2 and made it to the FCS Quarterfinals. This year, the Georgia school is looking to do even better, sporting a 7-1 mark (its only loss to FBS member Georgia State), and a #2 FCS ranking. KSU is led by coach Brian Bohannon, who was an assistant under Paul Johnson at Navy and Georgia Tech. I bet you might be able to guess their offensive system of choice – that’s right, the Owls are a triple-option team, and they run it with deadly efficiency, averaging 46.9 points per game. Interestingly, while they normally play their games at Fifth Third Bank Stadium (capacity 8,318), they’ll play Jacksonville State in their regular-season finale in SunTrust Park, the Atlanta Braves’ stadium.

Congratulations to bamaken, who wins week 9 (their third weekly win!) with 119 points. JagRag was second with 116, and CrimsonWhite was third with 108.

Standings after nine weeks:

1st	AllySun	1,613
2nd	JagRag	1,612
3rd	Paul Herron	1,607
4th	bamaken	1,606
5th	BEVO	1,593
6th	Jeff4Bama	1,592
7th	Crimson Gator	1,588
8th	Pachyderm	1,573
9th	Ragnor	1,571
10th	El Dude-arino	1,546

After several weeks of short lists of games, we have a big point opportunity! Twenty-one games are on the docket this week, including four games with both teams ranked. The stakes are high for several teams, and they are for the pickers as well – good luck! The first game this week is Temple at UCF, Thursday, November 1 @ 7:30 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

Let’s just say that Purdue did not have a great start to their season. The Boilermakers opened 0-3, including a loss to Eastern Michigan. But lately they have turned things around in a big way, rolling off four straight wins, the last coming in impressive fashion over Ohio State. In front of a packed Ross-Ade Stadium (literally; stadium capacity is 57,236 and the official attendance was 60,716), the Boilermakers dominated throughout, pulling away at the end to win 49-20. Quarterback Jeff Blough threw for 378 yards and Rondale Moore had 248 all-purpose yards, including 170 receiving, and two touchdowns. Keep your eyes on Moore, a true freshman, in the years to come; he’s currently second in the nation in all-purpose yardage, at just a tick under 180 per game. Purdue is in a four-way logjam at the top of the Big Ten West with Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Iowa; that’s a pretty nice turnaround from a loss to Eastern Michigan!

The annual Florida-Georgia game is a rivalry with bad blood. The former “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” has been played since…well, actually, that’s up for debate. Georgia counts a game played in 1904 in their official statistics; Florida claims their first official football team was in 1906 and that the 1904 game doesn’t count (perhaps not surprisingly, it ended 52-0 Georgia). Since Georgia is the designated home team for this year’s matchup in Jacksonville, let’s count it for the sake of discussion, making the series record 51-43-2 and this the 97th meeting. The Bulldogs dominated the early part of the series (Florida didn’t register their fifth win until 1949), but the Gators have owned the series as of late, winning all but seven games since 1990. This year’s game is the first time both teams were ranked in the top ten coming into the game since 2008.

We’ve reached that magical time of the year where football is on practically every day of the week! It’s true! This week, the Sun Belt becomes the “Fun Belt”: tonight, the annual “Battle for the Belt” between Troy and South Alabama is on. Then there are five games Thursday (including another really good Sun Belt game between Appalachian State and Georgia Southern), and another five on Friday.  Next week, once the NFL has its days in the sun, we get sweet, sweet MACtion: two games on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and two more on Thursday. It’s a little sad to see the practically empty stands in some of those games, but hey, who am I to complain about more games to watch?

In small-school news, I’m not sure that I’ve ever written about an NAIA team before. But hey, it’s not often that the #1 and #3 teams play each other, no matter what the division, so let’s give it a go! The NAIA, for those who might be wondering, is short for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Its membership of about 250 schools is in a single division; from what I’ve read, the skill level is around the NCAA Division II level. This past weekend, #1 Morningside (Iowa) faced off against #3 Northwestern (Iowa) and came away with a 42-34 win. Morningside has been ranked in 145 consecutive NAIA football polls, the longest current streak in the NAIA. The Mustangs have never won a national championship (they made it to the championship game in 2012, but lost 30-27 in overtime); maybe this will be their year!

Congratulations to WarTiger91, who wins week 8 with 127 points in a tie-breaker over JagRag and Paul Herron! Jeff4Bama had 126 points, and HostileNoles had 125.

Standings after eight weeks:

1st	AllySun	1,507
2nd	Paul Herron	1,504
T-3rd	Crimson Gator	1,496
T-3rd	JagRag	1,496
5th	bamaken	1,487
6th	BEVO	1,486
T-7th	El Dude-arino	1,484
T-7th	Jeff4Bama	1,484
9th	Ragnor	1,474
10th	Pachyderm	1,472

As I mentioned above, we have lots of weeknight games, and that extends to our picks. Two games are on Thursday, and one on Friday, so don’t miss out! The first game on the schedule this week is Baylor at West Virginia, Thursday, October 25 @ 7 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

One of the difficulties of writing this column is avoiding the negative. Even though this is a sport where half of the teams lose each week, I usually try to post the positive sides of the story.  However, this stat line is just too hard to pass up; we haven’t see one like it in 15 years!  In a 34-7 loss to Maryland, Rutgers’ starting quarterback’s stat line (before being pulled late in the third quarter) looked like this: 2-of-16 passing for 8 yards, 0 TD, 4 INT. That, according to the passing efficiency calculations, works out to a efficiency rating of -33.3%, the lowest such rating for player with ten or more passing attempts in a game since 2003!  I will spare the poor fellow’s dignity slightly by omitting his name here; if you really want to know, you can look the game up.

Okay, back to the positive. One of the best games of the weekend wasn’t played Saturday. Late Friday night, South Florida came back from a 14 point deficit in the fourth quarter to steal a 25-24 win at Tulsa with a  22-yard field goal at the buzzer. Florida transfer Jordan Cronkrite was the star, running 25 times for 151 yards and a score, and the Bulls’ defense held Tulsa to three three-and-outs in the fourth quarter (allowing only 5 yards total) to give the offense the chance to win. South Florida is playing with fire, but they are 6-0…

Ol’ Crimson is coming home. What is Ol’ Crimson, you might ask? If you’ve ever watched ESPN’s College GameDay program before games start on Saturday, you’ve most likely seen it. Every week for the past fifteen years, alumni of Washington State University have sent a handmade WSU flag (named Ol’ Crimson) to an alumnus close to that week’s on-campus show location, and they make sure the flag is flown and shown on-screen. The idea was that they would continue the tradition until College GameDay made its way to Pullman, Washington, the home of Washington State. Well, this week, after 15 years, 216 consecutive shows, 72 different cities and 34 different states, it’s happening! The Cougars, 5-1 and ranked #25, will host the Oregon Ducks, and College GameDay will be there! Expect more than one WSU flag to be flying, but for there to only be one Ol’ Crimson. The booster club in charge of handling and flying the flag have gone on record as saying the tradition will not stop after this week. It’s become part of the lore of the program, alongside the mascot headgear picks and (sometimes) funny signs.

In small-school news, the latest edition of a classic Division III rivalry had a bittersweetness about it. St. John’s and St. Thomas, Division III powers located about 1 1/2 hours apart in Minnesota, staged their annual game in Collegeville (home of St. John’s) this past Saturday. Both teams came in unbeaten and ranked in the top ten in Division III, but that wasn’t the big story. John Gagliardi, the winningest coach in football history and a coach for 60 years at St. John’s before retiring in 2012, passed away October 7 at the age of 91. Gagliardi, who won 489 games, 30 conference championships and four national titles, was an institution and a pioneer in many ways, especially in his coaching methods (for two, his practices were never longer than 90 minutes, and his players didn’t tackle in practice). His name was worn on the helmets of both the Johnnies and the Tommies as they played. St. John’s won 40-20.

Congratulations to CrimsonWhite, who wins week 7 with 101 points! Crimson Gator came in second with 99, and BEVO and Pachyderm each had 97.

Standings after seven weeks:

1st	Crimson Gator	1,387
2nd	AllySun	1,384
3rd	Paul Herron	1,377
4th	bamaken	1,372
5th	BEVO	1,370
6th	JagRag	1,369
7th	El Dude-arino	1,368
8th	AUBrian	1,366
9th	Jeff4Bama	1,358
10th	Ragnor	1,350

A couple of big mid-season rivalries highlight this week’s schedule. Alabama visits Tennessee on the “Third Saturday in October”, while Michigan travels to Michigan State for their annual grudge match. However, the first game this week is Stanford at Arizona State, Thursday, October 18 @ 9 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!

Long-time readers of this column know of the special place in my heart for the service academies and their football teams. While the triple-option is old-fashioned by today’s modern offensive standards, when run effectively it is a sight to behold. The knowledge of the fact that, unlike practically all other FBS schools, football is a secondary concern at most to the men who make up the Army, Navy, and Air Force teams, is a refreshing change of pace in today’s climate. The special gameday traditions of the schools, the cadets and midshipmen in their block seating, and the background settings of the academies themselves make for a unique atmosphere in college football. While I’ve always enjoyed these teams and the way they play, I had never seen any of them play in person…until this past Saturday. Due in large part to my father-in-law (USAFA ’73), I was able to attend the Air Force-Navy game in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Despite the weather (game-time temperature was 45 or so, and with the wind and high altitude it felt even colder), it was a lot of fun, and the surrounding spectacle lived up to the expectations (as might be expected, there were at least six separate flyovers during pre-game). Oh, the game itself? Air Force won, 35-7. True to their name, the Falcons established superiority in the air; Air Force QB Donald Hammond III completed six of ten passes for 142 yards and a touchdown to complement a rushing attack that gained 257 yards, while the defense held Navy to just 36 yards passing and 178 overall. It was a great experience, and if you ever get the chance to see a game involving a service academy, I highly encourage it.

When Dan Mullen was hired as the head coach at Florida, most Gator fans believed that he could eventually return Florida to prominence due to his success at Mississippi State. While an early loss to Kentucky temporarily dampened their spirits, folks in Gainesville have to believe they are ahead of schedule now. With a 27-19 win over then-#5 LSU, Florida is 5-1, ranked #14 in the AP poll, and has a fighter’s chance in the SEC East. Despite Mullen’s reputation as a quarterback and offensive guru, Florida is winning with defense; since the loss to Kentucky, they are only giving up an average of 14 points per game. After this weekend’s matchup with Vanderbilt, the Gators have an off-week before the annual rivalry game with Georgia in Jacksonville, where we’ll really see what this team is made of…

The American Athletic Conference has billed itself in the past couple of years as a “Power 6 conference”. The premise is that while the conference does not currently have the benefits of those that make up the current Power 5, their schools perform well enough against those teams that the conference should be respected as such. Even things like the first-down markers used at the member schools’ games show “P6” in reference to this belief. This thought process has trickled down to the schools themselves; American member Central Florida claimed a national championship last year after going undefeated despite not being invited to the College Football Playoff. Whether you believe the conference truly deserves this status or not, it’s hard to argue with a three of its teams’ inclusion in the top 25 at this point. In addition to the Knights, who are once again unbeaten and currently ranked #10 in the country, South Florida (#23) and Cincinnati (#25) are also undefeated. While it’s still way too early to say at this point, there are growing calls for UCF to get a playoff spot if they are able to run the table again, which would include victories over the aforementioned Bulls and Bearcats. If they were to do so, could “Power 6” be more than just a marketing term?

In small-school news, it’s once again for the annual Mount Union report! The Division III school in Alliance, Ohio, is famous for its long winning streaks and huge point differentials. This year’s edition of the Purple Raiders is currently 5-0 and outscoring its opponents by an average of 50-10, although one of those wins was only by a 23-10 score against John Carroll (who, incidentally, gave Mount Union their last regular-season loss in 2016). Mount Union is the defending Division III national champion and currently on a 20-game winning streak; not bad, but nowhere yet near their longest winning streaks of 55 (from 2000 to 2003) and 54 (from 1996 to 1999). To show just how utterly dominant Mount Union is, let’s compare them with other “dynasty” teams of the decade. In the 2010s, Alabama has a 105-12 record, good for a 89.7% winning percentage. North Dakota State is 111-13, an 89.5% winning percentage. Mount Union is 118-6, a 95.2% winning percentage!

Congratulations to bamaken, who wins week 6 (their second weekly win!) with a tie-breaker victory over Paul Herron! Both finished with 174 points. BEVO was next with 173.

Standings after six weeks:

1st	AllySun	1,291
2nd	Crimson Gator	1,288
3rd	bamaken	1,287
4th	Paul Herron	1,284
T-5th	JagRag	1,273
T-5th	El Dude-arino	1,273
T-5th	BEVO	1,273
8th	AUBrian	1,271
9th	Jeff4Bama	1,265
10th	Ragnor	1,258

With several teams having bye weeks and a couple of ranked-versus-ranked games, there are only sixteen games this week. But every point is important, so make your picks count! The first game on the slate this week is South Florida at Tulsa, Friday, October 12 @ 7 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!