Welcome to the CatsIllustrated Stupid Underdog Pick Contest. Each week the odds are gathered from the Vegas Insider web page (usually on Monday) and posted in a thread on CatsIllustrated (which we will hopefully get pinned for convenience). This contest runs for the entire football season (the bowls are treated as one really long week).
There are several ways to win: there are weekly winners, the person with the highest cumulative point total after the season is over is the overall winner but we recognize the contestants that have the most correct picks also.
How do you get points? Select the underdog (second team listed in each game) and have that team pull the upset. The bigger the dog, the bigger the reward but the longer the odds.
Some rules that we need to keep things running smoothly:
1) You must make your pick before the first game listed has started. Your pick will invalidated otherwise. I can't know that you didn't delete a pick that didn't win and then post a pick from a later game in hopes of getting a winner with the new Rivals format. If you want to change your pick before the first game has started, make a new post and indicate that you want to change your pick or simply delete your first pick before the first kickoff.
2) If you make your pick after the first game kicks off, it is invalidated.
3) If you pick the favored team instead of the underdog, we all laugh at you. Ok, we don't but you can't expect to get points in SUP for that.
4) You can appeal an invalidation by posting in that week's thread, include what you think is wrong.
Understand that a perl script is scoring this, if you make the spelling of the teams intentionally obtuse or you are just really bad at spelling, your pick might be missed. If you want to tell us all about the underdogs you thought you might choose and then tell us about the one you finally did pick, you might be surprised which one the script finds.
So your post should look something like:
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Purdue
Everyone hates the Irish right?
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Don't put any other team name in your post with your SUP pick without putting an '***' in front of it. Everything after the '***' will be ignored. My program may find the wrong name if you don't. Once you post your pick, you can post in the thread any comment you like. Your first post is your pick (if I can find your pick).
Because the scoring is done by a script and not by hand, if you feel a mistake was made in scoring your SUP, post that on that Week's thread. We'll try to get it resolved quickly. The scripts are far from perfect and VegasInsider also changes the HTML for the odds page quite often so report any errors you see there as soon as you see them.
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Stupid Underdog Picks - Week 1:
Thursday, Sep. 1
Indiana 9 FLORIDA INTL
LOUISVILLE 39½ UNC Charlotte
WAKE FOREST 17 Tulane
WESTERN KENTUCKY 16½ Rice
VANDERBILT 3½ South Carolina
MINNESOTA 13 Oregon State
TENNESSEE 21 Appalachian State
Friday, Sep. 2
GEORGIA STATE 3 Ball State
TEMPLE 17 Army
COLORADO 8 Colorado State
STANFORD 16 Kansas State
ARKANSAS STATE 3 Toledo
Saturday, Sep. 3
Georgia Tech 3½ BOSTON COLLEGE
MICHIGAN 41½ Hawaii
IOWA 27½ Miami (OH)
NORTHWESTERN 6½ Western Michigan
OHIO STATE 27½ Bowling Green State
PENN STATE 20 Kent State
WEST VIRGINIA 9½ Missouri
UTEP 7½ New Mexico State
Southern Methodist 9½ NORTH TEXAS
MISSISSIPPI STATE 31 South Alabama
OHIO 21 Texas State
KENTUCKY 6½ Southern Miss
ARKANSAS 26 Louisiana Tech
FLORIDA 35½ Massachusetts
Clemson 7 AUBURN
TEXAS AM 2½ UCLA
TULSA 4 San Jose State
WASHINGTON 26 Rutgers
LSU 9½ WISCONSIN
GEORGIA 2½ North Carolina
Oklahoma 10 HOUSTON
NEBRASKA 28½ Fresno State
ALABAMA 10½ Southern Cal
Boise State 20 LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE
ARIZONA 1 BYU
Northern Illinois 10 WYOMING
Sunday, Sep. 4
Notre Dame 3½ TEXAS
Monday, Sep. 5
FLORIDA STATE 4½ Mississippi
There are several ways to win: there are weekly winners, the person with the highest cumulative point total after the season is over is the overall winner but we recognize the contestants that have the most correct picks also.
How do you get points? Select the underdog (second team listed in each game) and have that team pull the upset. The bigger the dog, the bigger the reward but the longer the odds.
Some rules that we need to keep things running smoothly:
1) You must make your pick before the first game listed has started. Your pick will invalidated otherwise. I can't know that you didn't delete a pick that didn't win and then post a pick from a later game in hopes of getting a winner with the new Rivals format. If you want to change your pick before the first game has started, make a new post and indicate that you want to change your pick or simply delete your first pick before the first kickoff.
2) If you make your pick after the first game kicks off, it is invalidated.
3) If you pick the favored team instead of the underdog, we all laugh at you. Ok, we don't but you can't expect to get points in SUP for that.
4) You can appeal an invalidation by posting in that week's thread, include what you think is wrong.
Understand that a perl script is scoring this, if you make the spelling of the teams intentionally obtuse or you are just really bad at spelling, your pick might be missed. If you want to tell us all about the underdogs you thought you might choose and then tell us about the one you finally did pick, you might be surprised which one the script finds.
So your post should look something like:
----------------------------------------
Purdue
Everyone hates the Irish right?
----------------------------------------
Don't put any other team name in your post with your SUP pick without putting an '***' in front of it. Everything after the '***' will be ignored. My program may find the wrong name if you don't. Once you post your pick, you can post in the thread any comment you like. Your first post is your pick (if I can find your pick).
Because the scoring is done by a script and not by hand, if you feel a mistake was made in scoring your SUP, post that on that Week's thread. We'll try to get it resolved quickly. The scripts are far from perfect and VegasInsider also changes the HTML for the odds page quite often so report any errors you see there as soon as you see them.
----------------------------------------
Stupid Underdog Picks - Week 1:
Thursday, Sep. 1
Indiana 9 FLORIDA INTL
LOUISVILLE 39½ UNC Charlotte
WAKE FOREST 17 Tulane
WESTERN KENTUCKY 16½ Rice
VANDERBILT 3½ South Carolina
MINNESOTA 13 Oregon State
TENNESSEE 21 Appalachian State
Friday, Sep. 2
GEORGIA STATE 3 Ball State
TEMPLE 17 Army
COLORADO 8 Colorado State
STANFORD 16 Kansas State
ARKANSAS STATE 3 Toledo
Saturday, Sep. 3
Georgia Tech 3½ BOSTON COLLEGE
MICHIGAN 41½ Hawaii
IOWA 27½ Miami (OH)
NORTHWESTERN 6½ Western Michigan
OHIO STATE 27½ Bowling Green State
PENN STATE 20 Kent State
WEST VIRGINIA 9½ Missouri
UTEP 7½ New Mexico State
Southern Methodist 9½ NORTH TEXAS
MISSISSIPPI STATE 31 South Alabama
OHIO 21 Texas State
KENTUCKY 6½ Southern Miss
ARKANSAS 26 Louisiana Tech
FLORIDA 35½ Massachusetts
Clemson 7 AUBURN
TEXAS AM 2½ UCLA
TULSA 4 San Jose State
WASHINGTON 26 Rutgers
LSU 9½ WISCONSIN
GEORGIA 2½ North Carolina
Oklahoma 10 HOUSTON
NEBRASKA 28½ Fresno State
ALABAMA 10½ Southern Cal
Boise State 20 LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE
ARIZONA 1 BYU
Northern Illinois 10 WYOMING
Sunday, Sep. 4
Notre Dame 3½ TEXAS
Monday, Sep. 5
FLORIDA STATE 4½ Mississippi
