Bowl Pool Update for 2022-23

 Good Morning, 

Commish here trying to catch up. We have a tight race after my Longhorns lost last night in the Alamo Bowl. One of the worst recent trends in bowl season is the tendency for star players to drop out of minor bowls to "prepare for the NFL draft." Basically, this turns bowl games into exhibition preparations for the next year. Bowl games become less and less important. It's another step towards the playoff becoming the only thing that matters for college football. That's a long way for me to say that my Longhorns were without their two stud running backs who sat out in order to "prepare for the draft" and not risk catastrophic injury (real reason) and thus were really no match for the Washington Huskies. Easy win for the Pac 12. 

Once they expand the playoff to 20 plus teams then the bowls will really take a hit. But the RC Smith Family Bowl Pool will live on, even if we have to pick games between Dill Pickle State and the Durham YMCA in the Fuquay-Varina Bowl.

Going into today, Matt, Joe and Alex are tied for the lead. I have three entries that supposedly have been turned into deputy commissioner Tim in Charlotte. We are trying to recover those at the moment. 

I hope you have a great day.

An Apology

 Hi Folks,

We are having a pool and many of you have submitted a valid form. I am not blogging as I have done in years' past due to several events going on here in CommishLand. Unfortunately, the Grinch has been active in my life this year and he has returned to his former behavior when his heart was too small. I will try to get to some posts and a leader board soon. Thanks for all of your participation.

The Commish

MONIQUE

 Monique won the pool with a strong final day performance. She even had it clinched before the last game. She went 5-0 on the all important New Year's Day slate of games. 

That is domination. Monique is a first time winner of the pool. There have been many years where she had finished in last, so this must be especially sweet. One thing about RC, he absolutely loved when new people won the pool. What a final lesson for all of us really. We should take joy in the successes of others. And in that spirit, I wish all of you a year of success in 2022. Please be kind to one another and take time to remember those we have loved and still remember who once took part in this very pool:

Hubert Eatmon

Midgie Eatmon

Robin Shiver

R.C. "Pops" Smith

(If I've forgotten someone or misspelled a name, please let me know.)

New Year's Day Finale

We have quite the race going on with Alex Smith in the lead, largely because she and Matt Baker were the only two to pick both semi-finals correctly. I think it was safe to say that Alabama and Georgia are the class of college football. Poor Cincinnati and Michigan were outclassed. 

Today, we have five games to finish out our contest. It should be a festival of fun. I have great memories of watching football with RC. Of course, there was always the discussion with Tim as to whether a receiver should be able to catch a pass if he could touch it. Tim, a proponent of superhuman capability, would always argue that any contact with a ball, no matter how slight, should enable the receiver to complete the reception. RC was more practical of course, which would lead to some back and forth and then a conclusion of laughter. RC also had real ideas about how to improve the game. While I cannot remember the specifics of the rule - maybe the two folks who read this blog can help me out - RC did not like field goals and proposed a system by which teams would only be able to attempt field goals on certain occasions. Even prior to analytics, RC felt teams would be much better off going for more fourth down conversions, making games higher scoring and more exciting. One last note, as Notre Dame is playing today. RC always picked Notre Dame in the beginning years of the pool. We all hated Notre Dame of course, and many of us would pick against them out of spite. RC resisted that and actually won the pool once because of that ability. I learned well from that, and try to resist picking with my heart. Perhaps we all should have resisted that when North Carolina lost this year. Just for grins I am one of the few who picked against Notre Dame this year. I join our leader Alex in that sentiment though. So, the Fiesta Bowl is shaping to be of major consequence in this year's contest. (Not for me though as I have been horrible this year.)

Be good. Talk with you soon.

-The Commish