Monday, January 10, 2011

Bowl Season: Ninth Place

I will finish in 9th place for our college bowl pick'em group. There's not a thing to be done about it. Tonight's outcome doesn't matter. The tenth place guy is too far behind and the eighth place guy is too far ahead. So, I need not be shy about the fact that, for one night at least, I shall be a Quacker Backer! Go, Oregon!

My affection for the state of Oregon goes far beyond one game. We spent our honeymoon in Oregon, mostly in the Willamette Valley sampling pinots. But we did make it to Eugene for one day of the Oregon Bach Festival. It is a wonderful town and an absolutely stunning state. If it weren't so far away from our families, we might well have settled in the Pacific Northwest rather than Vermont.

My knowledge of Alabama in general and Auburn in particular is considerably less. Wild Turkey did spend one year at Auburn studying agronomy before transferring to our little college in the Iowa cornfields - a move for which we are all grateful, her husband especially. I'm pretty sure that even without the Cam Newton debacle, I'd be pulling for the Ducks tonight.

Mock has already made it clear that we're definitely doing this again next year. I do enjoy it and, as I noted last year, it has certainly encouraged me to follow the bowls more closely. Finishing ninth out of ten is more respectable than sixth out of six, I suppose, but I'd like to pursue the title more aggressively next time. I'm not sure of the best approach. More conservative picks? Following college football more closely in general? (Somewhere, My Wife is groaning in despair) Even a dart board might improve my performance over the past two years.

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