Welcome to the Stupid Underdog Pick Contest. Each week the odds are gathered from the Oddstrader web page (usually on Sunday night) and posted in a thread on Rupp Rafters (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 should make your pick before the first game of the week has kicked off. Your pick may be invalidated otherwise. I can't know with the new Rivals format 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. You can change your pick before the first game of the week has started by editing your pick or deleting the old pick and making a new post. To change your pick after the first kick off of the week, leave the original post alone, make a new post and indicate that you want to change your pick in that new post. I'll verify that you can change it manually.
2) If you make your pick after the first game of the week kicks off, it may be invalidated. Make your pick before the first kickoff of the day or pick a game that is played on a later date. I might post that you can make picks a bit later in that day in the "Don't forget to..." thread, but don't count on it.
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.
5) Don't edit your picks after the first game of the week has kicked off.
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 OddsTrader 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. 3
RUTGERS 29½ Massachusetts
WAKE FOREST 25 Akron
DELAWARE 28½ Merrimack College
KENNESAW STATE 24 West Georgia
UCF 42½ Bethune-Cookman
BUFFALO 24 Albany
GEORGIA TECH 6½ Colorado
MINNESOTA 42½ Eastern Illinois
MISSOURI 54½ Arkansas-Pine Bluff
ILLINOIS 28½ UAB
UTAH 37½ Idaho
Friday, Sep. 4
EASTERN MICHIGAN 3½ San Jose State
GEORGIA STATE 29 North Carolina A&T
PURDUE 36½ Indiana State
MICHIGAN STATE 10½ Toledo
OKLAHOMA 42 UTEP
KANSAS 39 LIU
USC 22½ Fresno State
Miami (FL) 23½ STANFORD
Saturday, Sep. 5
WEST VIRGINIA 21½ Coastal Carolina
JAMES MADISON 7 Liberty
INDIANA 41 North Texas
ALABAMA 29 East Carolina
NEBRASKA 24 Ohio
HOUSTON 21 Oregon State
CONNECTICUT 19 Lafayette
SYRACUSE 33½ New Hampshire
BOWLING GREEN 2½ Tarleton State
ARMY 37½ Bryant University
PITTSBURGH 16½ Miami (OH)
OHIO STATE 51 Ball State
SOUTH CAROLINA 36½ Kent State
IOWA STATE 30½ Southeast Missouri State
KENTUCKY 23 Youngstown State
AIR FORCE 29 Duquesne
TEMPLE 10½ Rhode Island
GEORGIA 46½ Tennessee State
CINCINNATI 7½ Boston College
PENN STATE 25 Marshall
DUKE 9½ Tulane
TEXAS 30½ Texas State
OREGON 24½ Boise State
AUBURN 7 Baylor
TENNESSEE 47½ Furman
APPALACHIAN STATE 18½ Maine
CHARLOTTE 18½ Citadel
UTSA 29½ UT Rio Grande Valley
NORTH DAKOTA STATE 39½ Fordham
NAVY 31½ Towson
Oklahoma State 13½ TULSA
IOWA 32 Northern Illinois
ARKANSAS 40½ North Alabama
SOUTHERN MISS 22½ Alcorn State
COLORADO STATE 3½ Wyoming
OLD DOMINION 41½ Norfolk State
SOUTH FLORIDA 13½ Florida International
TEXAS A&M 41½ Missouri State
TROY 17 Sam Houston State
MEMPHIS 10 Arkansas State
SOUTH ALABAMA 13½ Southeastern Louisiana
MIDDLE TENNESSEE 21 Murray State
KANSAS STATE 41½ Nicholls State
UTAH STATE 13½ Idaho State
JACKSONVILLE STATE 20½ Eastern Kentucky
VANDERBILT 35 Austin Peay
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 27 Charleston Southern
TEXAS TECH 43 Abilene Christian
RICE 24½ Houston Christian
MICHIGAN 28 Western Michigan
MISSISSIPPI STATE 28½ Louisiana-Monroe
LSU 10½ Clemson
VIRGINIA TECH 51½ Virginia Military Institute
LOUISIANA TECH 43½ Northwestern State
FLORIDA 27½ Florida Atlantic
NORTHWESTERN 13½ South Dakota State
LOUISIANA 20½ Lamar
MARYLAND 45½ Hampton
BRIGHAM YOUNG 48 Utah Tech
NEW MEXICO STATE 28½ Mercyhurst University
ARIZONA 32½ Northern Arizona
SAN DIEGO STATE 40 Portland State
NEW MEXICO 10½ Central Michigan
UNLV 2½ HAWAII
ARIZONA STATE 42 Morgan State
SACRAMENTO STATE 35½ Mississippi Valley State
CALIFORNIA 1½ UCLA
Western Kentucky 2½ NEVADA
Sunday, Sep. 6
WASHINGTON 24 Washington State
NOTRE DAME 20½ Wisconsin
OLE MISS 7 Louisville
Monday, Sep. 7
SMU 3 FLORIDA STATE
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Overall Stupid Underdog Picks Winners
2000: this is when Mtcatfan thinks the game started, but winner is not known
2001: did not keep record of who won
2002: did not keep record of who won
2003: SixToeJoe - most correct picks winners not tracked
2004: ThreeHogNight - most correct picks winners not tracked
2005: Hang_Time_2 with 53.5 points - 5 tied for most correct picks at 6, Hang_Time_2 was one of them
2006: JBnTN with 57 points- JBnTN had 8 correct picks which was most correct picks
2007: TaylorsvilleMike with 71.5 points - 5 tied for most correct picks at 7, TaylorsvilleMike was one of them
2008: bigbluemist with 67 points - bigbluemist & CatinSA tied for most correct picks at 9
2009: buckster1 with 95.5 points - buckster1 with 8 correct picks
2010: Hang_Time_2 won with 64 points and also won with 7 correct picks
2011: jrburt won with 70.5 points - Blue Strype had the most correct picks with 10
2012: Brother Cat with 61.5 - Brother Cat had the most correct picks with 8
2013: docholiday51 with 61.5 - adolph...ngover and number8please had the most correct picks with 8
2014: jrburt with 74 points - AsianPICat had the most correct picks with 10
2015: kyfan606 with 50.5 points - SWVA WildcatFan had the most correct picks with 7
2016: Maxwell41 with 73.5 points - maysvilleky and On_track_4_8 had 9 correct picks
2017: jsyeag with 61.5 points - *CatinIL* and jsyeag had 9 correct picks
2018: Big_Blue_1018 with 70.0 points - mash 2.4 had 10 correct picks
2019: maysvilleky with 64.5 points - maysvilleky and no_neutrality had 8 correct picks
2020: RocknRollCats with 79 points - AsianPICat had 10 correct picks
2021: CGblue with 79 points - AsianPICat had 11 correct picks
2022: Greezy Kreek and Nuke99m tie with 67 points - Larry00 had 8 correct picks
2023: RedLotMudcat with 61.5 points - jwcat30 had 8 correct picks
2024: stinger11723 with 77 points - howercat had 10 correct picks
2025: Hang_Time_2 with 60.5 points - Hang_Time_2 had 9 correct picks
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 should make your pick before the first game of the week has kicked off. Your pick may be invalidated otherwise. I can't know with the new Rivals format 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. You can change your pick before the first game of the week has started by editing your pick or deleting the old pick and making a new post. To change your pick after the first kick off of the week, leave the original post alone, make a new post and indicate that you want to change your pick in that new post. I'll verify that you can change it manually.
2) If you make your pick after the first game of the week kicks off, it may be invalidated. Make your pick before the first kickoff of the day or pick a game that is played on a later date. I might post that you can make picks a bit later in that day in the "Don't forget to..." thread, but don't count on it.
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.
5) Don't edit your picks after the first game of the week has kicked off.
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 OddsTrader 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. 3
RUTGERS 29½ Massachusetts
WAKE FOREST 25 Akron
DELAWARE 28½ Merrimack College
KENNESAW STATE 24 West Georgia
UCF 42½ Bethune-Cookman
BUFFALO 24 Albany
GEORGIA TECH 6½ Colorado
MINNESOTA 42½ Eastern Illinois
MISSOURI 54½ Arkansas-Pine Bluff
ILLINOIS 28½ UAB
UTAH 37½ Idaho
Friday, Sep. 4
EASTERN MICHIGAN 3½ San Jose State
GEORGIA STATE 29 North Carolina A&T
PURDUE 36½ Indiana State
MICHIGAN STATE 10½ Toledo
OKLAHOMA 42 UTEP
KANSAS 39 LIU
USC 22½ Fresno State
Miami (FL) 23½ STANFORD
Saturday, Sep. 5
WEST VIRGINIA 21½ Coastal Carolina
JAMES MADISON 7 Liberty
INDIANA 41 North Texas
ALABAMA 29 East Carolina
NEBRASKA 24 Ohio
HOUSTON 21 Oregon State
CONNECTICUT 19 Lafayette
SYRACUSE 33½ New Hampshire
BOWLING GREEN 2½ Tarleton State
ARMY 37½ Bryant University
PITTSBURGH 16½ Miami (OH)
OHIO STATE 51 Ball State
SOUTH CAROLINA 36½ Kent State
IOWA STATE 30½ Southeast Missouri State
KENTUCKY 23 Youngstown State
AIR FORCE 29 Duquesne
TEMPLE 10½ Rhode Island
GEORGIA 46½ Tennessee State
CINCINNATI 7½ Boston College
PENN STATE 25 Marshall
DUKE 9½ Tulane
TEXAS 30½ Texas State
OREGON 24½ Boise State
AUBURN 7 Baylor
TENNESSEE 47½ Furman
APPALACHIAN STATE 18½ Maine
CHARLOTTE 18½ Citadel
UTSA 29½ UT Rio Grande Valley
NORTH DAKOTA STATE 39½ Fordham
NAVY 31½ Towson
Oklahoma State 13½ TULSA
IOWA 32 Northern Illinois
ARKANSAS 40½ North Alabama
SOUTHERN MISS 22½ Alcorn State
COLORADO STATE 3½ Wyoming
OLD DOMINION 41½ Norfolk State
SOUTH FLORIDA 13½ Florida International
TEXAS A&M 41½ Missouri State
TROY 17 Sam Houston State
MEMPHIS 10 Arkansas State
SOUTH ALABAMA 13½ Southeastern Louisiana
MIDDLE TENNESSEE 21 Murray State
KANSAS STATE 41½ Nicholls State
UTAH STATE 13½ Idaho State
JACKSONVILLE STATE 20½ Eastern Kentucky
VANDERBILT 35 Austin Peay
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 27 Charleston Southern
TEXAS TECH 43 Abilene Christian
RICE 24½ Houston Christian
MICHIGAN 28 Western Michigan
MISSISSIPPI STATE 28½ Louisiana-Monroe
LSU 10½ Clemson
VIRGINIA TECH 51½ Virginia Military Institute
LOUISIANA TECH 43½ Northwestern State
FLORIDA 27½ Florida Atlantic
NORTHWESTERN 13½ South Dakota State
LOUISIANA 20½ Lamar
MARYLAND 45½ Hampton
BRIGHAM YOUNG 48 Utah Tech
NEW MEXICO STATE 28½ Mercyhurst University
ARIZONA 32½ Northern Arizona
SAN DIEGO STATE 40 Portland State
NEW MEXICO 10½ Central Michigan
UNLV 2½ HAWAII
ARIZONA STATE 42 Morgan State
SACRAMENTO STATE 35½ Mississippi Valley State
CALIFORNIA 1½ UCLA
Western Kentucky 2½ NEVADA
Sunday, Sep. 6
WASHINGTON 24 Washington State
NOTRE DAME 20½ Wisconsin
OLE MISS 7 Louisville
Monday, Sep. 7
SMU 3 FLORIDA STATE
---------------------
Overall Stupid Underdog Picks Winners
2000: this is when Mtcatfan thinks the game started, but winner is not known
2001: did not keep record of who won
2002: did not keep record of who won
2003: SixToeJoe - most correct picks winners not tracked
2004: ThreeHogNight - most correct picks winners not tracked
2005: Hang_Time_2 with 53.5 points - 5 tied for most correct picks at 6, Hang_Time_2 was one of them
2006: JBnTN with 57 points- JBnTN had 8 correct picks which was most correct picks
2007: TaylorsvilleMike with 71.5 points - 5 tied for most correct picks at 7, TaylorsvilleMike was one of them
2008: bigbluemist with 67 points - bigbluemist & CatinSA tied for most correct picks at 9
2009: buckster1 with 95.5 points - buckster1 with 8 correct picks
2010: Hang_Time_2 won with 64 points and also won with 7 correct picks
2011: jrburt won with 70.5 points - Blue Strype had the most correct picks with 10
2012: Brother Cat with 61.5 - Brother Cat had the most correct picks with 8
2013: docholiday51 with 61.5 - adolph...ngover and number8please had the most correct picks with 8
2014: jrburt with 74 points - AsianPICat had the most correct picks with 10
2015: kyfan606 with 50.5 points - SWVA WildcatFan had the most correct picks with 7
2016: Maxwell41 with 73.5 points - maysvilleky and On_track_4_8 had 9 correct picks
2017: jsyeag with 61.5 points - *CatinIL* and jsyeag had 9 correct picks
2018: Big_Blue_1018 with 70.0 points - mash 2.4 had 10 correct picks
2019: maysvilleky with 64.5 points - maysvilleky and no_neutrality had 8 correct picks
2020: RocknRollCats with 79 points - AsianPICat had 10 correct picks
2021: CGblue with 79 points - AsianPICat had 11 correct picks
2022: Greezy Kreek and Nuke99m tie with 67 points - Larry00 had 8 correct picks
2023: RedLotMudcat with 61.5 points - jwcat30 had 8 correct picks
2024: stinger11723 with 77 points - howercat had 10 correct picks
2025: Hang_Time_2 with 60.5 points - Hang_Time_2 had 9 correct picks
