Friday, September 15, 2017

Hunter Norris, Mike Dailey seize the lead in local football pick 'em contest

The second weekend of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest has come and gone, and there was another big reshuffling in the standings.

When the last of the 10 games wrapped up, Hunter Norris and Mike Dailey found themselves tied for first place. Robert Bozeman and Luther Upton are tied for the No. 3-spot in the local standings. Mark Peacock and David Parker were also tied for fifth place.

Chad Emmons and defending local champion Drew Skipper came in tied for seventh place, while Arthur Ingram III is in ninth place with Travis Presley coming in next in the standings. In the spirit of total disclosure, I’m in 20th place, up from the No. 23-spot last week.

With that said, if you’re playing in this contest and didn’t do so well in the first week, don’t feel bad. The contest is 14 weeks long and we’ve got 12 more to go. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and you can bet there will be a lot of changes in the weeks and months to come.

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This coming Saturday, there will be 10 games involving SEC football teams, including three games that will feature head-to-head matchups between SEC opponents. For what it’s worth, here’s how I see those games coming out. I like No. 1 Alabama over Colorado State, No. 15 Auburn over Mercer, No. 24 Florida over No. 23 Tennessee, South Carolina over Kentucky, No. 12 LSU over Mississippi State, No. 13 Georgia over Samford, Missouri over Perdue, No. 18 Kansas State over Vanderbilt, Ole Miss over California and Texas A&M over Louisiana-Lafayette. Arkansas does not play this week.

Last week: 10-2. So far this year: 23-3.

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The poor, old Atlanta Braves are hanging in there with just a couple of weeks left on their regular season schedule. As of Monday, the Braves were 23-1/2 games out of first place in their division, which was still good enough for third place in the NL East. During the past week, they won three-of-four games against the Miami Marlins, which were second in the division, 20 games behind the first-place Nationals.

The Braves have been out of the playoff picture for a while now, but the other playoff races are heating up. In the National League, as of Monday, the Nationals had already clinched their division while the Cubs and Dodgers were leading in the Central and West divisions, respectively. In the Wildcard race, the Diamondbacks and the Rockies were the top two teams.

On the American League side, the Red Sox were leading the East, the Indians were tops in the Central and the Astros were leading the West. In the American League Wildcard race, the Yankees and the Twins were the top two teams.

If the playoffs were to start today, I’d have to go with the Dodgers in the National League and the Astros in the American League, even though I consider myself a lifelong Red Sox fan. If the Astros and the Dodgers do make it to the World Series, I’m pulling for the Astros, mainly because a World Series trophy would be good for hurricane-ravaged Houston. Also, after all, one of their top pitchers is a guy named Brad Peacock, who I’m claiming as a distant cousin whether he is or not.

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