Welcome back to another week of the ACC/SEC Pick’Em League!

If you’re new here, this a league with some friends where we pick the straight up winner of any game with an ACC or SEC team playing. That’s the gist of it, but, like everything in life, there’s more to the story than that. If you missed the introduction to this wonderful and stupid world, click the link and get caught up:

And with that, let’s dive into the week that was, and look ahead to this upcoming weekend.

Week 9 Recap

Entering the week, I had 127 points. There were 14 points on the table in Week 9. As I now have 135 points that means I earned 8 points for correct picks last week. Relative to the number of available points, that’s actually my worst weekly performance of the year. Not great, Bob.

Here are the games I missed:

1. Notre Dame beating Syracuse. First, I missed the fact that Syracuse is now missing several defensive starters. And things got worse out of the gate when Cuse threw a pick-6 on the 1st play of the game. Yikes.
2. UConn beating Boston College. I knew BC wasn’t really good this year, but they’re baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad bad. Sheesh.
3. Louisville beating Wake Forest. No, I didn’t predict 6 turnovers in a single quarter and 8 for the game for the Demon Deacons. Sure didn’t. Silly me.
4. Mizzou beating South Carolina. South Cak has had an interesting season. But losing to Mizzou by 2 scores after beating a ranked Kentucky team and the worst best team money can buy in Texas A&M........that’s a terrible loss.
5. Kansas State destroying Oklahoma State. 48-0. down by 5 touchdowns at halftime. This, from a then top-10 ranked OK State was among the worst performances of the year. And, conversely, one of the best performances of the year by K-State.

League Standings

With 8 points last week, I now have a total of 135 points in the league. That’s a decent amount and puts me near the top, still. But, after my worst week of picks to this point of the season, we took a step backward after week 9.

This week, we lost a point on the leaders, but that group up top also struggled, and now there’s been changes all the way up to the top of the list.

After several weeks in the #1 spot, Commissioner Tyler fell out of the lead. He’s still way up the leaderboard, but not on top. Who is? Harper’s Bazaar! They move up and into sole possession of 1st place, one point ahead of Commissioner Tyler. Rounding out the top 3 is Layla, a first-time entrant into the top 3 this season after being tied with me for 5 of the previous 6 weeks.

As for me, we dropped a point to be 3 points back from the top spot, and just 1 point behind Layla in 3rd place. With us in a tie for 4th are The Playmaker and Joanie Loves Chachi, two competitors who have been near us at the top of the standings throughout this season.

Week 10 Games and Picks

The search for the perfect week continues. Time to eliminate the misses, and continue our march back to the top. And a reminder: we’re picking straight up winners; no spreads. Narrative doesn’t matter. Results do.

This is a full week of games. 16 games for a total of 17 points (including the bonus game 2pter). That’s an extra 3 games (and points) from last week. And I need those points to get back within shouting distance from the #1 spot.

Picks are here, IN BOLD WITH AN ASTERISK (just for clarity since the editorial system attaches links and whatnot to some team names) for each game:

• DUKE* at Boston College
• NORTH CAROLINA* at Virginia
• GEORGIA TECH* at Virginia Tech
• Syracuse at PITTSBURGH*
• CLEMSON* at Notre Dame
• James Madison at LOUISVILLE*
• FLORIDA STATE* at Miami — this one hurt my heart. let’s move on
• WAKE FOREST* at NC State
• ALABAMA* at LSU —...but IMAGINE Finebaum on Monday if Alabama loses another game...
• KENTUCKY* at Mizzou
• Florida at TEXAS A&M*
• Tennessee at GEORGIA* — I was **thisclose** to picking Tennessee. Hope a reasoned jumping off the bandwagon doesn’t bite me in the ass.
• Liberty at ARKANSAS*
• SOUTH CAROLINA* at Vanderbilt
• Auburn at MISSISSIPPI STATE*
• 2pt bonus game: AIR FORCE* at Army — my cousin and his wife who met at and teach at West Point are probably gonna be UPSET with me for this one.

And there you have it. Gotta bounce back after a step back last week, and sometime this season we gotta hit the perfect week. Would be nice to hit this week, for sure.

Hop in the comments and give your STRAIGHT UP WINNER picks for the week.

Go Canes