Welcome back to the ACC/SEC Pick’em League for the 2023 season!

Man. Not gonna lie guys: we’re struggling. Even despite a perfect week.....picking ACC games, the SEC picks, and bonus game bad beat of the year kept us from making headway. There’s still a lot of season left in front of us, and another packed week of games to pick, and points to earn, but these bad beats gotta turn to wins NOW to have a chance to get back into the championship race.

If you missed the setup for this league last year, here’s the cliffs notes version: pick games featuring an ACC or SEC team, straight up, for a full season. Add in a 2pt bonus national game every week. Whoever has the most points at the end of the season wins. If you want the full narrative, click the link below:

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

Week 3 Recap

Entering the week, I had 44 points. There were 25 points on the table in Week 3. As I now have 63 points that means I earned 19 points for correct picks last week...and missed ANOTHER F*CKING 6 points (UGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH). THAT’S 3 WEEKS IN A ROW MISSING THAT AMOUNT OF POINTS!!!!!! DAMNIT!!!!!!! What’d I miss? Let’s recap:

1. Mizzou over K-State. Our first bad beat of the week. KSU was up in this game in the 4th quarter. But Mizzou came back to tie the game. Then got a stop. Then got a program-record 61 yard FG at the gun to steal the win at home. Good for Mizzou but I hate it for my picks record.
2. Florida over Tennessee. Joe Milton sucks. Tennessee folded. Time to switch to Nico. Moving on.
3. UNLV over Vanderbilt. Another crazy ending that went the other way. 40-37, with a late comeback attempt by the ‘Dores coming up short. Damnit.
4. BYU over Arkansas. The Razorbacks were up early, but BYU got rolling and took the win. Hate it.
5. 2pt bonus game: Hampton over Howard. I knew that Howard hadn’t won this game in 4 years. I knew Hampton was good. But Howard was getting better every year, and this was the year they got over the hump. But, just like Mizzou-KSU, it was going great....until the bitter end. Damnit man. 0 for the last 3 bonus game picks. Great. Cool.

League Standings

There are 58 competitors for MY title this season. And, after a hectic (terrible, for me) Week 3 (I mean, seriously, look at all those bad beats — not Tennessee tho, y’all got blowed out), there’s been even more separation. Still, it’s a long season, and anyone can claim the title. But yeah, we have work to do.

Another week, another new group of leaders. Up atop the table now: Susan Lucci and Zack Wallace. They’re tied with 68 points at the top. There’s a big group of 11 entrants tied at 67 points, just 1 point back of the lead.

For me? Dropping those 18 points these last 3 weeks, including missing all 3 bonus games, has me way down the table. Where exactly? Tied for 36th with 63 points. 5 points back isn’t terrible, but I’m gonna have to start getting wins on underdog picks where we zag against everybody else’s zig. That’s the only way to gain points back towards the top. So, we’re gonna look for those places to take our shots. But, unlike the case so far this season, we gotta start hitting them. Or else.

Week 3 Games and Picks

Last week, there were 24 games to pick for an available total of 25 points. This is another big week of points —20 games for a total of 22 points — so we need a big points haul. We’re STILL only 5 points back from the leaders (same margin as last week), even with dropping 18 points to missed picks in the last 3 weeks, so this season is not lost. Gotta really dial in for a perfect week here.

And if you’re wondering why the points to games ratio is +2 this week, here’s why: Commission Tyler, in his infinite wisdom, (and with input from yours truly and some other OG competitors) has decided that we will have TWO 2 point bonus games this week.

Picks are here, IN BOLD WITH AN ASTERISK for each game. And, reminder, picks in this league are always straight up “who’s gonna win the game” picks.

1. NC STATE* at Virginia
2. FSU* at Clemson
3. MIAMI* at Temple
4. NORTH CAROLINA* at Pitt
5. Army at SYRACUSE*
6. Virginia Tech at MARSHALL*
7. DUKE* at UCONN
8. Boston College at LOUISVILLE*
9. Georgia Tech at WAKE FOREST*
10. Mississippi State at SOUTH CAROLINA*
11. Auburn at TEXAS A&M*
12. KENTUCKY* at Vanderbilt
13. Ole Miss at ALABAMA*
14. UTSA at TENNESSEE* (it’s $8M Nico time. Let’s go, Heupel!)
15. Arkansas at LSU*
16. Charlotta at FLORIDA*
17. UAB at GEORGIA*
18. Memphis at MIZZOU*
19. 2pt bonus game #1: OHIO STATE* at Notre Dame
20. 2pt bonus game #2: Oregon state at WAZZU*

Took one (and a possible) shot this week. But they’ll probably flop, as per usual this season. Anyways, that’s it for this week. Hop in the comments and leave your picks and tell me how you’re doing so far this season.

Go Canes