Florida upsets Ohio State in the National Championship game; Ram Fan1 claims the contest title

Not many people saw this one coming. Who could have predicted that the 7.5-point underdog Florida Gators would whip No. 1-ranked Ohio State 41-14 in the National Championship game? It's doubtful that many college football fans thought the game would be that lopsided, but five of our Rams Bookstore Bowl Pigskin Pick'em contestatants were rewarded for their belief in the Gators to at least cover, and nailed down the top five in the final standings because of it.

Ram Fan1 was the only contestant assured of finishing in the top three heading into Monday night's championship game. He needed Florida to cover the spread in order to clinch his own championship. And it came through for him. Ram Fan1 notched the second-best bowl winning percentage ever, behind only Good SHEP's 22-of-28 (78.5%) performance in 2002. Ram Fan1's 23-of-32 record put him at 71.9%, ahead of the marks of 71.4% achieved in 2003 (Yourworstnightmare) and 2004 (dougw65, ramfan1980, and 5in7). Ram Fan1 closed out the contest in grand style, reeling off five straight wins. But, it was his great start that propelled him to being in position for the title. Ram Fan1 used a 12-1 run to open the bowl season and went 16-2 over the first 18 bowl games. It was truly a remarkable performance. For his effort, Ram Fan1 earns a gift certificate from Rams Bookstore.

The battle for second and third was much more up for grabs. Rams H-86 took second place outright after entering the day in a tie for second with Bezzie_Wifey. He had Florida in the game, while Bezzie did not. Rams H-86 concludes the season with a solid 22-10 record (68.8%) and earns a gift certificate to Rams Bookstore. Like Ram Fan1, Rams H-86 used a strong start (8-1) and finish (5-0) to catapult in the standings.

Bezzie_Wifey, who held sole or co-ownership of the lead for much of the last week-plus, couldn't hold on to finish in the prizes. She missed the championship game and concluded the season by going 1 for her last 4 games. She finished in sixth place, knotted with three others at 21 correct picks. Our third place position came down to the tiebreaker of total points scored in the national championship game. The actual total was 55, which put csuramfan1993 the closest with a guess of 55. He also earns a gift certificate from Rams Bookstore (all winners should email us at staff@ramnation.com). PTOWNRAM took fourth (tiebreaker guess of 47), WhammyRammy took fifth (tiebreaker guess of 35), and Bezzie took sixth (tiebreaker guess of 77).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, "pilotcross" took the Toilet Bowl award for taking last place. It came down to Mountain Ram and pilotcross heading into Monday's game, but with Florida's win/cover, it was pilotcross who dropped into sole possession of last place. He finished with the exact opposite record as our champ...at 9-23. The mark isn't too horrendous, as we've previously stated. In fact, it more than doubled the output of Good SHEPHERD and Montana Ram (4-for-28) in last year's contest. That is an all-time low mark for contest futility, and it's a record unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

With underdog Florida coming through, the field was doomed in its efforts to match or eclipse the all-time best winning percentage of 51% achieved in 2004. With 60% of our field choosing Ohio State to cover, the field's winning percentage dropped from 51% to 49%.

As a recap, our top 30 concluded like this:
1. Ram Fan1
2. Rams H-86
3. csuramfan1993
4. PTOWNRAM
5. WhammyRammy
6. Bezzie_Wifey
7. Battering-Ram
8. bcover11
9. trash
10. shiner
11. Ram Lover
12. WEB
13. MISSOURI CITY TX RAM
14. Ram Master
15. CSURamFan
16. CSU 58_BY-Who 13
17. Headbutt
18. Ram Guidon-Bearer
19. Ramologist
20. IHateDuke32
21. Horn Star
22. CSU_Rams_Rule
23. BuffRamMom
24. whadaino
25. zstory
26. RambleOn
27. You're with me Leather
28. RamSack
29. Good SHEPHERD
30. Okie Ram

The final standings can be viewed at the link in the right-hand column of this page. If you'd like to see how this year's standings compare to others in the contest's history, you can find all regular- and bowl-season standings at the links in the right-hand column of this page.

Thanks as always for playing, for spending your days on RamNation, and for supporting our sponsors. Please remember to give your business to Rams Bookstore, who has been a long-time sponsor of this site and a great supporter of this contest! Only eight months until college football kicks off again!

--Joel Cantalamessa
(Good SHEPHERD)

GAMES/POINT SPREADS

Contest details/rules

Prizes:

Each weekly winner will receive their choice of CSU T-shirt or hat, compliments of Rams Bookstore. The contestant with the most correct picks at the end of the season will receive a grand prize courtesy of Rams Bookstore. The second, third, and fourth-place finishers will also receive prizes.

Rules:

• Each week contestant's will pick a winner in 15 games.
• Contestant's should make their picks "against the spread". For instance, if Utah is favored by 7.5 vs. Arizona, and Utah wins by more than 7.5 points, they win "against the spread." If Utah does not win by more than 7.5 points, then Arizona wins "against the spread," even though they might lose the game.
• The weekly winner will be the contestant with the most correct picks.
• In the event of a tie between contestants at the end of a week, the first tiebreaker is the total points scored in the "tiebreaker" game (usually CSU). The contestant that picks closest to the total points scored wins the tiebreaker. If total points does not break the tie, then total yards will be used. Again, closest guess to the total yards gained from scrimmage by both teams during that game will win the tiebreaker.
• Please have picks in each Friday by 4 p.m. MST, with the exception of Thanksgiving week, when picks will be due by Wednesday afternoon. We will send out a reminder that week.
• Please submit only one entry form per contestant.
• The system is set up so that if you want to change your picks, you simply have to to resumbit your entry, and it will overwrite the exisiting entry.

Season Contest:

• In addition to each weekly contest, there is a contest for the entire 14-week season.
• The season winners will be the contestant's with the most correct picks throughout the season, while dropping your worst two weekly win totals. If you miss a week or have a bad week with four or five wins, you can drop that week against your season total. This allows for contestants who may miss the first week, or who may miss a week during the season for whatever reason, or for contestant's like me who have a couple of weeks with five wins.
• If there is a tie for the season, the highest win percentage for all weeks will be the first tiebreaker. (A contestant must have participated in 11 or more weeks to be eligible.) If the tie is not broken by win percentage, then there will be a final playoff during the Conference Championship weekend, between contestants who are tied.

Guidelines and other notes:

The contest administrator (Q.Ram) will determine the weekly games on the following basis:

1. All games involving MWC teams.
2. All games involving two teams rated in the Top 25 AP Poll or receiving votes.
3. At least one game involving each of the eight biggest conferences.
4. Any other games of note (rivalry games or games involving Top 10 teams).

Please note that CSU games will not be included because the contest administrator (Q.Ram) is highly superstitious and doesn’t believe in betting on games in which he is emotionally involved. (Most of us are CSU fans, and we would all pick CSU to win every week anyway, so that game would be a wash.)

CSU games will, however, be used for the Tiebreaker game, unless they are on a Thursday night.

Results will be posted the following Monday. Please track your picks and make sure you are credited with the right amount of wins. Q.Ram has been known on a very, very rare occurrence to make a mistake.

Q.Ram will make his picks known on the message board prior to deadline, so that everyone will know the contest administrator is not rigging the game to win all of the prizes.

When in Fort Collins, please pay a visit to our gracious sponsor, Rams Bookstore, for furnishing the prizes. Their sponsorship is what helps make RamNation go.

All registered posters are welcome to join the contest, but remember all you Ram foes out there...the prizes are limited to what Rams Bookstore has in stock, which is primarily CSU-related gear! Thanks and best of luck to everyone (except Buffaloes, Cowboys, and Falcons).

--Q.Ram, Good SHEP, and CSURamFan