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College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:18 pm
by bookworm
Image College Bowl Pick'em Contest! Image

It's time to pick the college football bowl games again! \:D/ Our group is renewed, please go and join!
ESPN Bowl Mania Password: thetoo
You have until December 14th to submit your picks; I hope we have several people play this year!

This is like the March Madness game, but even easier to work through. It's literally just picking teams down a list. It can be entirely random, just click one in each game. The more participants there are the more fun it is, you don't have to really know what you're doing! Please enter, even if you don't care about the games at all. It takes less than two minutes to do and then you can forget about it if you want. Just join to be nice to us who would like a big group playing! :)

Previous: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Expand below for instructions if you're confused about how to join the group or make your picks:
You will need an ESPN account. Make one now if you don't have one already, it's very easy and fast. You don't have to provide identifying information.
PM me if you have trouble or concerns making an account and I can make one for you.
  • Log in to your ESPN account and go to the page for our group linked above. Click the "Play Now" button.
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  • Set a name for your entry (it's nice if it has your ToO username in it somewhere) and enter the group password. Click "Continue"
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  • The ToO group should be added to your list. Click "Continue"
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  • Don't need to do anything at the next screen, just click "Continue"
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How to make your picks:
(These pictures are just examples of the process, the teams you see may be different.)
  • Simply go down the list of games and click on one team in each game. (The one you think will win.) The green bars show how many other people have picked that team. Continue picking one team in each game until you reach the bottom of the list.
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  • Guess how many points each team will score in the final championship game. (This is used for the contest tiebreaker if one is needed.)
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  • Verify you have picked winners for all the games and save your picks!
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That's it! You're all set! \:D/
PM me if you have problems or questions with anything.



Image Bowl Game Live Chats! Image

For those who do care I've also set up a Chatroom channel for live chatting the games! \:D/
Join #Bowl if you're able to be online while you watch, especially if you are rooting for either team playing! If you are watching but can't chat during the game you can at least come by to check in during commercial breaks! If you aren't really following the game but just want to come hang out that's great too!

I won't be there for most of the early bowls, but feel free to hold your own viewing parties if you want to.
Hopefully we'll have a good showing when we get to the bigger ones in a couple weeks! :)

Schedule of bowls, dates, times, and channels

Re: College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 12:17 pm
by Connie G.
Hooray! Thanks Bookworm!

Re: College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 12:19 am
by American Eagle
Wooo I'm in. \:D/ Good luck everyone!

Re: College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 11:57 am
by bookworm
There are only a couple days left to enter, we need more people!

Re: College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 1:41 pm
by Knight Fisher
Picks in! \:D/

Re: College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2018 10:12 am
by bookworm
We had a nice mini chat before the bowls started. :)
08:25 <bookworm>: Hi l
08:26 <l>: Hey
08:26 <l>: I've been meaning to do the college thing
08:26 <l>: I'm going to now
08:32 <l>: For the pick, I just went ahead and picked the one that had been picked least
08:33 <bookworm>: That's not usually the best strategy ;)
08:34 <l>: I know but it's a FUN ONE :D
08:34 <bookworm>: I was just going to say that
08:34 <bookworm>: :p
08:35 <bookworm>: Well at least I hope it makes you right for the playoff bowls
08:35 <bookworm>: I want both underdogs in that
08:35 <bookworm>: I picked them too
08:35 <bookworm>: Even though it's very unlikely
08:36 <l>: Cool
08:36 <bookworm>: I really don't want Alabama v Clemson for the fourth time
08:36 <bookworm>: It's becoming the NBA over here
08:36 <bookworm>: >_>
08:36 <l>: Repetition can be annoying
08:37 <bookworm>: Also, Connie's team is Oklahoma I found out
08:37 <bookworm>: So it would be cool if they beat Alabama
08:37 <bookworm>: It world already be cool
08:38 <bookworm>: But now it would be really cool
08:39 Connie joined #aio
08:40 <l>: Hey Connie
08:40 <Connie>: Helloo
08:40 <bookworm>: Connie!
08:40 <Connie>: Bookworm!
08:40 <bookworm>: Oklahoma made the playoff!
08:40 <Connie>: I KNOWWWWWW
08:40 <Connie>: ORANGE BOWL DEC 29!!!!
08:40 <Connie>: YEAH
08:40 <bookworm>: Beat Alabama!!!
08:41 <Connie>: *whimpers* we're gonna get whooped
08:41 <bookworm>: I know
08:41 <bookworm>: :(
08:41 <Connie>: BUT WE WON THE HEISMAN
08:41 <bookworm>: L and I both picked you though
08:41 <Connie>: ^_^
08:41 <Connie>: I picked me too lol
08:41 <bookworm>: We don't think you'll do it, we just want you to :p
08:41 <Connie>: well
08:41 <Connie>: i appreciate the thought.
08:42 <Connie>: Unless you want to sign up to coach defense at OU idk how much you will help XD
08:42 <l>: I picked all the underdogs :D
08:42 <Connie>: :D
08:42 <Connie>: So that we can play Notre Dame instead of Clemson? XD
08:42 <l>: Cause I don't know enough to actually pick reasonably based off of stats
08:42 <l>: But I'm also too much of a rebel to just pick based off of the majority
08:42 <Connie>: Ah
08:43 <Connie>: Well I certainly hope so
08:43 <bookworm>: I have OK/ND in the championship
08:43 <bookworm>: I really don't want Alabama vs Clemson version 4
08:43 <Connie>: Ugh I know
08:44 <Connie>: And we certainly have a better chance of beating ND than Clemson
08:44 <bookworm>: Well, same the other way around
08:44 <bookworm>: No offense ;)
08:44 <bookworm>: (ND is my team)
08:44 <Connie>: Ohhhh
08:44 <Connie>: XD
08:45 <bookworm>: That would be fun
08:45 <Connie>: Well if we beat Alabama, and you beat Clemson
08:45 <bookworm>: Yeah
08:45 <Connie>: snickers
08:45 <Connie>: This will be FUN
08:45 <bookworm>: We gotta chat that
08:45 <Connie>: Oh, 100%
08:45 <Connie>: When's the cotton bowl again?
08:45 <bookworm>: They're both the same day
08:45 <Connie>: Oh
08:45 <bookworm>: I don't know the times
08:46 <bookworm>: I think that's first?
08:46 <Connie>: I know the Orange bowl is 7 CT
08:46 <Connie>: Makes sense
08:46 <bookworm>: Ok that's what I thought
08:46 <Connie>: They wouldn't be on top of each other and they wouldn't play after midnight
08:46 <Connie>: lol
08:46 <Connie>: *is excited*
08:47 <bookworm>: I need to see what other bowls I get on tv too
08:48 <bookworm>: I don't care about most of them, but like to be on in case someone stops by to chat
08:47 <Connie>: Do you have dish
08:48 <bookworm>: Nope just antenna
08:48 <bookworm>: Going to a friend's for the Cotton Bowl
08:48 <Connie>: I'm always at my grandma's and she was able to get all the OU games except the Texas Tech with dish
08:48 <bookworm>: Nice
08:48 <bookworm>: This is why ND is my team
08:48 <bookworm>: All the games are on free tv
08:48 <bookworm>: Usually
08:48 <Connie>: Cause they're on ABC? XD
08:49 <Connie>: Where even is ND from??
08:49 <Connie>: idek
08:49 <bookworm>: They're on NBC for all home games
08:49 <bookworm>: And ABC or Fox usually picks up all the others
08:49 <bookworm>: The school is in Indiana
08:49 <bookworm>: But it has a national following
08:50 <Connie>: Because they're not in a conference or something? I don't understand all of this but my uncle was saying something the other day about them not having a playoff game
08:50 <bookworm>: Right, they're one of the Independents
08:50 <bookworm>: I think there are only four left
08:50 <bookworm>: So they don't have a championship game
08:51 <Connie>: Right
08:51 <bookworm>: Which would usually hurt their ranking, playing one less game
08:51 <bookworm>: Except being an independent they can schedule whoever they want
08:51 <bookworm>: So they line up good enough opponents to cover for that usually
08:52 <bookworm>: It's a really interesting situation
08:52 <bookworm>: The pros and cons of not having a conference

We're into the big games now! Connie and I will both be online this Saturday for the Playoff Bowls, and hopefully you will be too! Come by and help root for the upsets so we can have an all-ToO championship! It's great if you have the games on, but you don't have to you can just come hang out!

-- 29 Dec 2018 08:59 pm --

Well boo.

Re: College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:13 pm
by Connie G.
That was so disappointing. We didn't lose the game, we just ran out of time! Lol. If we hadn't let them hang 21 on us in the first quarter, we would have surely won. We hung right with them in the last three quarters, our defense even started playing! They played better than they have all year, I thought.

I didn't get to watch but the last 10 minutes of the Clemson game, but that was disappointing too. :(

Re: College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 12:10 pm
by bookworm
The Cotton Bowl game as a whole was really not as terrible as the box score makes it look. There is significant context that needs considered before passing judgment, such as the huge development of ND losing a key defensive player, among multiple others, to injury early on.

Additionally, the real story of this game was two major momentum plays decided after replay where both reversals were incorrect. I'm not saying that because my team lost, who was playing has nothing to do with it. These two critical moments in the game were objectively wrongly handled by the officials.

An important ND drive was halted abruptly after replay decided Clemson recovered a fumbled ball even though on the play fumble was not declared on the field. After taking a closer look yes, ND did in fact fumble. No player from either team went after the ball for a good several moments though, because the call on the field was not fumble and the play was called dead before anyone ever got around to picking up the ball. By rule in that situation you have to keep the ball with the offense because there was no recovery before the play was stopped. This is such an open and shut mistake I have no idea how it happened. I have seen this scenario play out before in at least one other game. If there's no recovery before play is stopped you don't get the ball. The only possible explanation is that the replay official didn't look for when the play was dead he just wound the footage until seeing a Clemson player eventually finally pick up the ball and so said it's a turnover, but if that's what happened it's an inexcusable failure because checking when play is stopped is the entire crux of a situation like this!

The other key reversal was similarly so blatantly wrong it also defies comprehension. ND forces a fumble on a kick return and after the ball is batted close to out of bounds, but just stays in, ND grabs it. Irish football in the red zone; game changer. Until it's reviewed and reversed. But the call on the field was turnover, so we know there has to be indisputable evidence to change it. Let's look at what this indisputable evidence is. Oh, a camera angle that shows literally a single inch of the nose of the football extending over the out of bounds line. There are so many things wrong with this I don't even know where to start. Just in general, first of all, there is no way on earth that image constitutes indisputable evidence capable of overturning a call on the field. So whatever anyone thought the replay showed or didn't show is irrelevant, the decision that comes back at that point is there wasn't a clear enough view one way or the other. That's the only response there can be. But since they apparently thought this view was conclusive, somehow, let's unpack it then. Ok, the nose of the ball is maybe just barely hanging over the line. Alright. You understand that being over the line does not make it out of bounds, right? It has to be touching the ground over the line. Oh, that's what you say happened here? Because the nose of the ball is over the line the bulge of the ball is therefore touching down out of bounds? No. Absolutely no. Does the replay official not know how physics works? A football is an oval - the nose of the ball and the bulge of the ball cannot both touch the ground at the same time! If one of those points is on the ground, the curvature of the ball causes the other point to be in the air. Now the one thing that can be clearly seen in your so-called conclusive image is that the nose is the only part of the ball even close to being over the line, and the bulge of the ball is the part that is on the ground. So, let's put it all together class, if the bulge is touching the ground it means the nose is not, and the nose is all that was over the line, therefore nothing that was over the line was touching the ground. The ball is in bounds. There is no further rolling around after this point where the ball may have tipped over more, it was then recovered in bounds. There is absolutely no legitimate way this play can get reversed. I don't even have a theoretical explanation for how this could have possibly occurred, not even severe incompetence could cause this one. Honestly the only explanation I can see here is the official was genuinely paid off to make the wrong call, and I don't believe that happened, so I am at a complete loss to reason through this.

If these plays were called correctly - oh wait they were called correctly! If these plays were kept as called, which it is objective fact they should have been, this would have been an entirely different ballgame. Would Clemson still have won in the end? Very possibly. But it would have looked nothing like what happened here. These were huge key plays that were completely botched. They weren't judgement calls where there's not a definitive right and wrong ruling, these were both situations where there is no question whatsoever that what should have happened, by the current rules of the game, did not happen.


Wow, I haven't done a Referee Rant in quite some time. I haven't missed it. Had kind of hoped that these kinds of inexcusable blunders were things of the past. >_>

Re: College Bowl Pick'em and Live Chats!

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:10 am
by Connie G.
It always sucks when you have to play against the refs -_- [Did anyone see the OU-Texas Tech game smh]

I'm disappointed about the cotton bowl and orange bowl. I wasn't super excited for last night's game (It's Clemson-Alabama, that never happens...) I only got to watch the first half, but look at the final score. 44-16 Clemson !!! I'm shook. I really didn't expect Clemson to win, let alone by 28 points.