2024 Week 12 Results
It’s All Coming Into Frame
Another week down, a few more contenders eliminated and a little bit closer to connecting all the puzzle pieces left out there in the playoff and conference races. I was traveling for a wedding this weekend so didn’t get to see much of the action on Saturday but will still share a brief recap and frame us into the last 3 weeks coming up!
The Big 12 has completely altered course over the last few weeks and now the conference does run through Deion as Colorado is coming into theirs while BYU falters under the November night sky. ACC finally has two teams controlling their own destiny as Clemson has wrapped conference play at 7-1. Miami wins out and they are in the title, SMU wins one of their last two and they are in. Clemson needs a Miami loss for a chance to keep their playoff hopes alive. The SEC is in full chaos mode with numerous teams all still alive for both the conference championship but as well as missing the playoffs. It is going to be very interesting to see how that shakes out. And the B1G has a chance to all but secure their title game next week with the result of Ohio State and Indiana being about as massive of a game as we have seen all season.
In the Pick Em, we have another tie at the end of the Wild Card standings to keep extending our weekly size but also increasing our weekly cut size. We are now at 25 and will get down to a final 8 before the final week to give us our own championship week for a select few. In the overall standings, what used to be about a 25 person race a few weeks ago is settling down into a ~10ish person race with every game and point mattering massively over the last three weeks. Travis B. becomes our first to reach the 400 point mark on the season and keeps his spot at the top of the leaderboard another week! Now let’s do a quick recap on some of the top moments from the weekend.
Colorado opened up the day for us hoping to stay in the drivers seat to make the Big 12 Championship and with it their playoff hopes. Posting an 11.5 spread over visiting Utah it turned into a game for Colorado to make a statement. That wasn’t the only thing on the line as we have talked about a few times before, it was also a chance for Travis Hunter to continue to build his Heisman resume up in what is starting to turn a bit into a 2 man race with Jeanty. And well, Travis Hunter is still just a beast.
That clip pretty much sums up the whole game as Colorado handles Utah easily to cover the spread and move closer to playing in Week 15. Deion and the boys are perfectly in form when it matters, let’s see if they can keep the magic rolling.
The second Noon kick was an impactful ACC game as Clemson traveled to Pitt as a 10.5 point favorite and hoping for any help in their season race now. The Clemson steam from September and October has seemingly cooled a bit as they are no longer bullying teams, but still showcasing themselves as a contender by winning in anyway they can. Down 3 with the ball and under two minutes, Cade Klubnik stepped up and put the team on his back to keep their season alive with a narrow win but fail to cover. Clemson now sits and hopes for a Miami loss over the next two weeks!
The next game and how it finished out has given us a late season sicko scenario that all the Mid Major lovers out there are going to really be into. Tulane went into Navy as 6.5 point favorites and the 25th ranked team in the country. After a 35-0 shalaking on Navy, Tulane has now sparked the conversation of who is the true best Group of 5 team in the country. With Boise State having Jeanty and the higher ranking, it is their race to control still, but don’t be too surprised if in 3 weeks we are watching the conference championships with a lot of eyes on the American title game. As a reminder, the 5 highest conference champions get an auto bid to the playoff, not the 4 major winners and best Go5 team. We are a couple of chaos games away from Tulane being a higher ranked team than the Big 12 Champion and really giving the people to fire off some of the hottest takes we can ever prepare for. Buckle up everyone!
In the afternoon slate we had yet another chance for Brain Kelly to win a big game and make a statement for LSU. How do we all think that went?
It’s a sad state having LSU be the punching bag team of the SEC online just because of Brian Kelly, but the Tigers have to be realizing this may not be their guy soon. Florida wins 27-16 and covers the +4.5 spread with ease.
One team on the polar opposite spectrum within the SEC for the perception this year has been South Carolina. The Cocks are a fun team with an awesome atmosphere that can show up in any game to look like a playoff team. This week it seems Vegas has bought into that as well as the #21 Cocks were 13.5 point favorites over the #23 Mizzou Tigers. And while the atmosphere lived up to the hype:
That 13.5 point spread may been a little aggressive. In what was maybe the game of the week, South Carolina does win late narrowly, but fails to cover the large spread. Cocks stay alive in the SEC and continue to have the most electric clips every week.
For our other afternoon game we got a chance to finally have the likely Group of 5 rep on the Pick Em. Boise State went into San Jose State as 13.5 point favorites with a chance to essentially lock themselves into the MWC championship game. They won that game 42-21 over SJSU and I want to take a second to share a few Jeanty stats that really put into perspective how insane this man is. He is my personal Heisman even if I don’t think he is going to win. Maybe the best RB we have seen in college since Barry Sanders. Incredible stuff.
Our last 4 night slate games all brought a little chaos as each of the 4 teams to cover were selected by 37 or less people in the Pool. November Nights are always chaos, and the Pool’s Public learned that lesson 4 times over this week.
The first was a sneaky impactful game to what seems like many people. Arizona State went on the road as an 8.5 point dog into Kansas State. Let’s hear from College Gameday on how important this is!
And the Sun Devils have very much played their way back into Big 12 title hopes. A massive win on the road sets up for a massive matchup next week with BYU with the winner likely clinching the Big 12 Title game.
Oregon has been in cruise control all season and they were hoping to keep that in going this week going into Wisconsin as a 14.5 point favorite. They have been a fun team every week and this week they kept that energy going even while their perfect season hung in the balance.
And that energy may be the fuel to this incredible run as the Ducks hold on in a low scoring tight one to win 16-13 and officially clinch the Big Ten Championship game. Quack Quack
The biggest matchup of the week was our penultimate game between #7 Tennessee and #12 Georgia. As the lower ranked team, Georgia was still favored by 9.5 at home and they showed exactly why. Georgia has played a gauntlet of a schedule this year and there is rarely a more ready or battle tested team than the Dawgs the last few years. Georgia handles the Vols to win 31-17 and cover. The Dawgs inch closer to locking in a Playoff spot and I’ll go out a limb now and say nobody is going to want to face them come December.
The final game of the week gave us the wildest spread of the week as 3-6 Kansas went on the road to undefeated and #6 BYU as only a 2.5 point dog. Naturally the Pool Public loaded up on BYU making them easily the most bid team with 79 selections to Kansas’s 18. If you have been a football fan for a while and following spreads for a while you know EXACTLY what this spread means. There has never been a clearer rat trap in existence than BYU giving less than a field goal at home. And as you know by now, BYU lost this game outright to ruin their undefeated year and make their road to the Playoff a lot more difficult and stressful. But let’s look at how they lost this game because, ohhhhh boy. Down 3 in the 4th Kansas has the ball in BYU territory looking to make something happen, and they turn to one of the most classic plays - a QB pooch punt. Let’s watch what happens.
Kansas recovers it off the helmet doink, scores to take the lead, and never gives it back up. BYU falls in wild fashion and now will fight for their life this week with Arizona State. Things are spicy!
And that will conclude our Week 12 slate. Alexander N. takes the 1st place win for the week with an 8-2 record for 47 points, and Jimmy F. takes 2nd place at 6-4 for 45 points. In the Wild Card Gerry T. takes the top spot with 38 points for the bonus win. We drop 8 and have a tie at 24th, so we will go into Week 13 with 25 alive looking to get to 16 alive at the end of the day.
Check the standings page below to see who is left.
We are onto Week 13!
Check out the latest full standings here.