Withdrawal Symptoms

Friday evening I began to experience the symptoms.  Anxiety.  Nervousness.  Restlessness. 

The symptoms of withdrawal.  Bowl Season has ended.  Sure, there was the Valero Cactus Bowl Division II All Star Game on TV (no, I didn't make that up), but the game wasn't much and the announcers were bad.  The sad reality is that the season is over. 

It was a great year. 

Four Star Football was born this year.  Its genesis was the product of the fertile mind of Two Gun Pete, my long time wagering partner.  For seven years we have wagered, opportunistically and successfully, but with little structure, on various sporting events, mostly NASCAR and NCAA football.  Over that time span, we've evolved, working on everything else less-and-less while working college football more-and-more.  Last season, we handicapped exactly 100 regular season games and all the bowl games.  We bet a lot, but not all, of the regular season 100. We kept track to be able to evaluate the effort.  Too many games, too shallow a pool of knowledge.  We bet on all but one of last season's bowl games and performed adequately.  The one game we missed, we simply overlooked. 

When it was all over, Two Gun came up with this four star idea. 

The concept worked out great.  Limiting the game evaluations to four each week provides a very manageable workload without being too confining.  Some weeks there were more than four opportunites and we had to pare the field.  A number of the games that were omitted during those weeks turned out better than the ones that we played. 

If you were wagering along with us, you made some money, +22 for the regular season.  Before we spit the bit over the last few weeks of the regular season , we were as high as +32.  Staying within the system also gave us the opportunity to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses.  We probably should have done a little more evaluating when we sat at +32.

During Bowl Season, we did well, finishing at 23 up and 11 down.  Once again, if you were playing along, you made money. 

The money aspect merits a bit of explanation. Our wagers are modest, very modest.  If you are, in fact, playing along, I suggest very strongly that your participation be likewise.  The  money is, in Two Gun's words, "something to cheer for".  Without some skin in the game, how much could you care?  College football is great entertainment, but with how many teams can you create an intimate association, the commitment that's needed to spend three hours in front of a TV set, or even to spend the few minutes it takes to look up a score?  Throw a few bucks on one proposition or another and you have a raison d'etre. 

La Cubanita posed the question straight up:  what are we supposed to do now?  Relax, amiga.  The show goes on:  Pete Carroll's situation, recruiting, Texas Tech/Tommy Tuberville...there's a lot going on.  It all figures into the equation when the end of August rolls around again. 

See you Friday.