STS Prediction Contest - Week 4 Results

Wake Forest is 4-0 and Duke beat Notre Dame. What a week for the ACC! Unfortunately I was not able to watch any of the games other than the Clemson game as I was out of the country this past weekend.

Welcome to the STS Prediction Contest Week 4 Recap!

Week 4 Matchups

Actual score: 26-7 Clemson

My pick: 34-17 Clemson

Average Clemson Points Prediction (Mean): 36.95

Average Georgia Tech Points Prediction (Mean): 18.79

No one picked Georgia Tech to win this game even though it was a dreaded Thursday game on the road in a stadium Clemson hadn’t won in since 2003. I thought Clemson would give up more points on busts but the defense played well. They’ll need to play lights out this week if we’re to have a chance at beating Louisville. I too was disappointed in our lackluster offensive showing after the first half but I’m hoping that maybe they played it super conservative given Georgia Tech’s complete offensive ineptitude?

Actual score: 30-6 Wisconsin

My pick: 31-17 Michigan State

Average Wisconsin Points Prediction (Mean): 17.76

Average Michigan State Points Prediction (Mean): 26.26

Wait what? This game was a bit closer than the final score indicated, but it’s a shocking result nonetheless. Only one person (congrats Sssjim7) picked Wisconsin to upset Michigan State. Now, in retrospect, it makes a bit more sense after Duke knocked off an apparently overrated Notre Dame team. Despite this victory, I still don’t think Wisconsin is for real and I look forward to picking against them again.

Fun fact - not a single person was within 10 points of Michigan State’s point total.

Actual score: 38-28 Tennessee

My pick: 23-13 Tennessee

Average Florida Points Prediction (Mean): 17.73

Average Tennessee Points Prediction (Mean): 20.79

I didn’t think Florida would have a chance after Luke Del Rio was hurt. Tennessee is certainly playing much better, but outside of Alabama, are you really that threatened by any team in the SEC right now? The conference has a lot of ranked teams, yes, but that’s only because of the voters being silly. Unless I’m overlooking someone, which is entirely possible, the only teams worthy of being ranked right now in the SEC are Alabama, Tennessee, A&M, and maybe Ole Miss.

So, yes, Tennessee ended a streak, but really, did people think Florida had a legitimate shot?

Actual score: 45-24 Aggies

My pick: 35-27 Aggies

Average Arkansas Points Prediction (Mean): 28.39

Average A&M Points Prediction (Mean): 31.92

Good guys win! Okay, so maybe neither of these teams can be considered the “good guys” but I sure as heck didn’t want Arkansas to win. Man, it feels like Trevor Knight’s been around forever. Seems like years ago that Katy Perry was sharing her crush on Trevor Knight with the world.

Anyways, the Aggies are one of 3 legit-looking undefeated teams in the SEC. But since it’s the SEC, they’re all going to get unexpectedly beaten by a conference foe at some point (excluding, perhaps, Alabama) and then crow about the strength of their conference. Uh-huh. Alright.

Actual score: 33-28 Wake Forest

My pick: 24-17 Hoosiers

Average Wake Forest Points Prediction (Mean): 15.93

Average Indiana Points Prediction (Mean): 22.20

Who the heck wants to watch this game, one participant so kindly asked in their entry (I paraphrase). Well, the name brand value wasn’t there, but it looks like this game was pretty entertaining nonetheless. I doubt anyone expected Wake to start this season 4-0. Good for them! When the conference performs well, it only helps Clemson (assuming they don’t perform TOO well. We don’t want these upstarts beating us!) in the strength of schedule rankings. We should be happy that Wake is doing well so far.

Fun fact, I actually have a Wake Forest gym shirt that I wear from time to time. My little sister went to Wake and gifted it to me so, yay Wake for starting off undefeated, I guess.

Standings

You thought people had a rough go of it last week? This week’s average score was even lower at 15.77. As a reminder, with the bonus points for score predictions, there is a maximum possible score of 35 points per week.

Hey, the matchups should be difficult to choose! Clemson is a gimme almost every week (this upcoming week being one of the notable exceptions). Difficult matchups means more chances for people to separate themselves from the masses.

Here are the overall top scorers after four weeks:

ChiCard23 is still in the lead but the lead is much smaller now as numerous people are within striking distance.

And here are the weekly top scorers for this week:

Oof. Like I said, a tough week.

You can access the full standings and results here.

The results are sorted alphabetically to make it easier for you to find yourself. The tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet will navigate among the overall results and the results for each individual week.

As always, if you notice any scoring errors or have any other comments or questions, please feel free to let me know in the comments.

This week’s contest is going to be a doozy. With Louisville coming to town, there will be no gimmes in the matchups. I’ll be very interested to see how many people pick the Cards.