Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

The 2011 ACC/Big Ten Challenge is now over. The Big Ten won for the 3rd year in a row (after losing the first 10 years straight). The thing that was amazing (to me at least) was how well Vegas did at predicting the winners. On the first day, you could have bet all the favorites and won 5 out of 6. Even the one that you would have lost (Georgia Tech -3 vs Northwestern) would have been a winner with the opening line (Northwestern -1 initially). Here are all the results: Virginia (-3) vs Michigan - Virginia 70, Michigan 58 Georgia Tech (-3) vs Northwestern - Northwestern 76, Georgia Tech 60 Illinois (-4) at Maryland - Illinois 71, Maryland 62 Purdue (-9.5) vs Miami (Florida) - Purdue 76, Miami (Florida) 65 Clemson (-1) at Iowa - Clemson 71, Iowa 55 Ohio State (-7.5) vs Duke - Ohio State 85, Duke 63 Penn State (-5) at Boston College - Penn State 62, Boston College 54 Indiana (-1.5) at North Carolina State - Indiana 86, North Carolina State 75 Michigan State (-7.5) vs Florida Sta...

After a 2-8 horrible week picking college football games, I now stand in 151st place. Ouch. There's only 2 more weeks left in the season, so not much time to make up the ground from such a bad week. I guess the dream is dead...

Ugh. Travel has been pretty heavy the last several weeks. I just finished my 6th week in a row of going somewhere. (One of those was vacation, which helped). Now I'm at home for Thanksgiving week next week, and then back out on the road for three straight weeks (almost full weeks, too) before shutting it down the last couple weeks of the year. I'll make my AA Platinum status easily (I need 60 segments and will end up with anywhere from 62 to 66, depending on what I decide for a couple trips). And I'll easily make my Hilton Diamond status (I need 28 stays and will end up with 30). I just wish that the travel was a bit more spread out. Next year I have to remember to not be so agreeable when someone asks for my availability the last 3 months of the year.

Last week I dropped a bit from 21st place to 28th place. I was only 6-4 that week, and lost by 5, 6, and 7 (out of 10) confidence point games. So that wasn't a very good week. The following week I had a decent week, but dropped to 55th place. I went 7-3, but lost my 9 point game, which really hurt. I'm 10 points out of 2nd place. The person leading has 517 points, with second place at 508 points. I need to pick up my game the final three weeks of the season.