Number 2 – Win the Office Betting Pool

In 1985 I started a pool at work for the NCAA Basketball Championship Tournament, better known as ‘March Madness.’  The first year we had seven participants.  The winner was determined by the total number of tournament wins your five chosen teams had during the course of the tournament.  There was a two-way tie for first place that initial year.  They decided to split the pot; all $14 of it. 

Over the years the popularity of the pool grew.  One year the prize money (winner take all) amounted to $395, the biggest payout ever offered.  A woman who entered for the first time—and selected her teams by virtue of the appeal of the names of their mascots—won.  In 1988 ‘John’ (maybe/maybe not his real name) picked the Kansas Jayhawks as one of his five teams.  I distinctly remember mocking him mercilessly for picking the team with the most losses (11) in the field of 64 teams.  Not only did Kansas win the tournament, ‘John’ won the pool.  That was the day I had the confirmation I had been expecting: Betting Karma hates me.  Last year was the 30^th anniversary of the March Madness pool, and as you might expect I am oh-for-30. 

I started another pool in 1985 as well: the NCAA College Football Bowl pool.  The winner is determined by how many winning teams you can pick amongst all of the post-season bowl games.  In the event of a tie there is a randomly chosen tiebreaker to determine the winner.  In 1997 I was tied for the most wins heading into the final game of the year; we both selected Florida to beat Florida State in the Sugar Bowl.  Florida won in convincing fashion, winning 52 – 20 so had to resort to the tiebreaker to determine the winner.  Our tiebreaker was total passing yards for Florida’s quarterback, Danny Wuerffel.  My guess was 440; the other guy guessed somewhere around 300.  After three quarters Wuerrfel had already thrown for 306 yards, well on his way to the 400-yard mark.  However, Florida had a commanding lead entering the fourth quarter so the need for Wuerffel to pass was gone, he was taken out of the game and the other guy won the pool, proving once again Betting Karma hates me.

I decided this year things were going to change.  After this year’s bowl season Betting Karma would be kissing my ass: I was going to win the football pool and avoid matching my oh-for-30 record in the basketball pool.  There was no way—NO WAY that I was going to be a composite oh-for-60 in the three decades of the two office betting pools. 

After 33 bowl games I had 23 victories; the next closest person had 21.  (I looked like a genius selecting Nebraska to beat Georgia in the Gator Bowl.  Truth be known I hate Georgia so much I would never in a million years pick them to win anything.  Then again I looked like an idiot for picking UNLV to beat North Texas.  I wish I had taken the time to do a little research prior to making my selections; if I had I might have noticed that North Texas was favored over UNLV by something like a zillion points.) Regardless, even though I spent barely more than a minute selecting my 35 winners, I still had a two-victory lead with two games still to be played. I liked my chances.

My last two predicted winning teams were different than my rival, so I had three chances to win the pool: My team winning the 34^th bowl game (Go Daddy Bowl; I picked Ball State; my rival Arkansas State), my team winning the 35^th bowl game (the BCS Championship; I picked Auburn; my rival Florida State) or me winning the tiebreaker (total points in the championship game; I predicted 73 while my rival predicted 67).   

Bowl game #34: Arkansas State beats Ball State 23 – 20.  There goes my first chance of winning the pool, but not to worry: I still have two chances left.  I feel as if I’m playing tennis and I have three match points and my opponent just fought off the first one.

Bowl game #35: Auburn against Florida State with the National Championship at stake.  To win the pool I need Auburn to win.  Should FSU win I need a minimum of 71 points scored in the game to win.  Auburn takes a commanding 21 – 3 lead in the second quarter, but FSU closes the gap to 21 – 10 by halftime.  In an exciting fourth quarter the lead changes hands several times until Auburn scores with 1:19 left in the game and pulls in front, 31 – 27.  I won’t need the tiebreaker: Auburn was winning this game outright and I was winning my first office betting pool since the days of Ronald Reagan and MTV!  ‘Turn the lights out, the party’s over’ as Dandy Don used to sing during the golden age of Monday Night Football.  I thought the lyric was appropriate since this just so happened to be a Monday night, it was almost midnight and I was ready to turn the lights out and get to bed since I had an early alarm set for the following day (try 3:15 a.m. on for size).   

But then…IT happened.  Florida State made an incredible last-minute drive to score the go-ahead touchdown, taking a three-point lead and leaving a mere 13 seconds on the game clock for Auburn to retaliate.  In other words, in another 13 seconds Betting Karma was going to kick me to the curb for the 60^th time.  Sure, my rival and I were tied with 23 bowl victories, but by virtue of the 65 total points in the game he won the tiebreaker. 

I spent a restless 45 minutes or so in bed, finally falling asleep around 1 a.m.  One-hundred-and-thirty-five minutes later my alarm reminded me I was a loser, and that it was now time for me to start preparing for this year’s March Madness office pool.  After all, Betting Karma will be ready to flex its muscles again by then and will be looking for its most dependable fall guy. 

However, it wasn’t a total loss as I had a ‘first’ I wasn’t expecting: After only two hours and 15 minutes of sleep I went for a 10-mile run at 4 a.m. in five-degree weather with a wind chill that lowered the temperature to a robust minus 10 degrees.  I’m fairly certain I’ve never done that before and if there’s a God other than Betting Karma I doubt I’ll ever have to do it again.