It’s Freeze vs. Styles in Pick ’em Contest

LSU’s win over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl eliminated David K. and left Jeff Freeze as the last Oregon-picking contestant standing, heading for a final faceoff with Auburn-picking Randy Styles in the 6th annual Living Room Times Bowl Pick ’em Contest.

Freeze and Styles are both a perfect 10-0 in the New Year, having gotten every game right since the last New Year’s Eve contest, the Chick-fil-A Bowl. When the ball dropped in Times Square at midnight on January 1, Styles’s prediction record was 12-10, and Freeze’s was 11-11. But neither has gotten a game wrong since.

Someone will be wrong on Monday, though. Freeze picked Oregon; Styles picked Auburn. Whoever is right will win the contest.

Fittingly, Styles and Freeze are presently tied in the points column with 39 out of a possible 54 points, though Styles technically leads because of the win-loss tiebreaker (a 22-10 prediction record to Freeze’s 21-11; he got one more 2-point game right back in December). But the tiebreaker ultimately won’t matter, because one of them will get 4 points from the title game and the other won’t.

The remaining bowl games, Saturday’s BBVA Compass Bowl and Sunday’s Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (each worth 1 point), will have no effect. Both Styles and Freeze, as well as their nearest competitors David K. and John Presper (tied for third with 37 points), picked Pitt and Nevada, for what it’s worth.

Rachel Dulitz, in fifth place with 36 points (and a 22-10 prediction record, identical to Styles’s, but more wins in 1-point games and losses in games worth a lot of points — namely the Orange and Sugar Bowls, and also the Capital One and Outback Bowls), has Kentucky and Nevada. Mile High Bowl, directly below Dulitz in sixth with 35 points, has Kentucky and Boston College. But neither can threaten the leaders.

Full current standings are visible to contestants here (along with everyone’s picks), and visible to everyone here. Contestants can play around with “what-if” scenarios here.