[This post was originally published on The Living Room Tumblr.]
Surging to victory with a 4-game winning streak that included correctly picking consecutive 17-point underdog BCS winners – Central Florida and Oklahoma – Becky’s and my 6-year-old daughter, known on the Internet as “Loyette,” clinched the 9th annual Bowl Pick ‘em Contest championship Friday night, beating out 56 adults and 4 other kids.
I guess she backed up her trash talk:
Loyette: “Daddy, I think a lot of the people in your [bowl pick ’em] pool must not have watched very much football.” #5YearOldSmackTalk
— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy)
Loyette’s prediction record is 23-9 with three bowl games left. She has 40 points (out of a possible 54 thus far), fully 5 more than her nearest competitor – her uncle, Casey Zak (@caseyzak), who is second at the moment with 35 points.
Notably, Loyette’s younger sisters, “Loyacita” (age 4) and “Loyabelle” (age 2), are presently tied for sixth place with 33 points each, and may finish as high as fourth.
Here is audio of Loyette – who turned 6 mid-contest, on New Year’s Eve – making her picks at the dining room table on December 20. It begins with her asking for a quick refresher: “What are the bowls?”
Loyette took the lead on December 26 when her predictions of upset wins by Pittsburgh and Utah State in the Pizza and Pointsettia bowls, respectively, came true, lifting her to 7-1 in the early bowls. She held at least a share of first place until Navy knocked her out on December 30.
Starting with the Navy game, Loyette went 8-5 from December 30 through the first four games of January 1, falling to 10th place. But then UCF’s stunning upset win in the Fiesta Bowl late on January 1, which only four contestants predicted, vaulted her all the way to 2nd place. She took back the lead – for good, as it turns out – when, in the very next game, Oklahoma pulled its own stunning upset in the Sugar Bowl on January 3. Tonight’s dramatic wins by Clemson in the Orange Bowl, and Missouri a few minutes later in the Cotton Bowl, sealed the deal.
If you’re wondering, Loyette’s picks for the final three bowls are Vanderbilt over Houston, Ball State over Arkansas State, and Florida State over Auburn by a score of 35-12.
Behind Loyette and her uncle Casey in the standings are Jonathan Bates (@iampangean), John Prisner (@harley57) and Zach Bloxham (@zbloxham), with 34 points apiece. They are in 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively, based on tiebreakers.
Loyette’s younger sisters, Loyacita and Loyabelle, are, as I mentioned, tied for sixth place with 33 points each, as are Lauren Fowler (@ndlauren) and Stephen Peroz. Chris Palmer (@chrispalm) also has 33 points, but is alone in 10th place on a tiebreaker. Complete standings here.
If Vanderbilt and Florida State win, Loyacita and Loyabelle will finish in a 4th-place tie. With all three Loy daughters in the top 4, that would likely intensify the search for Marty McFly’s Sports Almanac in their rooms. 🙂 The Loy parents, meanwhile, can end up no better than 21st (Dad) and 55th (Mom), respectively.
Loyette’s “clinch” with 3 bowls left is the second-earliest in Pick ’em history, trailing only @Nyghtewynd, who clinched with 4 games left in 2012. Two other contests, in 2008 and 2013, were decided with 1 game left. The remaining six went down to the wire, with nobody clinching until the championship game was over.
P.S. Lest any new readers, who haven’t been following this story from the outset on Twitter, suspect the pick ’em administrator / proud daddy of contest-rigging shenanigans, I would direct you to this tweet from December 27. 🙂
UPDATE: Here’s a Storify archive of the Twitter coverage of, and reaction to, Loyette’s run to victory. #TeamLoyette FTW!
The archive is also embedded below, after the jump.