Dewey wins!
I am sure that this did not go unnoticed. For roughly 24 hours on the web site I had declared Brian the winner of the 2012 Office Pool by a single point over Jeremy. However, an audit revealed that I had erroneously awarded Brian 3 points for a Utah State overtime victory on September 7th against Utah.
That reduction of a single point caused the Office Pool to go to a tiebreaker to decide its champion for the first time in recorded history.
Since that observation, I have gone back and forth on the resolution. For a while, I had decided to declare the contest a tie and have the two split the spoils. But, the tiebreaker rule since John handed down the commissionership to me has always been head-to-head record. It would be disingenuous for me to change/ignore the rule because I feel bad about prematurely declaring Brian the champion (although technically, I have not declared a champion until this email).
So, let’s go to the tiebreaker.
There were only 3 head-to-head battles between the two foes tied at 209 points, which is rare because usually conference teams at least play each other. But, Florida shamefully did not play Alabama; Wisconsin did not play Northwestern, and UCLA did not play Washington.
In the three head-to-head matchups:
Jeremy’s North Carolina defeated Brian’s Virginia Tech
Brian’s Oklahoma defeated Jeremy’s Oklahoma State
and so the 2012 Office Pool championship was decided by the Wisconsin/Utah State game played on Saturday, September 15th, which Jeremy’s Badgers prevailed by a score of 16-14*.
*AP Report: MADISON, Wis. -- Utah State's Josh Thompson missed a 37-yard field goal with seconds remaining, allowing Wisconsin to hold on for a 16-14 victory Saturday night.
You cannot get any closer than that. I apologize for the mistake, but I guess it did increase the drama for the finish. I trust that Brian will not hold a grudge against the commissioner or Josh Thompson for our failings.
In other excitement, Corbin screamed past Keith over the weekend and claimed 3rd place.