The Spread, Week Thirteen: Fraud Teams Revisited

Time for more personal accountability. This week I’ll review my annual fraud team list. You may remember that I started my list early this year due to an abnormally small number of undefeated teams in Week 5. But I promise not to use that as an excuse.

1. Oregon State. The Beavers are the perfect fraud team this year. Not only have they already crashed their 3-0 start into a 5-5 record, but they also went ahead and hilariously beat #6 Arizona State to help out the Buckeyes in the playoff race.

2. Washington. I usually hesitate to put two teams from the same conference at the top of the list, because it’s unlikely that they’ll both tank. But sure enough, the Huskies have gone from 4-0 to 6-5 and the season’s not even over yet. The Fraud List is lookin’ good…

3. TCU. Oh.

Hey, the nature of the list pretty much guarantees some actually good teams will end up on it, and TCU is one of those this year. Congrats, Frogs.

4. N.C. State. Back in business! The Wolfpack started 4-0, then lost their next four games. They are currently 6-5, another fraud smoked out!

5. Mississippi State. At least now they’ve finally lost one, so this pick doesn’t look completely ridiculous. Good job, Bulldogs, you avoided a dire fate.

So there you have it. I said I would consider the list a success if at least one team lost five games and no one did better than 8-4. Two teams are definitely going to do better than 8-4, but I think nailing three frauds (including my top two) before the season is even over is still pretty good.

Comments

  1. I still think, record not withstanding, that TCU or Mississippi State will be exposed as frauds in the Playoffs. I’d really like it to come at the hands of OSU, but if both TCU and MSU make the playoffs, I would imagine that means OSU did not.

Leave a Reply to Tony (el Kaiser)Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: