We are down to four competitors for the SABOWL and that number will likely decline today. Several are still in the running for the Toilet SABOWL so keep your eyes on that as well!

Jimmy (23-11) Tennessee, Florida, Notre Dame, Iowa, Ole Miss

April (21-13) Northwestern, Florida, Notre Dame, Stanford, Ole Miss

Josh (19-15) Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa, Ole Miss

Emily (18-16) Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa, Oklahoma State

More content coming later but lots of SABOWL left and a lot of people have at least a sliver of a shot! The Locker Room is open.

Jimmy has been in command of the SABOWL X lead, here are the number of unique picks the rest of the contenders have (updated during Oklahoma/Clemson game):

Jimmy      20-10     Leader
Emily        18-12     9 unique picks
April         17-13      5 unique picks
Christina  16-14     5 unique picks
Michael    15-15     6 unique picks
Josh          15-15     6 unique picks
Danny/J   13-17     4 unique picks (out)
Stephen    13-17     4 unique picks (out)
Rebecca    12-18     (out)
Ellen          11-19     (out)
Jonathan  10-20    (out)

Greetings SABOWLers! It’s been pretty quiet on the SABOWL front for the 10th anniversary of the SABOWL. I’m growing increasingly concerned that we are seeing our first ever collective case of early onset SABOWL Syndrome. Seems like virtually everyone has given up before the SABOWL has even gotten heated up.

The good news: we’ve got plenty of time to make that right.

Currently, it’s so quiet in the locker room that it makes Mike Gundy sick and we really don’t want to make him sick. He’s a man, probably about 50 years old now.*

SABOWL X is anybody’s SABOWL at this point (with the exception of maybe Ellen, sorry)! Today will be a big day to see if we start to see any separation of the leaders from the large group in the middle of the pack.

The biggest question though…will the Sabo’s actually wake up enough to make SABOWL X worth paying attention to?

See you in the locker room!

*Sorry about the shameless Mike Gundy reference, just trying to make sure we keep up with our Mike Gundy quota.

Welcome to Sabowl X.
It has been long anticipated.  It has been desiring our attention.  Now it is here.

You have made your picks.  You have done your research and preparation.  Now is the time for celebration and agony.  What an exciting time.

The Sabowl Season kicks off with an unprecedented six games.  Which means that Jonathan will likely be eliminated on day one.  That is unbelievable folks.

There will be some changes this Sabowl season.  One being that Jonathan will not have to go through the issue of picking Georgia Tech and by then basically giving a game to the rest of the field due to loyalty.   We hope to see the Yellow Jackets again next season.

You will not find a great deal of game analysis for the games today.  Why would it be necessary with all of the study that you have already put in?  Instead we would love to see game updates and thoughts from you in the locker room.  For instance, a good comment for the first game that has started could be: “It looks like Alcorn State spent more time getting their helmets nice and pretty instead of practicing how to tackle.”

Another comment could include “Jonathan, have you started working on your Sabowl XI picks yet?  You will probably have a better chance of winning something then.”

Hope that everyone has a great day 1.

There are 7 Games remaining and 5 Sabowlers still in contention.  Four of those games will be played today and a champion could be determined before the day is over, but before we talk about today lets recap the action of yesterday.

We entered the day with 12 Sabowlers that still had a glimmer of hope of winning the SABOWL.  Those dreams were dashed for many during the course of the 5 games played.  Here is my favorite play of the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WIDekoBZz0

I thought that this guy put the nails in the coffin then sat on top of it but that was not enough to hold back Michigan State.  Two of the biggest games included the first ever College Football Playoff.  The first was a blowout victory for Oregon over Florida State.  It was later admitted in the locker room that half of the Florida State Criminals left at halftime to save a seat at the Crab Shak for the rest of the team.  Or is that just their Alibi?  Florida State Quarterback Jameis Winston did stick around for the entire game to speak the profound statement in a post game news conference “We just got beat.”  He also slipped this smug statement “lose is not in my vocabulary to be honest witch ya.”  Well let me be honest witch ya Jameis, if you faced the fierce competition of the SABOWL lose would be firmly planted in your vocabulary.  Later on in the other playoff Alabama was defeated in a great game by Ohio State.  A full recap of this game can be found in yesterdays Locker Room.   Which brings me to the real highlights of the day.  The Locker room reached 205 comments and counting.  That is a record day for the Sabowl Locker Room.  The discussion included comments from current SABWOL participants, The Sabowl Standings, The Sabowl Spreadsheet, The Sabowl Locker Room itself, Several I Team Investigations, Mike Gundy, The Florida State.  For all who interested here is a picture of Rudy with the SABOWL.

Here are some approximate Statistics from the Locker Room

Josh 53 Comments

Jimmy 49 Comments

Christina 29 Comments

Jonathan 25 Comments

Michael 16 Comments

Sabowl Standings 13 Comments

Sabowl Spreadsheeet 5 Comments

Rebecca 4 Comments

Sabowl Locker Room 3 Comments

Mike Gundy 3 Comments

Florida State 2 Comments

I-Team 4 Comments

Todays Action

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl 12:00 PM

Pittsburgh Favored by 3.5 over Houston

Sabowl Ramifications:   Jimmy and Jonathan could both be eliminated with a Houston win.  A Pittsburgh win will not eliminate anyone.

Interesting side note:  Lieutenant Dan will be doing a free post game concert if you are anywhere near Fort Worth, might be worth checking out.  

Taxslayer Bowl 3:30 PM

Tennessee Favord by 3.5 over Iowa

Sabowl Ramifications:  Jonathan is the only person who picked Iowa so a Tennessee win will eliminate him if he is not already gone.

Bowl Fact:  This will be the 69th edition of this bowl game.  all 68 of the previous games have been called the Gator Bowl.  For some season Taxslayer sees themselves as important enough to drop the gator.  lets see how that works out for them.

Valero Alamo Bowl 6:45 PM

Kansas State by 1.5 over UCLA

Sabowl Ramifications:  Jonathan, Jim and Jimmy all have UCLA.  Josh and Christina have Kansas State

Ticketcity Cactus Bowl 10:15 PM  AKA Gundy Bowl

Washington favored by 5.5 over Oklahoma State

Sabowl Ramifications:  Jonathan, Jim, and Josh all have Oklahoma State.  Jimmy and Christina have Oklahoma State.  Christina could possibly clinch the Sabowl with  a win here.  depending on what happened earlier in the day.

You all know we cannot let a Mike Gundy Coached team participate in Sabowl Competition and not play this video.

Since its Gundy Day I will share some interesting Gundy Facts:

Mike Gundy is still a man and is now 47.  He is an Alumna of Oklahoma State where he played Quarterback for 4 years.  He has been a coach for 25 years, 20 of those years at Oklahoma State, where he has been the head coach for the past 10 years.  Gundy currently holds a 5-3 record in Sabowl Competition.

Good luck to everyone, see you in the locker room.  be sure to check out the Sabowl Standings and Sabowl Spreadsheet.

Today is a massive day for SABOWL IX.

Here is where we are in one word, Jimmy.

Jimmy has maintained a lead in one of the most competitive SABOWL’s in recent history. His lead has not been massive but it has been consistent. Will this end up being a dominant performance or does a massively disappointing “you got SABOWL’d” moment await Jimmy?

By the way, how about those Yellow Jackets from Georgia Tech last night?

For the rest of the Sabo’s, most of you still have a shot with 11 games to go! Here is where you stand in relation to the current leader. Of course all of this changes should someone surpass Jimmy today.
– Rebecca – 4 games behind Jimmy, 6 unique picks from Jimmy
– Emily – 2 games back, 3 unique picks
– Michael – 4 games back, 6 unique picks
– Joe – sorry Joe, 5 games back, 4 unique picks
– Jonathan – 4 games back, 5 unique picks
– Ellen – 2 games back, 3 unique picks
– Jim – 2 games back, 5 unique picks
– Josh – 5 games back, 8 unique picks
– April – 7 games back, 8 unique picks
– Danny/Julian – 3 games back, 6 unique picks
– Christina – 1 game back, 7 unique picks
– Stephen – 6 games back, 6 unique picks

This SABOWL could still shake out a lot of different ways! Hold on to hope and prepare for massive disappointment.

We’ve got 5 bowls going on today, two of which are the first playoff games for College Football!

Before we get there, how about some highlights from last night’s exciting Orange Bowl.

And now for a special treat, two New Year’s Day posts! Believe it or not communication behind the scenes has not been the greatest this year, I blame North Korea. Today, Sabo’s and SABOWL fans everywhere win with more SABOWL commentary!

TITLE: Mike Gundy Eve

Another great day of Sabowl action is ahead of us on a very special day.  You may be thinking that today is what many call New Year’s Day.  In reality, it is something completely different.  Today is Mike Gundy Eve as Oklahoma State gears up to play tomorrow.  We would like to dedicate this post Mike Gundy and to all who have to defend a special important person in their life.  It calls for courage and age.  It calls for perseverance and being at least 40 years old.  For a glimpse of this please see the video.

In the analysis of the current Sabowl standings, it appears that Jimmy continues to maintain his steady lead.  Although I am not quite sure if that is completely accurate.  If you were keeping up with Locker Room yesterday, you may noticed that there was some controversy regarding the standings and spreadsheet.  The standings are now it order numerically.  Some of you will be glad that is the case.  The spreadsheet was actually updated as well.  Prior to last night, the spreadsheet has taken a couple days off and was not giving us a good understanding of where we stood and we were going.  We are thankful for that.  It has given us hope.  But we still feel incomplete as we wait on the update from last nights Mississippi State game.  I feel like the Sabowl Spreadsheet is actually embracing the smugness that we often see in the some of the Sabowl contestants.  It knows that we in need of its updates and wants us to be longing and feeling incomplete.

In other news, Georgia Tech has actually won a bowl game.  You may have noticed that the Mississippi State game was referenced with this.  The point of this is that if you stick if Georgia Tech year after year in bowl games, you will get a win every nine years.  Bold strategy.

As we do celebrate New Year’s Day, here are some things that you can look forward to in the days to come.

The Sabowl resolves:
-to hear from current champion Rebecca in a comment of significant length
-to have better Locker Room participation with a post reaching 100 posts (it is acceptable if all 100 posts are from one person)
-to take back the smugness from the Sabowl spreadsheet and have smugness among the participants (This really depends on us in the Locker Room of accusing each other of this.  Come on everyone, you can do this.)
-for the I-Team to conclude its investigation into TV Gate and begin to look into other important issues and concerns

By the way, this is a historical day for the Sabowl as we begin a new era with the playoffs.  We will be bringing updates on today’s games through post updates and comments.

BACK TO POST: It’s A New Year…But Not A New SABOWL

Some breaking news of an unfortunate nature. This hacking thing is spreading even to one of America’s Finest Institution’s. Georgia Tech student arrested for hacking University of Georgia’s online calendar.

Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic – Baylor by 3.5 over Michigan State
Baylor: Rebecca, Michael
Michigan State: everybody else
SABOWL Ramifications: Michael and Rebecca stand a chance to gain or lose a game here.
Point of Interest: The QBs of these two teams are good pals. Baylor is ranked 4th and didn’t make they playoffs, I’d be pretty upset about that – they would like to make a statement here. The last time these two teams faced each other Michigan State won 28-10, that happened in 1968 so it’s completely irrelevant but might as well throw it out there.

Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl Also Known As The Who Cares We All Picked Missouri Bowl
Trivia Question: How many times in SABOWL history have all competitors picked the same team to win a game?
SABOWL Ramifications: Missouri beating Minnesota and covering the spread would help everyone’s overall SABOWL winning percentage.
***EDIT***Danny/Juilian chose Minnesota and not Missouri, they have an opportunity to pick up a game on everyone else!
Points of Interest: This game really isn’t very interesting. I’d recommend using the time after Baylor/Michigan St to take a nap and rest up for the historic playoff games to come! Alternatively, you could hang out in the Locker Room for a while.

Rose Bowl – Oregon favored by 9.5 over Florida State
Oregon: Rebecca, Michael, Ellen, Jim, Josh, D/J, Christina, Stephen
Florida State: Emily, Joe, Jonathan, Jimmy, April
SABOWL ramifications: It’s very possible that we will start to see some more people get eliminated in these last couple games. If that doesn’t happen, things could be getting really close at the top of the leader board!
Points of Interest: These are the games we’ve waited for, the first playoff game in college football history. Two powerhouses going at it! The large spread adds another element of excitement.

Sugar Bowl – Alabama favored by 9.5 over Ohio State
Alabama: Rebecca, Emily, Joe, Ellen, Jim, Michael, April, D/J
Ohio State: Jonathan, Jimmy, Josh, Christina, Stephen
SABOWL ramifications: It’s very possible that we will start to see some more people get eliminated in these last couple games. If that doesn’t happen, things could be getting really close at the top of the leader board!
Points of Interest: These are the games we’ve waited for, the first playoff game in college football history. Two powerhouses going at it! The large spread adds another element of excitement. Very original right? Anybody reading this?

This is how Sabowl warriors should view the actual Sabowl.  #larryculpepper

http://youtu.be/to7vDdw_t3E

We hope everyone is having a great day today. There is the opportunity for football viewing and Sabowl enjoying. Jimmy has a grip on the lead and does not want to release it. Check out the standings on the website as well as the spreadsheet to see who what picks everyone has today. Today and tomorrow will be critical as we march to the final moments of Sabowl IX.

Join us in the Locker Room.

Here is a commercial that has filled our televisions (some Vizio) this Sabowl season.
I have a couple of questions.
1. Why?
2. Is this not the worst job of singing ever?
3. Why is Kevin Hart so angry at the end?

After a much needed day of rest for most of us, we are back to the SABOWL.  Today we will reach the halfway point of SABOWL IX.  After 6 days of action and 18 games SABOWL IX is starting to take shape.  Jimmy has a solid 2 game lead at the moment, but everyone is still in contention with 21 games to go.  Jimmy will at least hold onto a tie for first place after todays action.  Michael is the only person that can tie him with 3 unique picks between them.  Now to todays games

AutoZone Liberty Bowl  2:00 pm on ESPN

West Virginia favored by 3.5 over Texas A & M

Russell Athletic Bowl 5:30 pm on ESPN

Oklahoma vs. Clemson (Even)

ADVOcare V100 Bowl 9:00 pm on ESPN

Arkansas favored by 6.5 over Texas

Yesterday was a big day for SABOWL IX! We started out with everyone still solidly in the running (for the most part…cough, Stephen) and ended the day with a little separation between the studs and duds.

Right now we’ve got some impressive streaks going: Emily has won 6 in a row, Jimmy has won 4 in a row, and Christina is on a 3 game hot-streak. On the other end, Josh has completely blown a decent start with 5 straight losses.

With 5 bowls, the SABOWL could really start breaking some hearts and handing out false hope today! With that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to the new and improved SABOWL store over at www.sabowl.spreadshirt.com – the biggest improvement of this store over the past one is that the prices are fairly reasonable. Head over there and pick up some SABOWL goods before you get too SABOWL’d to do so.

A little preview on today’s action:

Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman – Cincinnati favored by 3.5 over Virginia Tech.
Cincinnati: Rebecca, Michael, Joe, Josh
Virginia Tech: Emily, Jonathan, Ellen, Jimmy, Jim, April, D/J, Christina, Stephen

Hyundai Sun Bowl – Arizona favored by 8.5 over Duke
Arizona: Rebecca, Emily, Michael, Jonathan, Jim, D/J, Christina, Stephen
Duke: Joe, Ellen, Jimmy, Josh, April

Duck Commander Independence Bowl – Miami favored by 3.5 over South Carolina:
Miami: Emily, Joe, Ellen, Josh, April, D/J, Christina, Stephen
South Carolina: Rebecca, Michael, Jimmy, Jonathan, Jim

New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium – Boston College favored by 2.5 over Penn State:
Boston College: Rebecca, Emily, Jonathan, Jimmy, Jim, April, Stephen
Penn State: Joe, Ellen, Michael, Josh, D/J, Christina

National University Holiday Bowl – Southern California favored by 6.5 over Nebraska
Southern California: Rebecca, Michael, Joe, Ellen, Josh, April, Christina, D/J
Nebraska: Emily, Jonathan, Jimmy, Jim, Stephen

We hope that everyone had a great Christmas.  It is now back to some Sabowl action.  We have a big day ahead of us.

If you look at the standings, you can see that we are in the midst of a great battle.  Everyone is still in the fight (except Jonathan).

Let’s see what the day holds.
Will anyone step out as a leading contender?
Will gritty, determined Stephen begin a charge to the front?
Will we reach 100 comments in the Locker Room?
Will Jonathan fall further behind in his hopes for glory?
Will there be any more I-Team investigations?
Will Ellen make anymore appearances in the Locker Room?
Will the Sabowl competition be picked up by a major sponsor?
If so, will the Sabowl accept it due to nothing really being worthy of that honor?
Will Bitcoin be a key part of currency exchange in the near future?
Who is Lane and why is he so quick?

So many questions.  We will only wait to see.

On a closing note…thank you to Josh for again taking the Sabowl to another level with the new animated look of the Sabowl.  I know that I will be able to enjoy this experience even more with that little guy looking at me and even waving.  It gives me hope to the day that the actual Sabowl will have a face and arms.  Thanks again Josh.  Great job.

Take a look at Josh being followed by a giant Sabowl imposter.

1:00 pm           Zaxby’s Heart of Texas Bowl – Louisiana Tech favored over Illinois by 6.5
Louisiana Tech: Rebecca, Emily, Michael, Jonathan, April, Christina, Stephen
Illinois: Jim, Joe, Ellen, Jimmy, Josh, D/J
4:30 pm           Quick Lane Bowl – North Carolina favored over Rutgers by 3.5
NC: Rebecca, Joe, Ellen, Jim, Josh, April, D/J, Stephen
Rutgers: Emily, Michael, Jonathan, Jimmy,  Christina

8:00 pm           Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl – Central Florida favored over NC State by 2.5
Central Florida:  Rebecca, Michael, Jonathan, Ellen, Josh, April, Stephen
NC State: Emily, Joe, Jimmy, Jim, D/J, Christina