Letter: Use point system for ‘Kick the Kansan’
Friday, September 5th, 2008
In response to the “Kick the Kansan” picks, this is a great idea and very interactive.
However, there are some inherent flaws in the way it is set up. The games picked are mostly big name teams against terrible teams. This takes almost all the skill out of picking the games. Even without the help of any outside information, when you see one team ranked in the top 25 against a team with no numbered prefix, you have a good start to go with the ranked team.
This is common sense. And while not every one of these ranked teams wins, it is very close. Out of last week’s 10 games, only two were upsets. Of those two, one was a game with two top 25 ranked teams playing against each other: No. 24 Alabama vs. No. 9 Clemson. The other game was unranked UCLA at home, beating No. 18 Tennessee.
If you are at all familiar with sports, you know sportsbooks make odds to make the matchups even. One glance in USA Today or at a Web site will show you the point spreads and “moneylines” on these games.
Of last week’s games, only three were below a seven-point spread. Although those games have the potential to go either way, the only upset outside of those games was UCLA, a 7.5 point underdog, over Tennessee, a more than 3-to-1 favorite to win. Even though seven points may not seem like a lot, when you have a team favored more than three to one, it actually is a big spread.
I would like to propose using a point-spread system to pick the games. This essentially gives each game a 50/50 chance of being correct. Four of last week’s games were double digit favorites. This week there are three, with one game at 9.5.
Instead of wasting half a page with four sports editors nearly identical picks — only four of the 40 game selections were dissimilar in week 1 — it would be much more interesting to see who is picked when spreads come into play.
This will drastically lower the total number of correct choices, but at the same time, it’s almost not fair picking seven of 10 games when one team is greater than a three to one favorite. This would make this section much more fun and interesting for everyone.
—Max Wescoe, junior from San Diego
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