Revisiting BotC's preseason Big 12 staff picks

As you may recall, in the two weeks leading up to the season opener your faithful servants picked each game on the Big 12 schedule, from TCU-Minnesota right on down to West Virginia-Kansas State. We also promised you that we'd revisit those picks at the end of the season.

Well, it's that time. Join us now for a week-by-week recap of how well (or horribly) we did.

Week One:

The staff consensus went 10-0 in the season's opening week. The most damage was done by Kansas, who dinged Luke, JT, and 00, and Iowa State -- whose win cost Jon, Derek, and PB, and handed Luke his second defeat of the week. Double-oughth also suffered two losses to start the season, as she picked Minnesota to beat TCU because she's a homer. Pervis ate a loss by picking Sam Houston State to beat Texas Tech, and KSUEMAW! foolishly picked Texas to beat Notre Dame.

BracketCat, Panjandrum, and Nugget emerged unscathed. Overall, the staff was 100-10 for week one.

Week Two:

Iowa State again created chaos, causing black marks for JT, 00, BracketCat, and Luke by losing to Iowa. Oklahoma's win over Tennessee cost Luke, BracketCat, and PB. PB also whiffed on Rice, JT picked Kansas to beat Memphis, and Derek thought UTEP would get over on Texas Tech.

The staff was, once again, 100-10 on the week. Jon, Panjandrum, KSUEMAW!, Nugget, and Pervis were all 10-0, and after two weeks only Pan and Nugget were without a miss.

Week Three:

Finally, bloodbaths. The entire staff missed on California-Texas. Only PB and 00 correctly picked Texas Tech beating Arkansas. And only Jon, Derek, Luke, and BracketCat picked Toledo to beat Iowa State.

The damage was profound; everyone had at least two losses on the week. Pan and Nugget both ate three losses, allowing Jon to pull into a tie for the lead. Overall, the staff was 77-50, a miserable 65% success rate. Against the spread, that's pretty good. Straight up, it's awful.

Week Four:

There were four games the staff unanimously agreed on, and the staff was correct on all four. The only misfire on the week: only Derek and BracketCat picked Texas to beat Oklahoma State. That left the leaders unchanged, and the staff posted a brilliant 53-2 mark for the week.

Week Five:

KSUEMAW! picked West Virginia to beat Oklahoma, which was unwise. Not for the first time this season, the Wildcats themselves did half the staff dirty. Jon, Derek, PB, Pervis, and Nugget all picked K-State to beat Oklahoma State.

That meant Luke, Panjandrum, BracketCat, JT, and 00 all had a perfect week, putting Panjandrum in sole possession of the lead. Overall, the staff was 49-6.

Week Six:

Luke, Derek, BracketCat, and JT mistakenly predicted West Virginia would topple Oklahoma State. The real coup, however, was executed by PurpleBrunette -- the only member of the staff foolhardy enough to pick Texas to beat Oklahoma, and therefore the week's winner at 5-0.

Oklahoma's downfall led the staff to a 41-14 record. Panjandrum retained his one-game lead over Jon and Nugget.

Week Seven:

With a four-game schedule, being correct was at a premium. Pervis missed one game, taking West Virginia over Baylor. The Wildcats again betrayed five staff members, with Panjandrum, Luke, BracketCat, PB, and Nugget taking K-State over Oklahoma.

It was a 38-6 week for the staff, and Jon caught Pan for the lead.

Week Eight:

That didn't last long. The staff unanimously picked three games correctly, but only Derek, Pervis, and Panjandrum picked Texas over K-State. That put Pan back in the lead, as the staff went 36-8.

Week Nine:

All four games in week nine were unanimous picks by the sraff. Unfortunately, that meant a 33-11 record on the week as Texas lost to Iowa State. Obviously, the lead didn't change.

Week Ten:

Three games were unanimous, and correct. Derek and Luke incorrectly picked K-State to beat Baylor. BracketCat was the big winner, however, as he was the only staffer to pick Oklahoma State over TCU.

That put the staff at 43-12 for the week, but the lead again remained unchanged.

Week Eleven:

Things got sketchy. Jon, Derek, Panjandrum, JT, 00, and PB all incorrectly picked Texas over West Virginia. Luke was the only staffer to take Texas Tech over K-State, and therefore the only staffer to go 5-0 on the week. PB also whiffed on Iowa State over Oklahoma State.

With her disastrous week, PB suffered the indignity of being the only staffer to have a sub-.500 week. The lead still didn't change, but KSUEMAW!, Nugget, and Pervis all caught Jon for second place. Overall, the staff was 38-17.

Week Twelve:

Three unanimously correct games. One Oklahoma. Only Derek and Luke correctly predicted the Sooner win over TCU, leaving the lead unchanged and the staff at 35-9 for the week.

Week Thirteen:

There was only one unanimous pick in week thirteen, as everyone correctly has K-State over Kansas. PB correctly picked Texas Tech over Texas, but gave that right back by picking Iowa State over West Virginia; Pervis joined her in that folly. Luke missed on Baylor-TCU. As far as Bedlam... Panjandrum, KSUEMAW!, Nugget, and BracketCat all missed the boat... which was good news for the boss, who caught back up to Pan. The staff was a relatively squalid 38-17 on the week.

Week Fourteen:

That tie would remain regardless of outcomes in week fourteen, as the staff unanimously agreed on both of the season-ending contests. Unfortunately, that meant the worst week of the season for the staff as a whole, because everyone picked Baylor to beat Texas. 11-11.

And all of that left us with a tie for the BotC staff pick'em championship between your Court Jester, Panjandrum, and your benevolent despot:

STAFFER	W	L	PCT
Jon	62	13	0.829
Panjandrum	62	13	0.829
KSUEMAW!	61	14	0.813
wildcat00	61	14	0.813
nugget1224	61	14	0.813
Pervis	61	14	0.813
BracketCat	60	15	0.800
Derek	60	15	0.800
Luke	59	16	0.787
JT	59	16	0.787
PurpleBrunette	59	16	0.787
TOTAL	665	160	0.806

The team most responsible for screwing up your intrepid staffers: Texas, who lost despite being picked to win in 27 instances. Then again, the real champion was Kansas; despite only being picked to win in 4 instances, they failed to manage even that. But Texas also won when picked to lose 100 times, coming away with a win on 26 of those occasions.

The following table compares the number of times our staff picked each team to win against how many wins they actually had (multiplied by 11 to account for our 11 participating staff members). As you can see, Texas Tech was by far our most underrated team, while our own Wildcats were by far the most overrated. And despite being responsible for the most wrong win picks, Texas was actually the team our staff nailed down closest overall.

TEAM	PICKED TO WIN	WINS	PERFORMANCE
Texas Tech	45	77	1.711
Oklahoma	91	121	1.330
Oklahoma State	87	110	1.284
West Virginia	66	77	1.167
Iowa State	30	33	1.100
Texas	56	55	0.982
Texas Christian	118	110	0.932
Baylor	118	99	0.839
Kansas State	85	55	0.647
Kansas	4	0	0.000

And there you have it. Commentariat, fire away. Mock and abuse, point and laugh, jeer and guffaw.

But Pan and I will just sneer at you like Snidely Whiplash. Because we won, baby.