“Have you ever seen one of these?” The Grand Geek had come down from the sprawling suite housing the Almost Perfect Picks Department to my modest office.
He continued, “One of my fans in New Jersey sent it to me.”
Fans? I thought but didn’t say.
“I thought you might be interested,” he said. “They sell these at the horse races. They’ve got all sorts of facts and figures about the horses and even the jockeys. Best times, recent races, how they do from different starting gates, who their parents were – the horses, not the jockeys. A lot of information.
“And at the end they suggest the horses to bet on to win, exactas, perfectas, and so on.”
I said, “That’s interesting if you’re into horse racing, I guess. We don’t have horse racing around here, so why did he send it to you?”
“Well,” he said, “if you’ll notice, my fan wrote down how the races really came out. Not too good. I don’t think the boys would be proud of that,” he added with a thumb pointing up the hall to where the Nerds were watching.
“I thought it might be helpful for you to see another aspect of this sports predictions business.”
And with that, he handed over last week’s results. As he made his way back to his executive suite, it seemed to me he had a little giddy-up in his step.”
Last week the record was 6-1 on winning teams, 4-3 vs. the betting line, and 4-3 on the over-under.
For the year the record by the Nerds is 54-8 on predicting winners, 29-33 vs. the points spread, and 25-37 on over-under picks. Here are last week’s seven SEC games with betting lines from Caesars Sportsbook and records prior to the games:
- Tennessee (4-0, 1-0 SEC) at LSU (4-1, 2-0). Tennessee favored by 3 points (-3), over-under (combined points by both teams) 63 1/2 points. PREDICTION: Tennessee 27, LSU 21. ACTUAL: Tennessee 40, LSU 13. Correct on winner, against trhe spread, and on the o-u.
- Arkansas (3-2, 1-2) at Mississippi State (4-1, 1-1). Mississippi State -8, o-u 61 ½. PREDICTION: Mississippi State 38, Arkansas 17. ACTUAL: Mississippi State 40, Arkansas 17. Right on everything – winner, vs. the line, 0-u.
- Missouri (2-3, 0-2) at Florida (3-2, 0-2). Florida -11, o-u 55. PREDICTION: Florida 31, Missouri 27. ACTUAL: Florida 24, Missouri 17. Correct on winner, against the spread, and the o-u.
- Auburn (3-2, 1-1) at Georgia (5-0, 2-0. Georgia -30, o-u 49 1/2. PREDICTION: Georgia 38, Auburn 10. ACTUAL: Georgia 42, Auburn 10. Right on winner, but missing the final score by only four points, wrong on the line and the o-u.
- Ole Miss (5-0, 1-0) at Vanderbilt (3-2, 0-1). Ole Miss -17 1/2, o-u 62. PREDICTION: Ole Miss 38, Vanderbilt 17. ACTUAL: Ole Miss 52, Vanderbilt 28. Correct on winner and vs. the spread, but wrong on the o-u.
- South Carolina (3-2, 0-2) at Kentucky (4-1, 1-1). Kentucky -10 ½, o-u 49. PREDICTION: Kentucky 31, South Carolina 17. ACTUAL: South Carolina 24, Kentucky 14. Wrong on winner and against the line, right on the o-u.
- Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1) at Alabama (5-0, 2-0). Alabama -24, o-u 51 1/2. PREDICTION:. Alabama 42, Texas A&M 17. ACTUAL: Alabama 24, Texas A&M 20. Right on winner, wrong against the spread and the o-u.
