Back in action in the desert

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
8 pm, Fox
Texas (-9.5) Ohio State

Only three games remain, and three people -- Steve, Yohan and Ed -- remain in contention for the 2009 title.

If Texas covers the spread tonight, Ed will be eliminated. If Ohio State covers, all three will still be alive.

If Texas covers tonight and Tulsa covers tomorrow night in the GMAC Bowl, Steve will clinch the title. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Tonight's game is a five-point game and is required for the John McCain's Hangover Bonus because it is being played in the state of Arizona. Dan, Jim, Mark, Greg, Nino, Chris, Yohan and Steve all are still eligible for the McCain Bonus. This is the LAST of the McCain Bonus games, so if Texas covers, all eight of those participants will pick up the 3-point McCain Bonus.

This game also would have been required for the Homer Simpson Bonus, because it carries the name of a food product, but no one is still eligible for that.

And if it is played with the roof closed at University of Phoenix Stadium, it would have been eligible for the Climate Control Bonus, but no one is still eligible for that one either.

Finally, Mark and Sal have both designated Texas as their LOCK pick, which means each will pocket an additional five-point bonus if the Longhorns cover.

PICKS

Dan: Texas -9.5
Jim: Texas -9.5
Jon: Ohio State +9.5
Mark: Texas -9.5
Ed: Texas -9.5
Greg: Texas -9.5
Nino: Texas -9.5
Chris: Texas -9.5
Yohan: Texas -9.5
Rob: Texas -9.5
Sal: Texas -9.5
Steve: Texas -9.5

You'll notice that Jon is the only one who picked Ohio State. This bodes very well for Ohio State. So far in this pool, there have been three games where at least 11 of the 12 pool participants agreed on the result. In all three of those cases (BYU, Boston College, Texas Tech), the team picked by at least 11 of us lost the game.

So we got that going for us. Which is nice.