By JACOB THORSEN
I'm a 2016 graduate of Andrean. I just finished up my undergrad work at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and am currently enrolled there for one more year to get my Masters in Finance.
My friends and I have long been fans of Region sports, and we've been playing a high school football contest for the last few years where we pick a list of 10 games, choose 10 winners, and allocate confidence rankings to the 10 games (10 is your most confident pick, one is your least confident pick). If you correctly pick the winner, you get the corresponding points. The participant with the most points at the end of the year is the winner.
More recently, I've begun to include spreads on the 10 games of the week. With this, the other participants may choose to allocate additional points on the outcome of a game against the spread. For example, I could pick Crown Point -12 vs. Highland for five points. If CP wins by more than 12, that player gets 5 points. If CP wins by less than 12 (or loses outright), 5 points are subtracted from the player's running total for the year. All spread predictions are optional, making this portion of the weekly contest a risk/reward venture.
All in all, it's a fun contest and we get to see who truly has their finger on the pulse of Region football. It's not intended to encourage gambling on high school sports.
Week 2 Odds:
Andrean @ Lake Central ... Andrean -3
Munster @ Hanover Central ... Hanover Central -20.5
Portage @ Lowell ... Lowell -6.5
Crown Point @ Highland ... CP -12
Merrillville @ Hobart ... Merrillville -3.5
Wheeler @ KV ... KV -17
Penn @ LaPorte ... Penn -22.5
Michigan City @ Warsaw ... Michigan City -16.5
Boone Grove @ River Forest ... River Forest -2
Bowman Academy @ Lake Station ... Bowman Academy -24
Going forward, after next week, I'm also going to have "Futures," odds on each team winning their conferences, over/unders on season win totals, and odds each team will win their sectional.
For fans who want to play along to see how they stack for fun, feel free to send your picks to Jim Peters at @JP8185, and we'll post results.
Jim Peters' Picks
Andrean -3 over Lake Central (win)
Hanover Central -20.5 over Munster (win)
Lowell -6.5 over Portage (win)
CP -12 over Highland (win)
Merrillville -3.5 over Hobart (win)
Wheeler +17 over Kankakee Valley (loss)
Penn -22.5 over La Porte (loss)
Warsaw +16.5 over Michigan City (loss)
River Forest -2 over Boone Grove (win)
Bowman Academy -24 (loss)
Record: 6-4
Confidence Picks (Straight Up)
Peters (55): Andrean 10, Hanover Central 9, River Forest 8, Bowman Academy 7, Penn 6, Merrrillville 5, Lowell 4, Crown Point 3, Kankakee Valley 2, Michigan City 1.
Brown (54): Hanover Central 10, Bowman Academy 9, Lowell 8, Kankakee Valley 7, Penn 6, Michigan City 5, Crown Point 4, Merrillville 3, Andrean 2, Boone Grove 1.
Sinal (51): Penn 10, Crown Point 9, Kankakee Valley 8, Merrillville 7, Michigan City 6, Bowman Academy 5, Andrean 4, Boone Grove 3, Hanover Central 2, Portage 1.
Thorsen (54): Bowman Academy 10, Penn 9, Hanover Central 8, Michigan City 7, Kankakee Valley 6, Lowell 5, Crown Point 4, Merrillville 3, Andrean 2, Boone Grove 1.
Howard (39): Hanover Central 10, Lake Station 9, Lowell 8, Michigan City 7, Boone Grove 6, Penn 5, Wheeler 4, Merrillville 3, Crown Point 2, Andrean 1.
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