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Football
The Worldwide Leaderboard – Week Three
by Tony Gerdeman

ESPN billed it as 'Road Test Weekend', and most pickers passed the test. In fact, for the second week in a row, there was only one expert who was below .500.

There were no perfect weeks, though Bruce Feldman came the closest with a 9-1 weekend.

I am now listing sixteen different experts, seven of whom are with ESPN. Currently only one of those experts—Lou Holtz—is in the top half of the standings. Perhaps surprisingly, the highest-paid man in the business is currently bringing up the rear.

There have been no additions to the pickers despite a few suggestions. I think there's a pretty good balance right now. I have, however, gone back in time and fixed a few things. A gentlemanly reader made me aware of the location of CBS' picks, so I've updated Bruce Feldman and Dennis Dodd's picks. It was a selfless act by me since it essentially knocked me down two spots in the standings.

Easiest Pick
Illinois and LSU were both unanimous picks, as were Stanford and Iowa. But for nobody to think Ron Zook could blow a game against Arizona State, that alone tells you there was no easier game to pick.

Toughest Pick
The West Virginia at Maryland game had an even split. Four pickers chose the Mountaineers and four chose the Terps. I thought it was an impossible game to pick. Turns out I was only half right.

Best Pick
Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit were the only two experts to pick Clemson over Auburn. Everybody else forced themselves to ride the Auburn train until it finally hit a cow it couldn't annihilate.

Second Best Pick
All 16 experts listed below picked the Michigan State – Notre Dame game, asd despite having an 0-2 record and looking ridiculous doing it, eleven pickers chose the Irish. It was a classic trap game, and only a few fell for it. Props to us.

Worst Pick
The three ESPN'ers who picked BYU over Utah. The Utes won 54-10.

Best Week
That honor goes to Bruce Feldman, who went 9-1 this week. He would've been perfect this week, but he was one of the unlucky many to have a ticket to ride on the Auburn pain train.

Worst Week
For the third week in a row, an ESPN employee had the worst week. David Pollack finished 2-3 on his picks. Though in an effort to remain completely fair, my DVR did not record the 9 a.m. portion of ESPN Gameday so I relied on the kindness (and memory) of others to relay Pollack's picks to me. I also scanned his Twitter feed to find what I could. Dude doesn't pick many games on Twitter.

Quotable
“I don't have a lot of confidence in the Fighting Irish, but even less in the Spartans, so I'm going with Notre Dame.” – Desmond Howard. Tremendous simultaneous slap of two-thirds of your school's rivals.

“Miami eliminates the turnovers. They beat the Buckeyes in a close one.” – Desmond Howard. Even when he's wrong, he's still right.

“I think Braxton Miller comes in to spark the offense.” – Kirk Herbstreit. Miller's spark wouldn't have even set off a jar of gasoline fumes.

“Freshmen Watkins and Bellamy will be the difference makers. I got Clemson beating Auburn in a close one.” – Desmond Howard. Once again I must give Desmond his due. Sammy Watkins had ten catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns. He was most certainly a difference maker.

“Everybody just expects Jacory Harris to throw interceptions, but he needs to be pressured to do it.” – Tony Gerdeman. Quite possibly one of the five stupidest statements that I have ever made.

Notable
The Gameday crew did no favors for themselves by throwing in the UCF – FIU game. All three got it wrong.

David Pollack—a former Georgia Bulldog—was the only expert to pick Ohio State who didn't have ties to the Big Ten (unless you count his time as a Cincinnati Bengal).

The BTN went 15-10 (60%). CBS went 17-3 (85%). ESPN went 30-20 (60%).

Week Three

MSU at ND

OSU at Miami

OU at FSU

Texas at UCLA

Stan at Zona

Ariz. St. at Illinois

Utah at BYU

Aub at Clemson

WVU at Maryland

Pittsburgh at Iowa

UCF at FIU

LSU at Miss. St.

Tenn at Florida

David Pollack

MSU

OSU

OU

Auburn

LSU

Lou Holtz

ND

Miami

FSU

Mark May

MSU

Miami

OU

LSU

Desmond Howard

ND

Miami

FSU

Texas

Stanford

Illinois

BYU

Clemson

Maryland

UCF

Florida

Lee Corso

MSU

OSU

OU

Texas

Stanford

Utah

Auburn

WVU

UCF

Florida

Kirk Herbstreit

ND

OSU

UCLA

Stanford

Illinois

BYU

Clemson

WVU

UCF

UT

Pat Forde

ND

Miami

OU

Texas

BYU

Auburn

Iowa

Bruce Feldman

ND

Miami

OU

Texas

Stanford

Illinois

Auburn

WVU

LSU

Florida

Dennis Dodd

MSU

Miami

OU

Texas

Stanford

Illinois

Auburn

WVU

LSU

Florida

Stewart Mandel

ND

Miami

OU

UCLA

Illinois

Auburn

Maryland

Florida

Matt Hayes

ND

Miami

OU

Utah

Auburn

Maryland

LSU

UT

Tony Gerdeman

ND

OSU

OU

Stanford

Illinois

Auburn

Maryland

Iowa

LSU

Florida

Gerry DiNardo

ND

Miami

FSU

Texas

Illinois

Auburn

Iowa

LSU

Florida

Howard Griffith

MSU

OSU

Illinois

Iowa

Teddy Greenstein

ND

FSU

Texas

Auburn

LSU

UT

Chris Martin

MSU

FSU

Texas

Auburn

LSU

Florida

Cumulative Results

	Record for the Week	Record for the Year
Gerry DiNardo (BTN)	7-2	14-3 (82%)
Bruce Feldman (CBS)	9-1	19-5 (79%)
Dennis Dodd (CBS)	8-2	17-5 (77%)
Lou Holtz (ESPN)	2-1	10-3 (77%)
Tony Gerdeman	7-3	19-6 (76%)
Chris Martin (BTN)	3-3	9-3 (75%)
Howard Griffith (BTN)	2-2	5-2 (71%)
Matt Hayes (TSN)	5-3	15-7 (68%)
Desmond Howard (ESPN)	7-4	13-7 (65%)
Lee Corso (ESPN)	6-4	16-10 (62%)
Pat Forde (ESPN)	5-2	12-8 (60%)
Teddy Greenstein (BTN)	3-3	7-5 (58%)
Stewart Mandel (SI)	5-3	14-11 (56%)
David Pollack (ESPN)	2-3	11-9 (55%)
Mark May (ESPN)	3-1	7-7 (50%)
Kirk Herbstreit (ESPN)	5-5	10-14 (42%)

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