[This post was originally published on The Living Room Tumblr.]
Marty Oravets of Cleveland earned “Eternal Glory” by winning the 10th annual Living Room Times Bowl Pick ‘em Contest when Ohio State upset Oregon in the national championship game tonight, 42-20.
Oravets finished with 48 points out of a maximum possible 65, having gone 27-12 in his picks overall, including 5-1 in the “New Year’s Six” bowls, and most importantly, 1-0 in the national championship game. He was one of just three contestants out of 89 to correctly predict OSU as the national champion.
Jim Kelly was another Ohio State picker, and finished second in the contest with 44 points. He was pretty excited about it:
@brendanloy it’s 6:30am here in Germany. I just woke up my wife to tell her I came in second place in your pool. She seemed disinterested.
— Jim Kelly (@pthread)
Chris Palmer, who would have won the contest if Oregon had beaten OSU and the teams’ combined point total had been 77 points or less, finished third with 42 points. Also with 42 points, but fourth and fifth on the basis of the tiebreaker, were David Kreutz and Shon Harris. Harris would have won if Oregon had won and the combined point total had been 78 or more. (Kreutz picked Alabama as national champion.)
Rounding out the Top 10 were Jonathan Bates and Mike Wiser with 40 points each, followed by Morgan (Michael Pusatera’s second-grader, the third Ohio State picker), Andy Peterson and Becky Loy with 39 apiece.
Complete standings here; top 25 below.
Oravets, the Pick ’em champion, has been participating in the annual LRT Bowl Pick ’em contests since 2011, when he joined in response to an invitation from someone, presumably a mutual acquaintance. (He can’t recall now.) He then gets an automated e-mail each year from Office Football Pool, the contest’s host, asking him to play again, so he does.
When Oravets emerged as a contender this year, I wasn’t sure exactly who he was, so I reached out to him – and promptly found him. He’s a Cleveland resident and Ohio State supporter. “My son and I go to a few games every year and are big OSU fans,” he wrote. “Maybe next year you can have a $10.00 entry fee to make it a bit more fun.”
With 89 contestants in this year’s pool, such an entry fee could have yielded a payout of as much as $890. But, in keeping with LRT pool tradition, Oravets will have to settle for ETERNAL GLORY!
Again, full, final standings are here.