CFB Win Total Workbook: August 10th
Who can be this year's TCU? Maybe "schedule flexibility" can help us find them.
This is the continuation of a summer-long series about NFL and CFB win total concepts. Part 1, with a simple NFL exercise to work on, can be found here. Parts 2 and 3, with an exercise and my thoughts on CFB win totals, can be found here and here.
We all have random favorite movies. One of mine is “Finding Forrester.” It focuses on the relationship between a reclusive bestselling author (Sean Connery) and an African-American high-school student (Rob Brown) who demonstrates a lot of writing potential despite his upbringing. I grew up playing basketball a lot as a little kid, I wanted to be a newspaper reporter, and I ended up going to a very elite prep school for most of my education. All of these things — basketball, writing, and the private school system — are in this movie. That’s probably why I like it so much.
There’s a scene in the movie where Brown’s character, Jamal Wallace, is at the free throw line with a chance to win the state title (I think? Some title like that). Obviously you’d think he wants to win, but also there had been a lot going on at school, and his success in the tournament was tied to whether they would allow him to continue attending school there. It was an unfair, quasi-racist setup. So he had lot going on in his head at the foul line. And he misses the foul shots. His team loses the game as a result.
After the game, Connery’s character, William Forrester, asks Wallace (Brown), “so…those free throws. Did you miss them, or did you miss them?” The implication is maybe Wallace missed them because he shot them poorly, which is quite innocent, but maybe he also missed them on purpose to thumb his nose at the school that had mistreated him.
Obviously, it’s a fun question, because it plays on the idea that even though they’re both called the same thing (missing), there’s a big difference in missing them, and (my italics added) missing them. There’s nuance. Language is fun, isn’t it?
Get ready for a Hall of Fame transition here.
Well, in college football, when you look at a team’s schedule, there are losses, and there are losses. Knowing the difference can help you make valuable bets.