Sports Then and Now

Even losses by a number of prohibitive favorites and the New Year’s Day Debacle by the Big Ten couldn’t derail the Sports Then and Now Zultan as he completed the 2010 season with a strong showing in the second annual Sports Then and Now College Football Bowl Challenge.

The Zultan posted a solid 15-10 bowl record, including a 3-2 record in BCS games.

A large field of would-be prognosticators struggled against the challenge of bowl season. The large number of early upsets made it tough for some challengers to get a solid start to the season. Overall, more than half the participants in the bowl challenge finished with a losing record.

Surprising losses by Nebraska, Missouri, Clemson and South Carolina along with poor performances by one-time “big boys” Miami, Georgia and Georgia Tech was difficult to overcome.

Then there was the abysmal New Year’s Day performance by the Big Ten. Many contestants were blindsided by the five losses suffered by the conference on that single day.

Miraculously, there were nine who overcame the odds to post a better record than the Zultan.

Leading the way was Martin Oravets (Sheffield Lake, OH), Michael Wilson (no city given) and Duane Bowers (Dallas, TX) with 18-7 records. Eric Stipp (Dublin, OH) and one unnamed participant finished with a 17-8 record and Angie Webb (Norwalk, IA), Thomas Cornelis (Washington, DC), Dallas Palmer (New Virginia, IA) and Morgan Brazitis (Wilmington, DE) posted marks of 16-9. The winner of the $100 PayPal gift certificate was Duane Bowers.

All who participated in the Bowl Challenge were entered into a drawing for one of three $15 iTunes gift cards. The winners of those prizes are Faron Hall (Sierra Vista, AZ), Karen Clark (Redfield, AR) and Diane Boettcher (Lawrenceville, GA).

Special thanks to our Zultan for another great year of reading the tea leaves and predicting the college football winners. Only the Zultan knows if he will continue to share his wisdom next year, but be sure and check back in late August to find out.