It was a sacrifice I was willing to make and it happened. Your Purdue Boilermakers won a college football game! Over another Big Ten team. For the first time since 2023. If it makes Illini fans feel better, the last program Purdue beat in a conference game went on to win a natty two years later...
To be honest, I should have expected it. I'm inevitably eliminated within a week or two of planning out the rest of the season and I attempted to do that this season last week. At least Purdue also took down my nephew and prevented him from beating me!
Anyway, 17 cowards picked Illinois last weekend including myself. The survivor pool has shrunk to 12!
There's also some housekeeping to do. The Legends division of the survivor pool is over. Entering week 5 just two contestants remained. JayMPSU joined the 17 cowards in picking Illinois to beat Purdue and was eliminated. His fellow legend meangene86 avoided picking Illinois in week 6. Unfortunately meangene86 picking Washington who lost by four at USC. So we go to the tiebreak to determine a winner of the legends division.
In week 5, meangene86 also took wisconsin which adds a little bit to his strength of record. At the end of week 5 the combined records of teams they picked against correctly is as follows:
· JayMPSU: 9-17
· meangene86: 11-20
Congratulations to meangene86 who is the winner of the legends survivor pool thanks to their extra pick in week 5 putting them over the top! Here's your Internet trophy.
The Rules
I'm not typing all of that out again. Click the week 0/week 1 article and read all the way through.
BoilerUp89
BoilerUp89
BoilerUp89
BoilerUp89
BoilerUp89
Survivor's Pool
Once during weeks 5-7, each contestant must make an extra pick. Reminder that you may only pick against each Big Ten team a maximum of three times.
Cowards
Only cowards left. One or two picks this week (see table below). 12 cowards left.
Hoosiers47 - please note that your second pick last week of Purdue over Illinois was not valid as you picked Purdue in week 1. Nice call though!
I'm running out of room in the table, so I've dropped the FCS picks left column. For your planning purposes the following participants have 1 FCS pick available: cericjo, LTW_O_MI, Rubber_Duck.
| Picks this week | Teams Picked | B1G Teams Picked Against | |
| AlmaOtter | 1 or 2 | MD, Minn, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers | MD (1X) |
| Badgersrox | 1 or 2 | MD, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers, USC, wiscon | MD (1X) |
| Boilermaker5 | 1 | MD, Minn, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers, USC | MD (1X), Wash (1X) |
| cericjo | 1 or 2 | MD, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers, wiscon | MD (1X) |
| Hoosiers47 | 1 or 2 | MD, Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers, wiscon | Mich (1X) |
| HoustonBoiler | 1 or 2 | MD, Minn, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers | MD (1X) |
| LTW_O_MI | 1 | Minn, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC | MD (1X), Purdue (1X), Wash (1X) |
| Mlurker19 | 1 | MD, Minn, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers, wiscon | MD (1X), MSU (1X) |
| OhioOtter | 1 or 2 | MD, Minn, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers | MD (1X) |
| Rubber_Duck | 1 or 2 | Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers, USC, wiscon | Wash (1X) |
| SeeJayBee | 1 | UNL, NW, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, wiscon | MD (1X), Purdue (1X), Wash (1X) |
| wesd2005 | 1 or 2 | MD, Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers, wiscon | MSU (1X) |
Week 6 picks made previously: Northwestern (LTW_O_MI). This pick may be changed up until kickoff but I suspect we see these three hold their positions this week.
Losers' Pool
Two eliminations for the losers' pool in week 5. DeadRead declined to participate after being relegated to the losers' pool with their week 4 pick and while he correctly warned us about the possibility of Purdue over Illinois thumpasaurus picked Minnesota to lose to Michigan. Better luck next year.
Meanwhile the losers' pool now outnumbers the survivors. In addition to everyone that took Illinois and meangene86's Washington selection, riclang and tech01 were double wrong with Illinois/PSU and Illinois/Michigan respectively. Both are still eligible to continue playing in the losers' pool as last week's picks count as just 1 week wrong.
| Picks this week | Teams Picked | B1G Teams Picked Against | |
| MiddleWestAverage | 1 or 2 | MD, MSU, OSU, Purdue, rutger, USC | UNL (1X), Oregon (1X) |
| TheDuluthPerspective | 1 or 2 | Ill, Iowa, MSU, OSU, Purdue, rutger | OSU (2X) |
| BradNortmansActingCoach | 1 | Iowa, MD, MSU, NW, OSU, Purdue, rutger | UCLA (1X), IU (1X), OSU (1X), UNL (1X) |
| Transient Buckeye | 1 | MD, MSU, UNL, NW, OSU, rutger, Wash | IU (1X), UNL (1X), USC (1X) |
| waw | 1 or 2 | MSU, Mich, OSU, Purdue, rutger, Wash | UCLA (1X), Iowa (1X), USC (1X) |
| NU06er | 1 or 2 | Minn, MSU, PSU, Purdue, Rutgers, Wash | Minn (1X), NW (1X) |
| ExiledinVT | 1 or 2 | Iowa, MD, Minn, MSU, PSU, UNL | wiscon (1X), OSU (1X) |
| RockyMtnBlue | 1 or 2 | Iowa, MSU, UNL, PSU, Wash, wiscon | Minn (1X), OSU (1X) |
| Atinat | 1 or 2 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X) |
| BoilerUp89 | 1 or 2 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X) |
| BoilerUp89's nephew | 1 or 2 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X) |
| Bridgeport | 1 or 2 | Ill, IU, MD, Purdue, UCLA, wiscon | Purdue (2X), NW (1X) |
| dlrhawks | 1 or 2 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X) |
| hoeger | 1 | Ill, MD, MSU, UNL, Rutgers, USC, wiscon | Purdue (1X), Wash (1X) |
| HuskersFirst | 1 | Ill, IU, MD, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers, Wash | NW (1X), Purdue (1X), MD (1X) |
| Nothsa | 1 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers, USC | Purdue (1X), Wash (1X) |
| redbear | 1 | Ill, MD, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers, wiscon | Purdue (1X), MD (1X) |
| riclang | 1 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, PSU, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X), NW (1X) |
| SkyBlueH20 | 1 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X), MD (1X) |
| tech01 | 1 | Ill, Mich, Minn, MSU, UNL, Rutgers, Wash | Purdue (1X), Minn (1X) |
| Tralfaz | 1 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, UNL, Rutgers, wisc | Purdue (1X), MD (1X) |
| Wacker Era Survivor | 1 | Ill, MD, MSU, UNL, PSU, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X), MD (1X) |
| winless | 1 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, UNL, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X), MD (1X) |
| ziowa9 | 1 or 2 | Ill, MD, Minn, MSU, Purdue, Rutgers | Purdue (1X) |
| JayMPSU | 1 or 2 | Ill, Minn, MSU, UNL, UCLA, Wash | MSU (1X), Purdue (1X) |
| meangene86 | 1 | MD, Minn, MSU, UCLA, USC, Wash, wiscon | Rut (1X), MD (1X), USC (1X), MSU (1X) |
Week 6 picks made previously: UCLA (NU06er). redbear and WackyEraSurvivor also previously made week 6 picks but unless they don't submit a pick this week I'm going to assume they want to make a change since they are no longer survivors.
Week 6 Games
All times ET
Friday, October 9
Iowa Hawkeyes at Washington Huskies, 9 PM
Saturday, October 10
Indiana Hoosiers at Nebraska Cornhuskers, Noon
Ball State Cardinals at Northwestern Wildcats, 12:30 PM
UCLA Bruins at Oregon Ducks, 3:30 PM
Illinois Fighting Illini at Michigan State Spartans, 3:30 PM
Maryland Terrapins at The Ohio State Buckeyes, 4:15 PM
USC Trojans at Penn State Nittany Lions, 7:30 PM
Minnesota Golden Gophers at Purdue Boilermakers, 8 PM
BoilerUp89's pick for week 6: I'll take UCLA to lose to Oregon in order to avoid any cross country travel shenanigans or use up one of the three picks against Indiana I'm allowed. This really is difficult when you've already picked the worst seven teams in the conference.
Good luck everyone. As always, please let me know of any mistakes in the comments.
