Bowl-game blues: Pick 6 college football predictions were a mess. You have 1 more chance

Ouch.

Bowl games can be difficult to predict. Factors such as coaching changes, seniors sitting out, and simply which teams are more motivated can be just as important as the actual matchups, and can turn our prognostications into a jumbled mess.

And that’s what the Pick 6 results looked like after the first half of the bowl season — a jumbled mess.

Only five people managed to have a winning record, and just 31 percent went 3-3 or better. While the majority of participants finished at 2-4 or 1-5, four actually went 0-6. Through 14 weeks of contents, no one had been shut out all year until now.

Here are the winning teams, followed by the percentage of people who correctly picked them: Fresno State over New Mexico State (53%), UCLA over Boise State (37%), Air Force over James Madison (43%), Georgia State over Utah State (31%), Northwestern over Utah (18%) and Coastal Carolina over San Jose State (24%).

After all that carnage, here’s how the Pick 6 Top 6 looked after applying the tiebreaker of the Boise State-UCLA score — with margin of victory taking precedence, followed by total points scored.

Even longtime season leader GenXMichael had a bad week, which allowed a few behind him to creep to within striking distance in the overall standings.

In percentage standings — which is best winning percentage for those who have participated in at least two-thirds of the contests (10 of the 15) — it’s now a tie at the top. And everyone in the top 6 still has a chance to come out ahead

So there’s still plenty up for grabs in our last Pick 6 contest of the season. The final six games consist of the New Year’s Six bowls (Cotton, Peach, Orange and Fiesta bowls) and the College Football Playoff semifinals (Rose and Sugar). The tiebreaker will be your score prediction in the Rose Bowl matchup between Alabama and Michigan.

The first game — Missouri vs. Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl — is at 6 p.m. Mountain on Friday, so you’ll have until then to get in your picks. In seven days, we’ll reveal the results of this week, along with the overall and percentage winners for the season. Here’s a recap of the rules:

1) List your name (optional).

2) List a unique user name if you don’t want your real name used (optional).

3) List your favorite college football team (optional).

4) Pick the winners of our six games.

5) As a tiebreaker, predict the final score of the Alabama-Michigan game in the Rose Bowl.

6) You’ll have until kickoff of the first game on our list to make your picks (6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 29).

Good luck! If the game format isn’t showing up below on your screen, follow this link.