It is a bittersweet day around here at the Gameday blog.  The results for the season are in, and that means that we crown a new champion as we put the season to bed.  I found it interesting that both last year’s bowl champion (Tony Reali) and last year’s season champion (Jesse Palmer) both were not in the competition.  Tony Reali had no picks this year, and Jesse Palmer only had ten picks (going 7-3 overall).  This year, Ryen Russillo was on top of the leaderboard going 18-5 (78.26%) but 23 picks is not enough to be a champion around here.  Therefore, I am proud to bring you this year’s grand champion: Tom Luginbill at 58-17 (77.33%).  We had a handful of experts going into bowl season who were within reach of the coveted 80% barrier for the season.  Big names including Tom Luginbill, Lou Holtz, Pat Forde, Mike Bellotti, Colin Cowherd and so on.  Pat Forde had been on a tear this year sitting at 75.84%, but tanked the bowl season going 18-17.  Lou Holtz was at 75% even, but only picked two bowl games and got them wrong.  Cowherd and Bellotti both had a shot, but average finishes weren’t enough to boost them over the top.  Tom Luginbill was at exactly 80% headed into bowl season, but a 6-4 finish dropped him a few points which was still good enough for the gold.  Below you will find the full slate of results for the year, with the minor experts listed below (those who only picked a few games).

Tom Luginbill: Gameday Champion

Our rookie of the year has to be Dari Nowkhah coming in at 72.6% in his first season here.  He took on the hosting duties on the new ESPN show College Football Daily, which is the spiritual successor to the greatly missed “Palmer & Pollack”, and he did pretty well.  Mark Schlabach did nicely this year at 64.41%, which was good enough to bring him up from last place in the all-time rankings (now taken on by Mike Greenberg after a disastrous bowl season).  Celebrity guests on Gameday did pretty crappy, so let us shame them at 55.65%.  Brian Griese is our anti-rookie of the year at 57.45%.  Last but not least, I really do have to give props to Lou Holtz.  In years past he has picked Notre Dame to win virtually every game they play, and this year he went bananas at 72.58% right.  I would have loved to have seen how smug he would have been if ND won the championship, but oh well.  I’m sure he’ll be back next year to pick them every game.

Thanks for reading; its been a great season.  Check back next August when things get going again.  Who knows, maybe this offseason I’ll write some bonus material here too.

Ryen Russillo: 18-5, 78.26%
Tom Luginbill: 58-17, 77.33%
Matt Stinchcomb: 12-4, 75%
Pat Forde: 310-110, 73.81%
Ed Cunningham: 8-3, 72.73%
Dari Nowkhah: 106-40, 72.60%
Lou Holtz: 45-17, 72.58%
Mike Bellotti: 65-25, 72.22%
Lee Corso: 128-50, 71.91%
Colin Cowherd: 99-39, 71.74%
Woody Paige: 5-2, 71.43%
Trevor Matich: 70.65%
Christian Fauria: 84-36, 70%
Jesse Palmer: 7-3, 70%
Kirk Herbstreit: 125-54, 69.83%
Mel Kiper Jr.: 30-14, 68.18%
Charles Arbuckle: 41-20, 67.21%
Brad Edwards: 42-21, 66.67%
Kevin Carter: 10-5, 66.67%
Matt Millen: 4-2, 66.67%
Jason Sehorn: 49-25, 66.22%
Jennifer’s Picks: 144-74, 66.06%
Mark Schlabach: 38-19, 64.41%
Desmond Howard: 92-52, 63.89%
Robert Smith: 97-56, 63.40%
David Pollack: 69-40, 63.30%
Mike Golic: 24-14, 63.16%
Dan Hawkins: 15-9, 62.5%
Danny Kanell: 23-15, 60.53%
Todd McShay: 52-35, 59.77%
Mark May: 46-32, 58.97%
Brian Griese: 27-20, 57.45%
Celebrity Guests: 69-55, 55.65%
Tim Cowlishaw: 5-4, 55.56%
Ivan Maisel: 3-3, 50%
Skip Bayless: 5-7, 41.67%
Chris Fowler: 2-3, 40%
Mike Greenberg: 13-22, 37.14%
Andre Ware: 1-3, 25%

Scott Van Pelt: 5-0, 100%
JA Adande: 3-0, 100%
Bob Ryan: 3-0, 100%
Kevin Blackistone: 2-0, 100%
Samantha Steele: 1-0, 100%
Jackie MacMullan: 1-0, 100%
Michael Smith: 4-1, 80%
Brock Huard: 3-1, 75%
Bill Plaschke: 0-1, 0%