Knows Bowl

As a hockey puckster, Shawn Riker once fell out of the penalty box before a full house, and it wasn't onto the ice. Since, he's perfected the move falling off barstools. Also a graduate of Washington State, Shawn is all too familiar with the phenomenon of "Cougin' it" - finding a way to lose. Despite his obvious baggage, Riker held it together to post a 25 point victory over Scoot, the largest margin in 13 years and third biggest all-time.

The 21st Knows Bowl champ sealed the deal by picking the final four games correctly, and aside from stumbling with LSU in the Capital One, closed with eight of nine. He paced the pool, along with Scoot, at 19 correct and three on the nose (Las Vegas, Independence, Music City). Riker tried to 'Coug it' midway through the schedule by circling New Mexico-14 (Navy-15) and California-10 (Texas Tech-14) in back-to-back bowls, but managed to pull-out of his tailspin and get back onto the ice, so to speak.

Scoot (Scott Paine) scrambled up to second, from fourth into the finale, vaulting over Busch Lite and Roger Ramjet. When turning in entries, Scoot's dad, Ed, said Scott had done his own picks for the first time this year and that, "He did a pretty good job." Pretty good? All Scoot did was tie Riker for most correct selections with 19. Somehow, he was blanked in getting any scores on the money, though. Scoot was right on the Holiday Bowl's 14 point spread, but circled California instead of Texas Tech (a pick his pop agreed with, by the way).

Busch Lite (John Coen/Chuck Chapton) stayed in third with 18 correct. Like Scoot, the Buschies weren't able to nail any of the games. Perhaps the most important pick was taking Navy by 17 (actual 15) in the Emerald Bowl.

Chapton teamed-up for another paycheck on Empty (Tim Cahalan/Chuck Chapton), moving up a notch from fifth to fourth after the Orange Bowl. A perfect pick of Utah by 28 in the Fiesta was huge after being thrashed in the Cotton Bowl on a Texas A&M-6 misfire (actual Tennessee-31). In all, Empty finished with 18 right including that big one that stuck in the bullseye.

Into the national championship, Roger Ramjet (Roger Buckman) was perched in second and only needed an Oklahoma victory to be crowned Knows Bowl champ. We all now know that the Sooners were swooners.

Instead, Ramjet had a flame-out and crashed to fifth. He was consistently high in the standings throughout the schedule and posted two perfect picks (Las Vegas, Silicon) among 17 right.

Sixth place went to Kirk Tuttle who had all but thrown in the towel and no longer glued himself to the tube for bowl watching after just 6 of 12 correct picks to open the competition. At the gym on January 3rd, another entrant, Mike Brophy, hailed him with, "You lucky stiff." Tuttle, totally clueless as to why he should be considered exceptionally lucky, was amazed to hear he was in the top 10 after going 8 for 9. Kirk's interest really perked that night when he hit the Sugar Bowl with his lone emaculate prognostication. The lucky stiff completed the schedule with 17 correct.

The last moola maker was AJ Jackson, just out of the money last year. AJ hovered among the leaders until hitting a three bowl downer (Sun, Liberty, Peach), then battled back with 7 of 8 correct picks to finish with 17. He wasn't able to reach nirvana in any of the contests, though.

Left holding nothing but the dreaded dirt bag in 8th place was Yoshi (Susan) Valdez, who nudged ahead of Chatham Chiggers (Jeff Mertes) despite picking just 16 correct compared to 18 for the Chiggers. Yoshi's crystal ball was hot at the outset with 3 of the first 9 games perfect (Las Vegas, Independence, Alamo) and added a dead-on Cotton Bowl to lead the pool in perfection. Chatham, meanwhile, came screaming into contention with eight in a row including the Chiggers' two that were exact (Gator, Sugar).