Gar57 (Gary Sharp) was caught in an ebb Tide, on the wrong side of the BCS Championship finale. When Alabama took a 3-0 lead, Darren & Kevin Spaeth edged to within a point of the Knows Bowl pacesetter, but couldn't close the margin further. It should have been evident that Gar57 had a mojo working in the 28th edition of this bowl brain-cramper when his entry was the 57th to be entered into the computer. He promptly got out of the blocks with the fastest start in Knows Bowl history by picking the first 16 games correctly, including two scores (Armed Forces and Kraft) on the money. At that point, he was cruising along with a positive 102 points (105 at the end of the third quarter) - never before attained in KB competition. Everything was no doubt mighty hunky-dorie in Kenmore. Then, snap, the backpedal began with only three correct selections in the last nine games including stumbles in the closing three. Gar57 predicted four upsets among 19 correct selections.

Despite accomplishing the rare feat of finishing in the black in points for the competition at +7, Gar57 was 19 off Ted Homchick's record of +26 in Knows Bowl III and 15 behind Bill Dewitt's +22 in XI. In the 28 years of Knows Bowl competition, 12 pickers have finished with positive numbers including this year's +7 by Gar57 and +6 by Darren & Kevin Spaeth. Prior to this year, the last time it was achieved was in KB XIV when Mack McCown won with +17 and Bob Permut was runnerup at +13.

The dynamic son-father duo of Darren & Kevin Spaeth pursued fervently until it became obvious that LSU didn't have the horsepower to win by six or fewer points. Darren & Kevin moved into contention with a masterful immaculate selection of Oklahoma by 17 in the Insight Bowl, then after a tiny stumble in the Sun with 'The Ramblin' Wreck' by one, they made nine consecutive correct picks from the Kraft through the Fiesta bowls. However, Darren & Kevin only had two perfect picks (Insight and Kraft). The duo correctly tabbed five upsets and finished with 19 keepers.

Gerry N. (Gerry Nielsen) picked the BCS Championship upset correctly, but was extremely light on the spread at 1 point. He opened with a perfect pick in the Military Bowl among nine straight positive prognostications, then zig-zagged through the remaining schedule to finish with 18 correct including three upsets. Gerry picked three on the nose (Military, Gator and Rose).

Ko-Ho (Gordi Northrup) started off with a streak of nine correct and was one of Knows Bowl XXVIII's most consistently positive 'knows pickers' with a co-pool leading 20 keepers. He closed with four straight to move into payout position, but was held back with just one on the nose (Sugar) and three upsets.

ESP (Ed & Scott Paine), another father-son tandem, was a serious contender with four immaculate selections (Military, Armed Forces, Insight and Rose) to their credit. But despite tabbing Alabama's upset in the BCS Championship, only finished with three positive underdog selections and a total of just 17 correct predictions.

Duke (Stan Opp) kept edging up the standings throughout the schedule with 19 correct, but was only able to put together one streak of five correct from the Kraft through the Capital One. Still poised to pad his pocketbook by a spot or two, Duke, after three in a row, stumbled with LSU in the finale. The fact that he had only one immaculate pick (Sugar) and just three correct upsets hindered a higher finish.

Unable to put together a streak of any significance (five was his longest), McSpread (Greg McPherson) wasn't able to maximize his co-pool leading 20 correct picks. With no spread larger than ten, his conservative approach netted two perfect picks (Armed Forces and Sugar) but, surprisingly, five upsets. McSpread's pick of Alabama in the BCS Championship broke the tie with Michael Harbour to secure 7th.

Michael Harbour stayed consistently among the leaders after opening with nine straight correct picks. However, his status dropped coming to the wire with just one keeper among the closing six bowls. Harbour finished with 17 correct including three perfectos (Armed Forces, Rose and Fiesta) and just two upsets. The selection of LSU in the BCS Championship lost the tiebreaker for 7th & 8th.

Hanging on to the final money spot, Rob Permut hummed along from the Holiday through the Capital One bowls with 14 consecutive correct predictions including the Champs Sports perfectly. However, that was it for perfection among 19 correct. He tabbed four upsets correctly.

Jim Mennis 2 became the 28th 'Bagboy' as the best prognosticator to be left holding an empty sack, one spot out of the chips. Mennis was the early leader with nine straight opening selections and had a total of five on the nose (Armed Forces, Music City, Liberty, Outback and Rose) but only picked 17 correctly. Four of those keepers were upsets. Mennis boo-booed by picking 9 spreads of 7, which was automatically adjusted to LSU 8 in the BCS Championship. However, the snowman didn't matter in the final standings.

Eight of this year's bowl games were considered to be upsets - Pinstripe [Rutgers 43.3%], Sun [Utah 33.5%], Liberty [Cincinnati 46.3%], Gator [Florida 48.2%], Outback [Michigan St. 43.3%], Orange [W.Virginia 15.2%], BBVA Compass [SMU 29.9%] and BCS Championship [Alabama 43.3%]. The biggest upset, according to Knows Bowl XXVIII prognosticators, was West Virginia's victory in the Orange Bowl that only 15.2% correctly predicted. A record four bowls went to overtime - Sun which Utah won by 3, Outback which Michigan St. won by 3 in 3 OTs, Fiesta which Oklahoma St. won by 3 and Sugar which Michigan won by 3. The closest game going into the bowl schedule, according to Knows pickers, was the very first matchup that gave a 50.1% edge to Toledo over Air Force in the Military Bowl by 1 point (the game's exact outcome). The pool's Consensus (average) of entered picks and spreads finished 53rd. Of special note: MV (Mike Vail) was uncannily accurate in the opening games...he tabbed the first nine correctly with four perfect picks, and hit five of his first ten correct predictions exactly on the nose including three in a row (Armed Forces-BYU 3, Music City-Mississippi St. 6, Insight-Oklahoma 17, Meineke-Texas A&M 11 and Kraft-Illinois 6).