Dave Portnoy called Rutgers -29.5 over UMass his best bet of the year, and it lost outright. He's still fuming days later, wearing a scarlet R, while Big Cat and Rico work Week 1's card.
Portnoy and Big Cat put up $10k apiece for a hospitalized friend. Danny's stuck in a hospital bed, so Portnoy calls in a bet to give him something to watch and splits it with Big Cat — real money riding on the Yankees covering that night. It's less a pick em play than a favor, and it opens the season's ledger on a personal note before a single college kickoff.
Win 1 for Danny tonight! He’s laying in a hospital bed all beat up so I put in this bet for him to pass the time He picked it. We split it. 10k each on over Yankees! For Danny! #win1fordanny
Big Cat opens the pick em season on the board. The reasoning is as simple as the bet itself — he doesn't trust a game played overseas to go the distance, so the under is the play. It's a small, low-stakes opener, but it's the first entry in what becomes a season-long paper trail of picks, hits and misses for the show.
1st official pick em play of the season. TCU/UNC Under 23.5 I don’t trust foreign fields. @Barstoolpickem
The first cash: San Jose State covers the over. One pick down, one pick good — a team fighting to the final whistle is exactly what the over needed. It's an ugly, unglamorous way to start a season of tracked plays, but for one night the ledger reads in Big Cat's favor.
Way to fight San Jose State! That’s the over!!!
Week 1 of Pick Em airs, and Rico takes the heat. The show's first full slate puts Rico Bosco's picks under the microscope, with Big Cat wondering aloud if he's a bust and Portnoy telling him straight to his face his work has been rough. It's the running joke of the season taking shape early, well before the group's bigger disaster hits.
Portnoy calls Rutgers -29.5 his best bet of the year. Forget the small stuff from Pick Em's opening weeks — this is Portnoy going all in on his own read, staking his college football season on a lopsided spread against UMass. It's the kind of bold, personal lock that makes everything that follows land so much harder.
I made my 1st bet of college football season and it may be my strongest play of the year. Rutgers -29.5 to beat umass by 40 plus
Rutgers falls apart live, and Portnoy watches his lock die. Portnoy's tone flips in real time, from calling Rutgers asleep to watching them get run off their own field inside the same half hour. By his own count it takes all of three minutes into the season for him to get burned, turning his self-declared best bet of the year into its earliest disaster.
Umass is kicking the ever living shit out of Rutgers.
Portnoy apologizes for the Rutgers pick and takes the blame himself. No blaming Greg Schiano, no blaming the roster — Portnoy stands in front of a phone camera and owns the pick outright, calling it the most pathetic effort he's ever seen. It's the fastest turn from bold lock to public mea culpa the season has produced.
I apologize to everybody who followed me on the Rutgers pick. I’m not gonna point the finger at Greg Schiano or Rutgers for the most pathetic effort Ive ever seen. The buck stops with me. I will work to earn your trust back #rutgerssucks
The receipts: UMass covers as a 29.5-point dog, and a 677-day drought ends. The numbers come in after the fact and they're brutal for Portnoy's side of the ledger — UMass priced way out as an underdog, picking up their first win over a power conference opponent in decades and snapping a long winless run in the process. It's the exact opposite of what the strongest play of the year was supposed to deliver.
UMass was a 29.5 point underdog tonight They’ll pick up their FIRST win vs. a current power conference opponent since November of 1978
Portnoy stops blaming himself and comes for the Rutgers program. Less than a day after taking the loss on himself, Portnoy pivots from apology to attack, calling for Rutgers to be booted from the Big Ten and the program disbanded outright. Barstool Gambling piles on, noting it's a rough morning to have your name on a Rutgers donor list. The self-flagellation from the beat above turns into full-blown scorched earth.
Big Cat builds his week 1 board, one add at a time. With the Rutgers disaster behind him, Big Cat gets back to business, stacking overs and unders across the Saturday slate — Indiana's first half, South Carolina/Kent, Tulane/Duke, Oklahoma State, FIU/USF, Texas A&M and more piling on through the afternoon and into the evening. Barstool Gambling singles out his Texas/Texas State over as the headliner of the day.
Adds for @BarstoolBigCat Indiana first half TT over 27.5 South Carolina/Kent over 53.5
.@BarstoolBigCat’s best pick for Week 1 of College Football: Texas vs Texas St O/59.5 “Listen, Week 1 is pretty easy… I just want to sit down on my couch and root for points” @DrinkBODYARMOR
Portnoy is still not over it — wears a scarlet R, demands Schiano be fired. A full day after his apology, Dave says Rutgers ruined his entire football season. By Saturday it's a bit: the show drags his own tweet back out for an Old Takes Exposed segment, and Dave shows up wearing a scarlet R so he never bets Rutgers again, calling Greg Schiano's job security a disgrace. Two days later, the joke has hardened into a genuine grudge.
Ohio State makes miserable company of Rico and Portnoy both. Rico's over bet turns into a slog when Ohio State won't cooperate, and by the third quarter he's begging for a defensive score just to bail him out. Across the show, Portnoy's watching Ohio — the Bobcats — blow a spread of his own, throwing a pick with the game still in reach to seal the loss, calling it a fireable offense. Two unrelated Ohio disasters collide into one bad afternoon for the board.
Gonna need a pick 6 or scoop and score . I hate Ohio State
Ohio fucking sucks Your down 21 with 4 minutes to running no huddle throwing the ball everywhere and throw an Int to cost you the spread and then sit on it with 2 minutes to go. Fireable offense in my mind #ohiobobcats
Rico opens his own book with a BYU stack. While Big Cat works his card, Rico Bosco puts up his first plays of the day through Barstool Pick Em — BYU's first quarter and a first-half over against Utah Tech. It's the first time this season Rico's own numbers go up alongside Big Cat's, setting up a Saturday where both of them have skin in the game.
Adds @Barstoolpickem BYU 1q -13.5 BYU Utah Tech 1h over 34.5
Big Cat's card craters — one over survives the day. After a full day of adds — Indiana, South Carolina/Kent, Tulane/Duke, Oklahoma State and more — Big Cat's board goes bust across the board except the Texas/Texas State over Barstool Gambling flagged that morning. One live one on a day that could've used a lot more.
Thank you Texas. The only bet I’ll win all day was the mortal Over
Rico closes the night hot with a run of live cashes. Rico keeps working the card into the night, tracking Texas Tech-Abilene Christian's third-quarter over live and calling for a bigger second half, then cashing a blowout with a triumphant 35-0 before firing off one more live BYU third-quarter spread bet. It's the busiest, and best, stretch of the day for the Pick Em crew.
“You want one more ?!?? BYU 3q -12.5 Let's fucking goooooo”
35-0
