I took a shot on Crown last week and I was feeling pretty good about myself for the most of the game. Then came overtime and the dreaded extra point. It really isn't fair to the Storm that they have to kick the ball in between the cross bars from so far away after they score a touchdown in order to get a bonus point. I mean, who came up with that stupid rule anyway? I was so close to tying Jay going into the last week and wiping that smug grin off of his face. Instead, I find myself in a two game hole needing to toss up a Hail Mary. I can only hope I have better results than Durley did in his final throw of the game against Northwestern. (Sorry... that's the last shot at the Eureka QB for the week. I promise.)
MacMurray @ Eureka - If Eureka loses this one they might as well just shut down their football program and invest their money in something more useful, like their "Ronald Reagan Went Here so You Should Too" campaign. It is certainly within the realm of possibility for MacMurray to win this one. They are getting better as the season goes along and Eureka has lost 3 in a row. Still, it is hard for me to imagine Durley losing to MacMurray at home in the final game of his career. Unless, of course, he has Brett Favre syndrome and feels the need to throw an interception in his final pass attempt. Eureka has had a disappointing season but they are still a lot better than MacMurray. The Red Devils send their seniors out on a high note with a strong performance and a win at Pete FioRito Stadium at McKinzie Field (The only field with a longer name than that is Mall of America Field at the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome). Eureka 31 MacMurray 13 
Crown @ Martin Luther - Crown let me down last week but I am going with them again this week for 3 primary reasons: 1) Jay picked Martin Luther 2) Crown has more upperclassmen at key positions with QB Wes Safford and RB Amos Schmidt. I give them the edge in a close game over the Knights who have freshmen at key positions with QB Luke Rothe and RB Matt Olson 3) MLC has the most ridiculous system for sending in their play calls that I have ever seen. In case you haven't noticed, after every play Rothe runs over to the offensive coordinator who proceeds to open up a recipe box full of color coded index cards. He then hands one of these cards to Rothe who runs over to the huddle and holds it up for everyone to see. And, naturally, he tucks the card into his pants before running the play (Well obviously. Where else would you put an index card with the play on it?) It can only be so long before teams start stealing the cards out of Rothe's pants while he is laying on the ground after he gets tackled. I can't wait until I see a 15 yard personal foul penalty called against an MLC opponent for "Unsportsmanlike Reaching into the Pants of a Defenseless Quarterback." Crown 27 Martin Luther 21
St. Scholastica @ Minnesota Morris - These two teams will be amped for this game. Well, at least I would suspect they would be. I know that the boys from Morris will be. They have rallied together with an us-against-the-world mentality and nothing would put the cherry on top of their already successful season like an upset over St. Scholastica at home in their final game of the year. St. Scholastica has to know that they still have a legitimate shot at a playoff berth with a win in this one. It is not at all out of the question for Greenville to beat Northwestern. And thanks to Greg Johnson, UMAC Sports Information Director, we have confirmation that in the event of a Northwestern loss and Scholastica win the Saints would possess the tie-breaker and go to the playoffs. ***(UPDATE: NWC loss and CSS win creates a 3-way tie and automatic qualifier is determined by random draw)*** I suspect that CSS will put their lackluster performances of the past few weeks behind them and come out full steam ahead against the Cougars. The talent level of these two teams is a lot closer than I thought earlier in the year, but I still think that Scholastica is better than Morris and with so much on the line will find a way to win. St. Scholastica 28 Morris 17 Greenville @ Northwestern - We have done our best here at UMAC Central to build up excitement each and every week of the season in order to keep our ratings high - our advertisers like it that way. But the reality is that we all know that in terms of who would win the conference there were only going to be 3 games that meant anything this year - Scholastica vs. Greenville, Northwestern vs. Scholastica, and now the final piece of the puzzle is Greenville vs. Northwestern. Algebra would tell us that since Scholastica blew out Greenville and Northwestern beat Scholastica, Scholastica > Greenville, Northwestern > Scholastica and therefore Northwestern > Greenville. (That's called the Transitive Property folks. Some bonus math for you there.) However, anyone who knows anything about football knows that it is all about matchups. I have felt since the beginning of the year that Greenville matches up extremely well against the Eagles. Northwestern has yet to beat the Panthers in their 2 games against them since Greenville joined the UMAC. You also have to consider the fact that Greenville was behind 23-0 at halftime last season against NWC before scoring 27 in the fourth quarter to win. No matter how big of a lead the Eagles are able to build, the Panthers have to always feel like they still have a chance. The film tells me that I should go with Northwestern. There seems to be no way that Greenville's defense can stop the Eagles' offensive attack. But, for some reason, I have that feeling deep in my gut that the Panthers are going to pull out a huge upset on the road in the most exciting UMAC game of the year. I'm going with the inverse score of Jay. And let the UMAC chaos begin. Greenville 38 Northwestern 35
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