Barking News

Rusty Painter Doubles the Field While Everyone Else Bleeds

By: Sugar (2026-09-29)

Week 4 is in the books and the CFCC field would like to file a formal complaint with the college football gods. Average score: 42.7. That is not a typo, and it is not a rounding error. That is a field-wide faceplant.

Before we get to the carnage, let's appreciate the week for what it was. A Texas player drew a flag for simulating a restroom action, which is a sentence nobody expected to type on a Saturday. USC took a cheap shot at Dante Moore and got the laundry for it. Kirk Ferentz cried after Iowa beat Michigan, the Iowa student announcer had a full-on meltdown on the call, and PJ Fleck used one of his own player's facial blood as victory paint. September, folks. We've still got three months of this.

The Two Games That Emptied the Bank

Cincinnati over Kansas State was the appetizer. Eighty-six percent of the field had the Wildcats and got nothing for it. Cost to the room: 2,212 points. Ugly, but survivable.

Then came Wisconsin over Penn State. Ninety-nine percent of the CFCC field had Penn State. Ninety-nine. And most of them didn't put a courtesy 3 on it either, they backed up the truck. Total damage: 4,655 points torched in a single afternoon. That one game is the difference between a normal week and the wreckage you see in the standings.

Elsewhere, Iowa beat Michigan with 80% of the field on the wrong side. UCF took down TCU when 76% had the Frogs. Florida got Ole Miss in the closest split on the board at 57-43. Texas A&M, Missouri and Tulsa all went down as expected, which at least kept a few people breathing. And if you missed Utah over Iowa State at 96%, or New Mexico over New Mexico State at 97%, or Georgia over Oklahoma at 99%, well, there is a support group and it meets in the bottom half of the standings.

Week 4 Winners

Rusty Painter of Jenkinsburg, GA is your Week 4 champion with 88 points on a 12-3 record. In a week where the average was 42.7, doubling the field is highway robbery. Nice work, Rusty.

Nathan Binau from Billings, MT took second with 80 points, also 12-3, and he used it to move 160 spots up the overall board from 284 to 124. Best climb of the week by a mile.

Tom Bradshaw of Justin, Texas grabbed third with 78 points on a stellar 13 wins, and jumped 140 spots from 200 to 60. We are also contractually obligated to mention that Tom's Gunnery Sgt. Hartman avatar remains undefeated on this site.

Dan Berc (+123, from 302 to 179) and Peyton Gillespie (+117, from 266 to 149) also made real money on a week where most of the room was just trying to find the exits.

Season Leaders

At the top of the overall board it's Michael Bowlan at 344 on a 50-10 record. Rick Miner (334, 48-12), Anthony Cavallucci (334, 47-13) and Jacob Ventimiglia (334, 47-13) are knotted up ten back, with John Banghoff at 332 (47-13) and Robert Stonefield at 330 (46-14) right there behind them.

The Other Direction

Somebody has to pay for Wisconsin. Carl Lindecrantz went from 29th to 259th, a drop of 230 spots. Mark Plate fell 216 from 15th to 231st. Judy Vesper dropped 200 (79 to 279) and Bill Gargan slid 196 (73 to 269). Four players who were sitting pretty at breakfast and needed a ride home by dinner. Shake it off, it's Week 4.

Group Play

Hillers Thrillers have taken over first with a 304.33 average, up 55.56 on the week. ReLaXers sit second, 11 points off the pace, with BoomerBacks another point behind at 12 back.

Best group week belonged to the Water Warriors, up 58.29 and into 11th overall. Keep that up and this becomes a real conversation.

The dirty-dawg Top 12

New this season, the dirty-dawg Top 12, voted each week by the elite of the room. To get a ballot you have to be in the top 10% of the overall standings or the top 10% of the latest weekly standings.

For now, the dirty-dawg Top 12 lines up almost perfectly with the real top 12, with one exception: our voters swapped Utah in for Texas Tech.

Almost perfect agreement in Week 4 is fine. The fun starts in November when everybody's got an agenda and a grudge.

Week 5 Is Open

We caught heat last week for putting zero ACC teams on the slate, and to our genuine surprise there are actually a few dirty-dawg worthy ACC matchups this time around. We also spread the love to some other conferences, and the whole thing looks sneaky tough.

Deadline is the usual 11 AM CDT Saturday. After what Wisconsin just did to this field, maybe think twice before you slap 15 on a 99% lock. Good luck.

Samuel "Kruses" through Calibration Week

By: Sugar (2026-09-23)

Five favorites went down and the field averaged a sad 29.3 — only Jack Herty and Cory Mottice saw the Saints and Browns coming. Charles Thomas took the week with 76 and jumped 96 spots, while Samuel Kruse's 68 quietly moved him into the overall lead.