College Football, NASCAR Playoffs & Cold Craft Beer! 🏈 🏁 🍻

Some couples bond over cooking, travel, or binge-watching reality TV. We bond by trying to absolutely destroy each other in sports trivia, brackets, and fantasy standings.

Andy: Holding onto a lead in this house is hard work, especially with Leesl breathing down my neck in college football! My once-comfortable lead is down to a single game, but a lead is still a lead. Over on the racetrack, Windy City Racin’ has some serious ground to make up against Lone Star Racin’, but if there’s any track where a 135-point comeback starts, it’s short-track chaos at Martinsville. I’m ready to sweep the slate, stretch my pigskin margin, and put some serious pressure on her drivers!

Settling the score in Round 5 — It’s Pigskins, Pit Stops, and Pints!

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🏈 Pigskins: The CFB High-Five

College Standings: Leesl: 19-20-1 | Andy: 20-19-1 (Margin: +1 Andy)

Our weekly college football picking slate is a pure battle of negotiation. Each week, after a healthy amount of debating and back-and-forth, we lock in a fun, random mix of five games across the country to put our overall records on the line!

Andy: Week 8 in college football was as wild as it gets. Oregon got upended by Illinois, Cincinnati stunned Texas Tech… and my pick sheet took a serious beating. Out of five games, only South Carolina and Wisconsin decided to cooperate. My Auburn pick looked bad from the opening kickoff against LSU and somehow looked worse by the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Ole Miss made it interesting late, but Texas had just enough left in the tank to pull away. Bottom line: my lead has shrunk to a single game at 20–19–1. I need a clean sweep in Week 9 just to give myself some breathing room.

Leesl: “Breathing room” is a very polite way of saying you can hear my footsteps!

And how did you leave out the biggest shocker of the weekend? UCF—a full touchdown underdog—welcomed BYU to Florida and sent them packing in overtime!

Also, let’s talk about that Texas pick. Did you really think the Longhorns were going to drop three in a row? Sure, they’ve had injuries and they’ve been erratic, but there was no way they were letting that must-win slide at home. As for your Auburn pick… well, I knew that was doomed the second you typed it. LSU basically put cruise control on after halftime, but holding onto that 21-point lead made for a very satisfying checkmark on my card.

Enjoy that one-game lead while it lasts, Andy. Week 9 is right around the corner!

Here is the Week 9 Lineup we finally agreed on:

• Game 1: Ohio State @ USC: Leesl (Ohio State) | Andy (USC)
• Game 2: La Tech @ S. Alabama: Leesl (S. Alabama) | Andy (La Tech)
• Game 3: Georgia vs. Florida: Leesl (Georgia) | Andy (Florida)
• Game 4: Kansas @ TCU: Leesl (TCU) | Andy (Kansas)
• Game 5: Northwestern @ Oregon: Leesl (Northwestern) | Andy (Oregon)

Leesl: Our five head-to-head picks with your lead hanging in the balance—this is where the season gets fun. I’m particularly looking forward to hearing your rationale for picking Florida against Georgia in Atlanta??

Andy: Let’s be honest—Atlanta is going to be packed with red and black, which makes Florida a massive underdog playing in hostile territory. But hostiles-versus-favorites is where rivalry magic happens, and Florida has enough defense to make Georgia sweat. I needed a bold swing to hold you off! But you backing TCU against a sneaky Kansas squad when the Frogs can’t decide week-to-week which team shows up? That’s brave.

Leesl: TCU gets it done at home, mark my words. Plus, you know there’s zero chance I will ever back the Jayhawks—not with our K-State grad in the family! EMAW forever!! Our games are locked in, so let’s see who’s holding the lead heading into Week 10!

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🏁 Pit Stops: The Playoff Pulse

Current Fantasy Scoreboard: Leesl: 18,298 pts | Andy: 18,163 pts (Margin: +135 Lone Star Racin’)

Andy: Last week, Leesl claimed surviving Talladega takes “a perfect cocktail of veteran patience and a massive blessing from Lady Luck.” Well, Lady Luck definitely favored Kyle Larson. He went from 11th to 1st in half a lap, dodged Joey Logano upside-down on his roof, and extended his Cup points lead.

Now we head to “The Paperclip” at Martinsville—0.526 miles of relentless, door-to-door bumper car racing. Windy City Racin’ needs a massive week to cut into Leesl’s 135-point lead. Luckily, Chase Elliott won here in the spring, so I’m locking him in to lead my squad to a Martinsville sweep.

Leesl: Yep, Lady Luck definitely won that race for Larson—mostly because the flag stand turned a blind eye! He was clearly below the yellow line on that final lap, and on any other Sunday, that’s an illegal pass. But since NASCAR let it slide, here we are.

As for Martinsville, Andy is right about one thing: it’s vintage, beat-’em-and-bang-’em short track racing. But before Andy rolls his eyes at me for picking Denny Hamlin again—listen, I play the numbers! Denny is the active king of Martinsville with 6 wins and over 3,000 laps led.

Lone Star Racin’ won here by 58 points in the spring, and with Hamlin, Logano, Byron, and Briscoe on my card, I’m not giving up one point of my 135-point lead. Just try to keep us in your windshield as we pull further ahead!

🏁 Our Official Playoff Rosters

• Leesl’s Lone Star Racin’ – These boots are meant for racing!
  • Hamlin, Logano, Reddick, Byron, Briscoe, Wallace, Gibbs & Hocevar.
• Andy’s Windy City Racin’ – From second city to first place!
  • Elliott, Larson (winner 🏆), Blaney, Bell, Keselowski, Suarez, Cindric & Preece.

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🍻 Pints: What We’re Sipping

The Spot: Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden (Dallas, TX)

The Pour: Pumpkins & Pints Oktoberfest… or John Denver Night?

Leesl: Well, remember when we promised a full Pumpkins & Pints Oktoberfest recap from the Dallas Arboretum?

Consider this the official post-game debrief: the grounds were breathtaking, the pumpkin village was 10 out of 10, and the autumn blooms were stunning.

But the “Oktoberfest” part?

Total bust!

Andy: The advertisement promised us a chance to “raise our steins” to Bavarian tradition. What we actually got was zero draft beer, not a single German brew in sight, and standard domestic cans poured into plastic cups.

Leesl: But the absolute best part? We were expecting a polka band to go with our non-existent Oktoberfest beers, only to get a live performer singing… John Denver covers! Nothing says authentic Bavarian Oktoberfest quite like “Take Me Home, Country Roads” echoing across White Rock Lake.

Andy: You have to laugh! While the beer selection definitely missed the mark, you can’t beat the setting.

We got our steps in, enjoyed the gorgeous golden hour light across the gardens, and shared a good laugh.

Leesl: Lesson learned: come to the Arboretum for the incredible pumpkins and views, but save your craving for a real Oktoberfest pint for our favorite North Texas craft breweries. Cheers to unexpected Country Roads and a fun night out anyway! 🍻

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Let’s Settle a Bet…

The stakes couldn’t be higher heading into the weekend:

• College Football: Will Andy’s 1-game lead survive our five head-to-head picks, or will Leesl take over first place?
• Martinsville Showdown: Does Lone Star Racin’ extend its 135-point lead, or can Windy City Racin’ pull off a miracle on the short track?
• Yellow Line Debate: Was Larson actually below the yellow line at Talladega, or am I (Leesl) just being a sore loser? (Be honest!)

Drop your picks in the comments below! Who has the better lineup this weekend? 🏈🏁🍺