EDSBS CHARITY BOWL FINALS : A BLOWOUT FOR THE AGES

The EDSBS Charity Bowl 2019 concluded at the stroke of midnight on April 14th. Were people donating until the literal last second? Yes, yes they were. Did they continue to give to New American Pathways all Saturday long, even without the consistent goading we tried to keep up throughout the week? Again, yes.

Did y’all combine to raise more money in one week than in the rest of the EDSBS Charity Bowls combined, obliterating every record on the books and leaving us speechless? Imagine there is a picture of us speechless in this space. That is us, because that is exactly what y’all did.

The final total for the EDSBS Charity Bowl: $183,244.57 raised for the refugee programs of New American Pathways. That outpaces our goal for the year of $75k, our stretch goal for 2019 of $100k, and any and all previous records for donations by school, total number of donors, average donation, and whatever else anyone cares to call a number.

In short: We cannot thank you enough, but we will have to try. (A tattoo this year simply will not do.)

The top 25 is led again by the victors valiant:

A few technical notes here first. The totals are different than those on NAP’s donation site. This is because we counted all monthly commitments in full, as well as some corporate matching gifts reported by donors.

With that out of the way: Yeah, Michigan won again. The Wolverines faced fierce challenges by Georgia Tech and Texas in particular, but pulled away mid-week once the Michigan Money Cannon began their real bombardment campaign. They even won Friday’s Lightning Round during the surprise conference call, ensuring the dubious prize of a live Shutdown Fullcast coming to Ann Arbor.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and we’re sorry in advance for what is about to happen to your city.

Even with Michigan continuing its reign, the absolute excellence all around is overwhelming. Texas and Texas A&M drove each other to new heights thanks to their fevered non-rivalry. (Not rivals! Not even close!) The Iron Bowl tested both Auburn and Alabama, who combined donated more than both schools had ever given to the cause. Virginia and Virginia Tech took the fire from UVA’s hoops title and spread it to the Charity Bowl, igniting a week-long battle to the wire the Cavaliers eventually won.

There are so many more: Our own Florida Gators kicking ass, the Washington U/University of Chicago rivalry bucking up out of nowhere, Louisiana Tech (?!?!?!?!) with the mid-major upset of some larger Power 5 schools, Notre Dame and Northwestern showing up strong despite this website doing nothing but mocking them for the better part of a decade...there’s just a ton there, and we are elated and grateful for it all.

Thank you does not cover it, but it will have to for now. Thanks to all of you for giving, sharing, and being a part of the best week on this site every year. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

With over 1700 donors this year, we have a little statistical cleanup to do before sharing a full leaderboard. We will hit that later this week for those of you who gave generously for small schools, high schools, and in one case, the West Ham Football Club of East London, England. They all matter.

A quick and definitely not complete list of thanks to the following people for their help in particular:

• Holly Anderson for running the big board and the New American Pathways Twitter last week, endlessly prodding rival fanbases to donate, and for being a saint in the name of charity for a week
• Brian Floyd for manning the spreadsheet and stoking the fires of the Apple Cup
• Jason Kirk for repping Kennesaw State every single damn day
• Ryan Nanni for everything
• PAPN and their attendant and lovely nerd-borg
• Action Cookbook
• the still mighty and unstoppable MGoBlog hive
• The entire Fullcast community
• Every lovable nerd with a Georgia Tech degree and hope in their robot heart who helped spread the good word while asking What’s The Good Word
• Brad Denny and every Sun Devil who showed up to consider us back
• The idiot-geniuses of Good Bull Hunting
• The Buckeyes who gave both to Ohio State, and also to Georgia Tech out of spite for Michigan
• And The Valley Shook and company
• Sean Keeley and every Syracuse person who repped this last week
• The Our Daily Bears crew for getting Baylor in the top ten
• A small but extremely committed core of Kansas State donors
• Georgia! We have to thank Georgia this year, and that is amazing
• Everyone, we’re forgetting people and will have to fix that later because there are so many people to thank, but that’s just who we can remember off the top of our heads right now

Thank you, thank you thank you.

In conclusion, and until next year: Go Blue.