The Pac Three's Company!  Featuring our favorite Pac 3 Green Teams, all of whom will be featured below!  Why the Pac 3, and not Pac 8?  For one, that's a lot more graphic work, and we're lazy.  For two, it's Season 13, week 3, and 3 is apparently our magical, mystical, all-reality-warping number of the day, like some bizarre Sesame Street episode featuring ancient Central American dieties who may or may not have had losing sports team sacrified upon their altars.  No doubt The Count would be overseeing and reffing any goal scoring, though as a vampire himself there could be allegation of bias with regard to John's team.  Speaking of Sheboygan... um... we got nothing.  It appears that there were no upsets, blowouts, or 'more' to note with regard to any of the Bloodsuckers' matches this past weekend.  That in itself is a massive upset and streak-breaker, so we're calling it for inclusion in "More" after all to keep the streak alive!  It's a good day to be a Bat-lover when the BUM Report singles out your team for not being singled out otherwise!  If only the rest of our column-filling fixtures were so lucky.  Yet, they're not, so the BUM Report rolls on like a runaway invisible mammoth that you never see coming until you've been run over and find yourself asking, "What just hit me?  And who ate all my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?"  If that was your weekend, the BUM Report welcomes you back, like Jack Tripper welcoming back his good, all-platonic friends, Janet and Chrissy.  Our couch is always open, even for blond-haired crustaceans.

As a "More' oddity, the entire Pac 8 now sits at 3-3 in conference play, and with 3 sets marking the difference between the current 'leader' at 13-10 (Carlsbad) and 10-13 for eighth (Albuquerque)!  All 8 teams are 3-0 at home, 0-3 on the road, and four them also have 'perfect' neutral court marks at 3-0 (San Jose & Tucson) or 0-3 (Carlsbad & Denali)!  We had a tie this week for greatest ratings-difference, both in match 7, Pac 8 play, with The Trash Panda traveling to ScampiLand, and the Diminuative Doggies headed to LizardLand.  Both matches gave us 3-cubed (that's three to the power of three, or three-times-three-times-three for those not so good at maths), for 27-pt ratings differences, and one gave us our blowout of the week as well!  A different Pac 8 manager landed a -3 upset, and this session has raised the bar to where all our Top 3 Blowouts of the Season are in the 30's for point difference!  Three's Company with the Pac 8!  Will our other conferences step up and give us column-heading fodder in future sessions?  We hope and beg for column-filling handouts as only BUMs can!

On to our Blowouts, where we have a repeated repeat feature this week!  Two managers showed up in two upset-noteworthy matches each!  Starting with #3, we'll hit the neutral court, match 9, WGM group play, with San Jose trying to lock down the #1 seed and Dallas sitting in the way.  The Crustacean Crew would need a sweep to pull it off, and came prepped for the effort, at 85-rating, third-highest of the season so far.  The Pound Puppies had other priorities, and brought a 62-rated team to the court laid out on an early-harvested patch of sunflower acreage in central Kansas, surrounded by the yellow and black heads swaying gently in the late September breeze.  The locale was much prettier than the play on the court, which got ugly in a hurry.  Team Cocktail Dip blew out Craig's Canines 25-13 in the opening set, and followed up with a 25-15 affair to keep the double-digit point differential going.  Having heard rumors that Quincy might be closing out their own WGM match at +34, and not wanting to let Al get the WGM blowout nod as well, Vick cranked up the pressure and the Shrimps responded with their best set, a 25-12 finale to give the 3-set sweep, a perfect 9-0 WGM group run to seal the #1 seed, and more importantly our #3 Blowout of the Week.  Congrats, Vick!

At #2, we have an appropriate 2-way tie, but it's a twist tie, or at least a tie with a twist, as we have the same manager featured in both!  Starting in match 7, conference play with Portland and the Flanneled Fellsmen heading to the Land of Lincoln to try to tame the Rabid Biting Mules into something resembling a mule train to carry off wood for the coming winter months.  The Mules were not impressed by the effort.  It appears that Antoine was taking the opportunity to get some players rest and up the Fit levels for a later-season standings surge.  The 'Jacks brought the L-team, which stood for both the Roman numeral L (a nice, even 50-rating) and also "Loss."  The Red Beards had no response for the Mules' B- team (76-rating), as Al's A-rated players (OH Haffner, RS Palazzo) took turns hammering spike after spike off axe heads and foreheads en route to a solid .368 hitting day.  Portland, meanwhile, hit -.113 and had one and only one player (MB Idaho, the only B-rated player who showed up for them) hit over .000 for the match.  Set one ended 17-25, though it never felt that close.  Set two is where the damage was really done, as the Rabbids held Portland to 9 points, the only single-digit regular set result of the day!  Having achieved that, the Mules took an earned carrot break and just nibbled away in set 3, ending 12-25.  The combined 37-pt blowout was good for #2 on the week and tied for #2 on the season as well!

And here is where Gentleman and Father-of-the-Year candidate Al "Everyman" Sellers really shone out.  Having just achieved a solid and BUM-worthy win, he showed compassion on his second-favorite son, Max (we suspect not currently #1 because Max shows up the Ol' Daddio in Olmec-Land with more frequency, and glee, than other progeny has).  Weighing options of sending the backups to the backups to St. Charles or holding on to them for the WGM match v Denali, Al gifted a 67-rated team to the GourdHeads, perhaps as a fall sacrifice to the effigy of the Autumn Harvest.  The Stuffed Shirts gobbled up the rookies and seasoned bench riders with all the glee that can be seen on their carved-on smirks, with future foes foretold and forewarned against fielding feeble freshmen!  St. Charles rode the Rabbids like rented Mules, bashing down repeated spikes to the tune of 45 kills on 59 attempts, a blistering .695 clip!  The 'worst' Scarecrow hitter on the day was RS Dixon, at .579.  Not a typo.  The rest of the team hit over .600 and had a combined 4 hitting errors for the whole roster.  They also led in aces 9-2 and digs 27-10.  Quincy brought 4 B-rated players, and only one of them ended up hitting in positive ratings for the match, with a team-combined .090, despite a 16-rated setter and three mid-teen hitters.  It's not that the Mules were 'bad,' per se; it's that the S'Crows were that good on the day!  Three sets later, 15-25, 11-25, 12-25, we had a tied 37-pt blowout, so congrats to Max for tying Al for the #2 Blowout of the Week!

And for the top blowout, we had to get back to the Pac 8, match 7, Albuqueque traveling to San Jose, where the Trash Pandas found out what happens when the Crustacean Crew tries to win.  They often do.  At home in the Pac 8?  It's almost automatic, and most teams appear to have stopped trying, as Randy did for this one.  61-rated away team.  88-rated home team.  27 (3-cubed!) points higher, and playing like it from the first serve!  The first set was the fastest, ending 10-25, and then giving up a progressive pair of points as the match went on, 12-25 and 14-25.  The hitting marks told only part of the story, with San Jose dominating .580 (35 kills, 6 errors) to -.141 (17 kills, 26 errors!).  What was worse for the Masked Bandits was when they couldn't even get the ball far enough over the net to have a hitting error!  The Shrimps' arms were more like squid for this one, or somehow they got all ten over the net at the same time, as they had a whopping 36 recorded block assists, to the other team's 2!  We've seen lop-sided dig marks in matches before like this one (21-8), yet it would take some deeps dives into match results to find the last 36-2 mismatch.  Perhaps if Vick wasn't a kind and compassionate soul and let up his excellence-demanding ways in the third set the Shrimp could have blocked better, instead of letting Albuquerque have their best-hitting set at .045.  If they had, we might have seen a new mark for the Blowout of the Season, yet even as it stands congrats to Vick for the +39 Blowout (hmmm, season 13 times session 3 = 39!), good for our #1 Blowout of the Session and tying the #1 Blowout of the Season with Tucson and Teutopolis, making it a Three-Way Tie in keeping with our session 3 theme!  It's getting spooky in BUM headquarters and it's not even October yet!

Will our Upsets hit similar themes?  We shall now reveal the answer!  Starting with #3, aha... er, well, we do that every week so we'll just move on... match 8, conference play with the current SEC-conference-topping Twisters traveling to Starkville.  T-Town is grooving this season, currently leading all teams with a 7-2 total mark, and they brought a storm with them to face the Droop-Eared Dogs, with their 87-road rating the highest any team not named "Pekin" has set up this season!  Starkville countered with a home 86, and the narrow 1-pt difference played out in the match results.  After jumping out to a 2-set lead at 25-22, 25-20, the Twisters lost wind velocity and the 'Hounds were able to pick up the scent of the ball.  The defensive efforts led to multiple second-try points and Starkville clawed back first set at 22-25, and then set four at 20-25, mirroring the Dust Devils' set wins!  The stats for the match were some of the closest we've seen in several sessions: TT to SB, hitting .398 & 66 kills with 21 hitting errors to .404 & 64 kills with 20 hitting errors, serving .874 & 7 aces to .907 and 8 aces, receiving .918 to .922, digs 24 to 26, blocks 22 & 3 errors to 20 and 2 errors.  85.5 points earned to 82.5 points earned.  So what set this match apart and led to a 5th set win?  Timing of the errors.  Early in the set, 2-3 Starkville leading and serving, T-Town had the chance to tie it back up and get the serve.  Instead, Ingram passed poorly and messed up the timing on the play, leading to OH Ward hitting the ball out.  Now 2-4 DroopEars and the Dust Devils never closed the gap.  Though they fell behind 7-12, they still rallied off a Bloodhound hitting error followed by two Laughlin aces to close it to 10-12.  Starkville stopped the bleeding with a kill, and then a block to lead to match point #1.  A service error!  And now with a chance to close at 11-14, T-Town whirled up too high on the wind speed and sent the serve soaring into the rafters to bring down the confetti and the #3 Upset of the Week.  Congrats to Eduard for the -1 Upset to bring the SEC leaders into a (you guessed it!) Three-Way Tie for 1st place, with Three 3-3 teams trailing them!

At our #2 Upset, we'll drift into WGM play, with Amy's Spiny Spikers facing off against the Tree Topplers of the Pacific Northwest.  Portland held the ratings edge at 78-75, a +3 that just begged for an upset this session.  Since it involved the Pac 8 and a +3-rated match, big things for the BUM Report had to be in store.  The 'Jacks had the early lead at 3-0, not a good omen.  Tucson started inching back in after that, shrugging off the Flanned Fellsmen's biggest lead at 5 points, 4-9.  Poor Portland passing and weak finishes had the Saguaro back in it, tying at 13-13 and taking the lead at 14-13!  It held close to 21-20 before Tucson pulled away 23-20 and took advantage of an Axeman in the net at 23-21 to get to set point and finish off Antoine's 'Jacks 25-21 in set 1.  Set 2 saw Tucson take a 3-0 lead, which seemed to portent similar set results as Portland closed the gap and took at lead at 9-10.  Amy was not about to let her Spikers get off without a tongue lashing though, and they pulled it back together to retake the lead that they wouldn't give up, leading by as many as 6 the rest of the way and ending at 25-20 for the 2-set lead!  Set 3 stayed close, with neither team leading by more than three up to 19-16 Tucson.  Portland got one back with a fantastic four-dig rally, and they exchanged points to Match Point #1, Tucson serving at 24-20.  Portland received and had a great set to get the Walker kill and 24-21.  The serve... went out!  Error and match point for Tucson which gave us not only our #2 Upset of the Week with a -3 Upset, yet it was an Upset Sweep!  Just our second of the season and the new #1 with congrats to Amy and the Saguaro!

For our #1 Upset, we'll stick with the Pac 8, this time in conference play, match 8.  The Carlsbadians stayed in the southern climes and traveled for the late game in Coonville.  With the noctural home team in Albuquerque starting to rouse, Phil brought a solid road 78-rated team featuring the top overall player for the match, S Fontaine.  Randy's Raccoons responded with a mostly-balanced lineup of B-rated players, though the #2 at OH and MB were D+ freshman.  The senior edge looked to carry over for the +4-rated team, as Carlsbad took the opening set 25-22.  Then the Trash Pandas rallied to take sets 2 and 3, at 23-25 and 20-25 as the Lazy-Eyed Lizards were seeing double on the sets.  Despite seeming-good setting, the hitting got progressively worse for Carlsbad, from .500 in the opener to .321 to an anemic .095 in set 3.  Though they only marginally improved in set 4 (.240), Albuquerque had the freshman get completely distracted by the popcorn man and the resulting scurrying around the court disrupted everything as the Masked Bandits had their worst set at .087 hitting, gifting multiple errors and points to the Long-Tongued Lizards in the biggest set difference at 25-19.  Now heading to set 5 with the odds-favored Bug Munchers looking to take advantage of a first-serve error by the 'Coons, and an Ace(!) was swiftly followed by error, error, error, 'Coon ace, and it was 3-3 before had our first successful pass of the set!  Kills and errors were exchanged over the next sixteen points as the match stayed within one point up to 12-11 Carlsbad.  A Fontaine dig led to the 2nd setter having to step up, and Chiles nailed it as Paolini got a quick kill and Carlsbad had a 2-point lead with just 2 to go!  Randy's team responded with a successful kill, and then got a block on Timmerman to tie it back up at 13-13.    Neither Paolini at 13-13 or Jennings at 13-14 could get their kills to hit the court, and two successful digs led to two 'Coon spikes as Albuquerque completed the come-from-behind 4-point run to land the -4 Upset, our #1 Upset of the Week!  Congrats, Randy!  Phil was undoubtedly consoled by landing a 5* OH recruit, so don't feel too bad for the Godfather and King of Hats!  This match also was our highest-scoring of the session at 212 combined points.

On the "More" end, we need to note where some teams were trying more than others.  More always matters.  We highlight conference play, match 7, were the Pod People brought a road rated-92 roster into the Greenhouse, where Columbia met them with a home-grown bunch of 93-rated "sorta veggies but really vine fruit" in response.  92 v 93?  In the third session?  That's Finals-Worthy ratings folks, and the highest yet we've seen for both road and home marks this season!  The resulting 185-combined ratings easily topped second place (176, Starkville 84 @ Nashville 92, match 7), with only The Mighty Mighty Meese of Mat-Su (91 at home, match 8) also topping 90 thus far.  The Pekin-Columbia clash was a fun one to watch as the Legume Legion stalked out an early set 1 win, only to falter in set 2 and then set 3 gave us multiple set points on the way to a Jack and the Beanstalk kind of vine height at 29-31 with Columbia taking the set and the eventual 4-set match to claim early Big 8 dominance!  Excellent effort and quality play all around though, as the eventual match 29 rematch has already garnered national telecast attention (we're still awaiting confirmation that the BUM Report press credentials will be honored, assuming we agree not to wrap up the entire press room buffet table in the table cloth and walk out with it like we did last time we showed up at a BUM-unusual type of affair. We're typically more of a 'there's a McDonald's three blocks that way' kind of guest).

On the neutral front, Nashville (89) and San Jose (85) are setting the early standard, though the WGM knockout rounds could see a Dark Equine suddenly flash some strength and style!  Quincy (81 thus far) or Mat-Su (87-potential)?  Teutopolis (82 in match 3, and then 'playing down my competition' to hide his upstart and front-running potential for the knockouts)?  Will the Squirrels soon shock us all with their first 80+ lineup of the season, or are they doing their thing and stashing away the ratings for deeper into the coming winter before unleashing a Furious Rodent Frenzy on the Big East.  As a possible session 4 preview, we look over at the current four-way tie for first place in the Big East and can imagine those teams bashing each other into oblivion while the NutMunchers get overlooked and have massive BUM Report potential as early as match 11, Porkopolis @ The TreeHouse, if James gears up for a massive first round WGM clash with Pekin coming to town?  We too will eagerly await the results and see if we have a new Upset or Blowout of the Season coming our way!  It's still early, and is anyone's game, especially in the Pac 3, er, 8!  Thanks to all the 3's and Olmec's lack of triskaphobia!  3 hits per side, 3 sets to win, and 3 sessions of the BUM Report thus far in what could be our unluckiest of seasons for the powers-that-be, #13!  May the Upsets rain like autumn leaves upon your rivals!