Wow. It's that time again. Time for the 10th Annual ACCBoards NFL Pick 'Em Contest. The games for Week 1 are being posted today as next Sunday, Sept 13th, will be the first Sunday games of the regular season.
Listed in the next several posts will be the rules for the contest and some historical data noting top finishers from the past. These are roughly the same rules we have been using. Any changes or tweaks to the rules or notes I have added that are new will be bolded. Any questions or comments can be posted on this thread.
JoeyZ
Welcome to the biggest contest of them all, bigger than American Idol, Survivor, and The Great Race combined, the one people talk about for months on end...the ACCBoards Pick 'Em. (Not to mention the only time of year the Pro Football board gets any attention at all). Here are the...
Rules
1) Anyone may participate. Also, if you start late or miss a week here or there, you're still eligible to win the contest, but there are penalties for missing weeks that are outlined below (really, more like bonuses for fulltime participation).
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2) The contest continues every week during the NFL regular season (17 weeks in all). The contest has a playoff season, just like the NFL.
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3) Each week a selection of 5 NFL games will be posted on a new thread (the thread will be titled "ACCBoards Pick 'Em, Week 1" and so on). Only those specific games will be picked, and you must pick a winner for each game (we don't get into point spreads until the playoffs begin). The games picked are usually contests that are expected to be close. However, the Panthers' game is traditionally one of the selected games, regardless of their opponent.
The picks must be made before the 1:00 pm ET kickoff for the Sunday games. Keep in mind that even if a particular game is not slated to start until 4:00 pm ET, your pick must be made before 1:00 pm ET anyway. You may edit your picks as many times as you want until that time. If the datestamp on your post (or any edit you make) is later than 1:00 pm ET your picks that week will be invalidated.
(Anyone who tries to circumvent the rules and/or the spirit of the contest is reminded that all threads are cached and prior posts/edits can be reviewed.)
Note: In the past, some posters have posted both teams that were playing and bolded the winner. I prefer that you only list the team you are picking to make it easier to tabulate. There is no penalty for not adhering to this preference, but if I cannot clearly tell which team was picked, that game will be counted as a loss.
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4) You will be awarded points each week based on how successful you are picking winners. The points are awarded as follows:
--if you go 0-5 you get -5 points
--if you go 1-4 you get -3 points
--if you go 2-3 you get -1 point
--if you go 3-2 you get +1 point
--if you go 4-1 you get +3 points
--if you go 5-0 you get +6 points (note the bonus point for a perfect week)
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5) These points will accumulate throughout the regular season.
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6) After the regular season, we then begin the playoffs. All regular participants in the contest automatically qualify for the playoffs. "Regular participant" is defined as anyone who participated in at least 60% of the weekly selections (in other words, 11 or more of the 17 weeks). Even if that participant has a negative score (which is quite possible, given some of our posters' less-than-stellar prognosticating abilities), they make postseason play. What happens is that points are "curved" to give them positive scores. Anyone else who participates in 60%+ of the weekly selections gets the same benefit. For example:
After the regular season Poster A has a score of +33 and leads the contest going into the playoffs. Poster B has a score of -10 and is in last place among all posters with 60%+ participation. Poster B is given points (the "curve") so that he can take part in the playoffs. He gets 15 points added to his score and thus has +5. Poster A also gets the same 15 points added to his score and now has +48 as the playoffs begin.
Note: The amount of the curve will be determined after the regular season so that all regular participants (defined above) will begin the playoffs with no less than 5 points.
If a poster does not partipate in the requisite 60%+ of weekly selections, he may still qualify for the playoffs, but only if he/she has a positive score after the regular season. IOW, to be eligible for the curve, you must participate in at least 60% of the 17 weekly contests.
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7)
Anyone who participates in at least 16 weeks of the 17 is given an additional bonus of 10 points. (Missing no more than one week)
Anyone who participates in 14 or 15 weeks of the 17 gets an additional bonus of 5 points. (Missing 2 or 3 weeks)
Note: I altered this slightly from previous years as I know many need a weeks break sometime during the season for vacation or whatnot. Even all the teams get an off-week somewhere along the way.
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8) The playoffs are a different animal. We pick the postseason games, naturally, but now point spreads come into play. Traditionally, the ACCBoards Pick 'Em uses the odds posted on the Sunday before the weekend playoff games by one of the pre-eminent sports books in Las Vegas, Nevada. The sports book that will receive the honor of being used for this season's ACCBoards Pick'em playoffs will be revealed at that time.
The first weekend of the playoffs (Wild Card Weekend), the top 4 finishers in the Pick 'Em regular season do not have to participate. However, they can choose to participate if they so desire. Incidentally, bonus points are included when determining which posters are in the top 4. Top 4 finishers who do choose to participate on Wild Card Weekend rather than sit it out DO NOT have to risk all their points, but may risk any or all of their points as they wish. This is true for Wild Card Weekend only.
The rest of the contestants have to risk all their accumulated points by picking against the spread. They may bet on one game, or multiple games (in other words, spread their points around on the various games).
Anyone who doesn't participate in the Wild Card round who is not in the top 4 is automatically eliminated from the contest. Anyone (top 4 included) who doesn't participate in any subsequent playoff round is also eliminated from the contest.
Once a contestant loses all their points, he/she is eliminated from the contest.
Note: While we will try to followup and notify of inconsistencies, each contestant is ultimately responsible for double-checking their own math in each round to make sure they have wagered the correct amount of points according to what they have available.
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9) Once the divisional round begins, all contestants still alive must risk all their points each week (including the top 4 regular season finishers). As with the Wild Card round, you may bet on one game or multiple games.
For the Super Bowl, surviving contestants will have the option of betting on one of the teams, the over/under, a parlay, or a combination of those bets.
The playoffs can be wild...often the regular season leaders bite the dust early.
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10) As usual, I will tabulate the totals on a weekly basis. Due to the volume of contestants, I occasionally make mistakes. Please feel free to correct me when I do so. Ultimately, the person most responsible for keeping up with your score is you.
I will also be selecting the games to be picked this year. I will try to post the weekly games on Mondays (occasionally on Tuesdays if I have a unusually hectic Monday). As a general rule, I will never pick a Monday night game or a Thursday night game. It's easier to manage the contest when all the games to be picked are played on Sunday.
If you have any questions, please post them on this thread. Veteran Pick 'Em participants who see something I got wrong or omitted in the above summation, please correct me.
Any questions or controversies that arise during the contest will be decided by me.
Good luck!
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Top 10, Previous Contests
2000-01 (regular season leader: OCTerp)
1st: Sandlapper Spike
2nd (tie): sbunc92
2nd (tie): lawrenceterp
4th: Heelman90
5th: Akula Wolf
6th: GrapplerTerp
7th: Sheepish Slacker Lord
8th: Wolf Byte
9th: OCTerp
10th: Snidley Whiplash
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2001-02 (regular season leader: Ravenna McBride)
1st: Ravenna McBride
2nd: echusky
3rd: DarksideHeel
4th (tie): Sandlapper Spike
4th (tie): GrapplerTerp
6th (tie): DavidStHubbins
6th (tie): black&gold21
8th (tie): Akula Wolf
8th (tie): JoeyZ
8th (tie): Bane
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2002-03 (regular season leader: Four Corners)
1st: JoeyZ (40 pts)
2nd: DarksideHeel
3rd: ga2maine
4th: KongFooey
5th: echusky
6th: Four Corners
7th: Goldfish
8th: Sandlapper Spike
9th: Chrispy
10th: Prowler
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2003-04 (regular season leader: Prowler)
1st: JoeyZ (300 pts)
2nd: echusky (195)
3rd: dub (80)
4th: Heelman90 (40)
5th: JoltinJacket (16)
6th: Kurtis636 (0)
7th: WuHeel (0)
8th: Devilfan4years (0)
9th: The Ghost of HessianWolf (0)
10th (tie): TerpsRUs (0)
10th (tie): DeacinGA (0)
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2004-05 (regular season leader: Big Sexy Pack - 54 points)
1st: JoeyZ (202 pts)
2nd: DeacAlum2001 (135)
3rd: Norm (105)
4th: Sandlapper Spike (30)
5th: dub (0)
6th: DarksideHeel (0)
7th: ga2maine (0)
8th: Wahoos4Ever (0)
9th: Big Sexy Pack (0)
10th: BornAJacket (0)
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2005-06 (regular season leader: OldGoldBeard - 68 points)
1st: Akula Wolf (840 pts)
2nd: Prowler (440)
3rd: GrandWolf (376)
4th: DarksideHeel (237.6)
5th: DonO (200)
6th: BornAJacket (138)
7th (tie): KenCleanAirSystem (120)
7th (tie): Bane (120)
9th: OldGoldBeard (40)
10th: Kurtis636 (10)
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2006-07 (regular season leader: arcidiheel - 41 points)
* 1st: GrapplerTerp (0)
* 2nd: echusky (0)
* 3rd: billyunc (0)
* 4th: Bane (0)
5th: Bluedevilsfanforever (0)
6th: arcidiheel (0)
7th: Sandlapper Spike (0)
8th (tie): HailToTheDeacons (0)
8th (tie): The Ghost of HessianWolf (0)
10th: GrandWolf (0)
* - Total points in Pro Bowl used to break tie among these 4 who participated in the SB round
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2007-08 (regular season leader: billyunc - 48 points)
1st: OldGoldBeard (45)
2nd: DarksideHeel (30.5)
3rd: Wolf (16)
4th: JoeyZ (0)
5th: Sandlapper Spike
6th: Ghost of Hessianwolf
7th: BornAJacket
8th: nomadictendencies
9th: Bane
10th: Big Sexy Pack
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2008-09 (regular season leader: DeacinGA - 44 points)
1st: fourcorners (192)
2nd: Wolf (136)
3rd: CalvinHoo (96)
4th: Sandlapper Spike (46)
5th: DarksideHeel (18)
6th: DeacinGA (0)
7th: Ghost of Hessianwolf (0)
8th: grappler
9th: BornAJacket
10th: JoeyZ
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Note that 45 different posters can claim a top 10 finish in the Pick 'Em. CalvinHoo is the newest entry into this list with a strong 3rd place finish last year. DarksideHeel, with claim to two 2nd place finishes along with one 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place finish remains the most successful contestant yet to win the Pick 'Em.
Posters with multiple top-10 finishes: Sandlapper Spike (7), JoeyZ (6), DarksideHeel (6), nomadictendencies/echusky (5), Bane (4), Wolf (4), grappler (4), The Ghost of HessianWolf (4), BornAJacket (4), Akula Wolf (3), fourcorners (2), OldGoldBeard (2), BigSexyPack (2), dub (2), DeacinGA (2), Heelman90 (2), ga2maine (2), Prowler (2), Kurtis636 (2).
Posters with multiple top-5 finishes: Sandlapper Spike (5), DarksideHeel (5), JoeyZ (4), nomadictendencies (4), Wolf (3), dub (2), Heelman90 (2), grappler (2), Akula Wolf (2).
Here are the overall standings to date: (number of Pick 'Em Championships in parentheses)
JoeyZ - 53 (3)
Sandlapper Spike - 48 (1)
DarksideHeel - 44
nomadictendencies/echusky - 36
grappler/GrapplerTerp - 29 (1)
Wolf/GrandWolf - 26
Akula Wolf - 23 (1)
fourcorners - 19 (1)
OldGoldBeard - 16 (1)
Bane - 16
Ravenna McBride - 14 (1)
Heelman90 - 14
dub - 14
The Ghost of HessianWolf - 14
ga2maine - 12
BornAJacket - 12
Prowler - 10
sbunc92 - 9
lawrenceterp - 9
DeacAlum2001 - 9
billyunc - 8
Norm - 8
CalvinHoo - 8
Kong Fooey - 7
Kurtis636 - 6
JoltinJacket - 6
DonO - 6
Bluedevilsfanforever - 6
DeacinGA - 6
arcidiheel - 5
DavidStHubbins - 5
blackandgold21 - 5
KenCleanAirSystem - 4
Goldfish - 4
WuHeel - 4
Sheepish Slacker Lord - 4
Wahoos4Ever - 3
Devilfan4years - 3
HailToTheDeacons - 3
Wolf Byte - 3
BigSexyPack - 3
Chrispy - 2
OCTerp - 2
Snidley Whiplash - 1
TerpsRUs - 1
* - And the obligatory annual footnote -
Among contest veterans, the poster with the most participation and no top 10 finish to show for it is waynehead. Will this be the year he finally breaks through and makes us get rid of this footnote?
Ok, ok, so I've never finished in the top 10, but let's not forget I started the dang thing and ran it for the first year or two. I deserve some credit for that.
(09-14-2009 10:17 AM)waynehead Wrote: [ -> ]Ok, ok, so I've never finished in the top 10, but let's not forget I started the dang thing and ran it for the first year or two. I deserve some credit for that.
How true! I hereby credit you for that.
Still, the footnote remains as an inspiration...or anti-inspiration, however you choose to take it.
