Forums: Sports: 2008 TV.com NFL Picks Contest

 
  • Avatar of 123home123

    123home123

    [1]Aug 2, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/02
    • level: 55
    • rank: Bounty Dog
    • posts: 15,433
    This year, I'd like to start this up ahead of time, so everyone can get onboard with the Week 1 games. With the advance notice, there isn't an excuse for people to sign on late.

    Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football Pick 'em site

    We are going to use a different system this year. Instead of posting picks on this thread, we are setting up a private group at Yahoo! Sports. Registration is free and open to residents of any country. (Well, maybe not China, Iran and a few other countries but that wouldn't be my fault.)

    Eligibility and registration

    Entry is open to all TV.com members in good standing. (This means that everyone is allowed to join except for ban dodgers.) Simply post your wish to join the contest on this thread. After you do so, I will send you a PM with the relevant information: the link to the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football Pick 'em site, the Group ID# and the password.

    After you have signed onto the group page, you need to set up your individual Picks Sets. Please use your TV.com username in the field for "Your Picks Set Name". This will allow everyone to see the familiar TV.com usernames in the standings over on the Yahoo! Sports site.

    You should create only one Picks Set. Otherwise people would just create several sets and try to "compete" by getting extra chances.

    Contest criteria

    We will not be using confidence points or the spread but we will be using the automated Yahoo! tiebreakers, whatever they are. All scores will count and the deadline each week will be Friday 6 pm ET or Wednesday 6 pm ET when there is a Thursday game. We will begin counting scores from Week 1 so make sure you sign up as soon as possible. With the early start this year, I think I may just close entry once the Week 1 games start.

    OTHER GUIDELINES and INFORMATION

    --If a player abandons the contest by failing to post picks for several weeks in a row, then we may drop that person from the standings.

    --Please limit comments and thoughts about NFL games on this thread.

    Use the main 2008 NFL thread for those messages. This thread should be devoted to discussion of and questions about the Picks Contest. (Well, the occasional good-natured boast would be OK too.)

    --You may post picks for future weeks at any time. You can edit those picks until the deadline for that week. In fact, you are encouraged to post picks for several weeks in advance, even all 17 weeks, just to make sure you post picks every week. As each week's games approach, you can edit your picks until the deadline (either Friday at 6 pm ET or Wednesdays at 6 pm ET beginning in November).

    Weekly deadline for picks

    --Remember, the deadline for picks is Friday 6 pm ET each week, or Wednesday 6 pm ET if there is a Thursday game! Beginning with the first week of November, the deadline will be Wednesday at 6 pm ET every week except for the final week of the season. (That will have a Friday deadline.)

    Prizes: Since this is an unofficial contest, there are NO prizes, just bragging rights for a year. elpaquilloloco won a close contest last year, although I came in a close second.

    ----------------------------------------

    Here are the final standings for the 2007 TV.com NFL Picks contest:

    2007 TV.com NFL Thread - FINAL STANDINGS
                     W    L   GB    Pct
    elpaquilloloco  170   85    --   .667#
    123home123      162   80   1.5   .669##
    Passiton        167   88   3.0   .655#
    Finalsequel     164   91   6.0   .643#
    simpsonian100   137   71   9.5   .659*
    Bouges13        160   96  10.5   .625
    Jokipper        159   97  11.5   .621
    tvfanatic91     117   64  16.0   .646***
    HelloStuart     154  102  16.5   .602
    jord15          126   78  18.5   .618** late on Wk17 picks
    Brandi1leigh    112   80  26.5   .583@

    #   1 game less than the competition.
    ##  14 games less than the competition.
    *   48 games less than the competition.

    **  52 games less than the competition.
    *** 75 games less than the competition.
    @   64 games less than the competition.


    ----------------------------------------
    --elpaquilloloco was the 2007 winner according to our agreed-upon criteria of Games Back. He also had the most winning picks with 170. Congratulations.
    --Bouges13, Jokipper and HelloStuart were the only participants to post a pick for every single game this season. That deserves a separate acknowledgment.
    --123home123 (that's me) ended up with the highest winning percentage (.669), barely edging out elpaquilloloco (.667).

    Thanks to all the 2007 participants. It was a well-fought contest, which literally came down to the wire. The contest was not decided until the final game of the regular season. Fitting because that game also decided the NFL playoff fate of two teams.

    The 2007 NFL Picks Thread
    Edited on 12/20/2008 5:52am
    Edited 14 total times.
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  • Avatar of 123home123

    123home123

    [2]Aug 2, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/02
    • level: 55
    • rank: Bounty Dog
    • posts: 15,433
    Well, it's time for our annual TV.com NFL Picks Contest (unofficial). I'm starting up the thread early this year so that everyone will have plenty of time to hear about it. Everyone is eligible to join (except for ban dodgers).

    I've posted all the rules we agreed upon last year. The group arrived at the rules by consensus so I don't think there should be any problems with following those rules again this year. If I've left any important rules out, let me know and I'll edit the first post.

    Since we still have a few weeks before the regular season starts, we don't need to post our picks yet. There could be preseason trades or significant injuries. That will affect which teams are favored and which aren't.

    I'd like to stress that it's important to keep your picks lists as simple as possible, to make it easier to read and compile the current standings each week. All of us who administer the contest (primarily me) are just volunteers. We're not getting paid so please make it as easy as possible. Don't provide lengthy commentary on each game. You can use the main 2008 NFL thread for general comments about the games and the players. This thread should be focused on the Picks Contest only.

    A proposed Week 3 cutoff date to enter the contest

    One change I'd like to propose is a cutoff of Week 3 for new entrants. Since I started up this thread in early August, there is little reason for people to be unaware of the contest. However some people may leave the site over the summer, so a Week 3 cutoff date gives them a chance to join. This means that potential contestants need to submit a set of picks by the deadline for the Week 3 games. Otherwise, they will be locked out of the contest for the rest of the season.

    As we did last year, I'm going to put this up for a vote via the poll at the top of the thread. Feel free to post a comment on the proposed rule as well. It doesn't matter if we clutter up the thread right now since we haven't started posting picks yet.

    Have fun once we get this started in a few weeks and good luck!

    ---------------------------------------------

    2008 WEEKLY WINNERS

    Week  1 - 123home123 (11 pts.)
    Week  2 - jokipper   (11 pts.)
    Week  3
    Week  4
    Week  5
    Week  6
    Week  7
    Week  8
    Week  9
    Week 10
    Week 11
    Week 12
    Week 13
    Week 14
    Week 15
    Week 16
    Week 17
    Edited on 09/15/2008 9:39pm
    Edited 2 total times.
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  • Avatar of HelloStuart

    HelloStuart

    [3]Aug 2, 2008
    • member since: 06/03/05
    • level: 62
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    I'll have to remind myself to put my picks in bold, but all these rules sound fine by me.

    I voted for the Week 3 cutoff, but I'm not opposed to pushing it back to Week 4 or 5.
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  • Avatar of bouges13

    bouges13

    [4]Aug 2, 2008
    • member since: 06/16/05
    • level: 19
    • rank: Fall Guy
    • posts: 2,624

    HelloStuart wrote:
    I'll have to remind myself to put my picks in bold, but all these rules sound fine by me. I voted for the Week 3 cutoff, but I'm not opposed to pushing it back to Week 4 or 5.

    Ditto for me.

    One question though - if enough people join in on time so that there isn't such a large discrepancy of missed games, would it be possible to go by winning %'s rather than games back?

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  • Avatar of 123home123

    123home123

    [5]Aug 2, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/02
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    Democracy rules on this contest so if the majority wants to switch to winning percentage and it makes sense, I don't see why not.
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  • Avatar of elpaquilloloco

    elpaquilloloco

    [6]Aug 2, 2008
    • member since: 03/28/06
    • level: 27
    • rank: Shark Jumper
    • posts: 8,552

    123home123 wrote:
    elpaquilloloco is the winner according to our agreed-upon criteria of Games Back. He also had the most winning picks with 170. Congratulations.
    *Brags*
    Let's see how this goes, I look forward to defend my title

    And I agree with the week 3 limit, though I hope most people join in time. Also, I'm a bit torn on the winning pct thing, I'm not that sure. I would stick with the games behind thing, it's more suspensful when you know exactly how many games you need to win to catch up, you know, I prefer the games behind thingie.

    I also propose to put a link to this competition in our signatures, maybe do a blog and look for a mod to anounce it (though that last thing is unlikely). That way we'll have a little more competition.

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  • Avatar of brandi1leigh

    brandi1leigh

    [7]Aug 2, 2008
    • member since: 02/09/06
    • level: 62
    • rank: Species #8472
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    All the rules still sound fine. This time I'll try to stick around for the whole contest. Personal probs stopped me from participating in Nov and Dec last year. Although if I remember correctly, I was so far back at that point not a lot could have saved me.
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  • Avatar of simpsonian100

    simpsonian100

    [8]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 01/07/06
    • level: 12
    • rank: Evil Bert
    • posts: 883

    I vote for a slightly stricter Week 2 cutoff. Missing Week 1 is just basically missing one game a week, if you predict every game for the rest of the season. Week 2 was when I joined last year, but that's when I found out. I also regret to inform you that I pretty much have to double space my picks, because every time I hit enter it skips a line. There's no option here to change the spacing, and I'm not computer-savvy enough to type everything in Word and move it to this website. I will do my best to follow the rest of the guidelines to make up for it.

    My goals for this season are to pick for every single game and finish better than fifth, which was my place last year. I will also not be bias and pick the Lions too much. It would cost me in the standings. I will pick them in games against teams that are around their level. It'd also be cool if I had another perfect week at some point (I guess picking for every single game is worth more of an acknowledgement than having the only perfect week all season). I think both are worth equal, so that's not a shot at those who picked for every single game. I do respect that a lot, but a perfect week is equally good.

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  • Avatar of tvfanatic91

    tvfanatic91

    [9]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 06/19/05
    • level: 44
    • rank: Golden Boy
    • posts: 6,441
    Doesn't matter to me! I just hope I will remember at the beginning of the season instead of week 3 or whatever it was last year.
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  • Avatar of jokipper

    jokipper

    [10]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 07/03/06
    • level: 48
    • rank: Conehead
    • posts: 946
    I'm in favor of the strict cutoff. The early weeks of the season always have a few surprises; it's an advantage to not play them and join in later riding trends that were established by the early games. Of course, we have to balance that with contest playability, but I think most true fans will be aware and ready for the contest in Week 1.

    Last year, I was totally against using winning percentage to determine standings. It's just too easy to skip a tough week to keep the percentage up, and even if unintentional it could be a determining factor in a close contest. I hope we continue to use GB to determine standings.

    I imagine there will be more people in the contest this year. Let me know if you need assistance compiling stats or anything else, as I'll be glad to help out.
    Edited on 08/03/2008 12:58am
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  • Avatar of 123home123

    123home123

    [11]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/02
    • level: 55
    • rank: Bounty Dog
    • posts: 15,433
    simpsonian100 wrote:
    I also regret to inform you that I pretty much have to double space my picks, because every time I hit enter it skips a line. There's no option here to change the spacing, and I'm not computer-savvy enough to type everything in Word and move it to this website. I will do my best to follow the rest of the guidelines to make up for it.

    Let's work on clearing this up beforehand while we're still in training camp mode.

    Can you answer a few technical questions? This will help to figure out why your browser is adding an extra line break in message posts.

    1) Which operating system are you using?
    2) Which browser are you using?
    3) Do you have the TV.com WYSIWYG Editor turned on (the What You See Is What You Get)? There may be a double spacing setting in that editor.
    4) If not, do you have any browser add-ons (particularly if you are using Firefox)? These include extensions like Paste Email Plus and Sage-Too.
    5) When you post a message, try clicking on the Quick Reply button, NOT the Reply button.

    You can tell whether or not you have the WYSIWYG Editor turned on by the message form for forum posts. When you start up a new message, do you see formatting tools and buttons like B for bold and I for italics immediately above the text area?

    The answers to these questions will help narrow down the reason for the double-spacing. It should be a simple matter of clicking one setting somewhere to get rid of those extra line breaks.
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  • Avatar of 123home123

    123home123

    [12]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/02
    • level: 55
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    jokipper wrote:
    I'm in favor of the strict cutoff. The early weeks of the season always have a few surprises; it's an advantage to not play them and join in later riding trends that were established by the early games. Of course, we have to balance that with contest playability, but I think most true fans will be aware and ready for the contest in Week 1.

    Good point about the early weeks. That's a strong argument in favor of a Week 1 cutoff. On the other hand, with the Games Back criteria for deciding the leader, it doesn't usually pay to skip entire weeks, as long as the leaders pick better than .500. In almost every week last year, the weekly winner did better than .500 except for a couple weeks.

    I'll advertise the contest on my blog this week as well as in my forum signature. It would be nice to get a few more people (but not too many as that would make it difficult to compile the weekly standings). It would also be good to get everyone in at the start so we all have the same number of total picks every week.
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  • Avatar of FlyingHellfish

    FlyingHellfish

    [13]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/06
    • level: 53
    • rank: Commander in Chief
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    Sounds good. If this generates a lot of interest and competitors, I would suggest setting up a private league at Yahoo! You wouldn't have to worry about sifting through this thread to find and compile everyone's picks. The private leagues at Yahoo! can carry a maximum of 50 players.
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  • Avatar of HelloStuart

    HelloStuart

    [14]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 06/03/05
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    FlyingHellfish wrote:
    Sounds good. If this generates a lot of interest and competitors, I would suggest setting up a private league at Yahoo! You wouldn't have to worry about sifting through this thread to find and compile everyone's picks. The private leagues at Yahoo! can carry a maximum of 50 players.

    I didn't know Yahoo had anything like that (besides Fantasy Football, of course).
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  • Avatar of FlyingHellfish

    FlyingHellfish

    [15]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/06
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    Yep. Link
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  • Avatar of HelloStuart

    HelloStuart

    [16]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 06/03/05
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    FlyingHellfish wrote:
    Yep. Link

    Hmm... not a bad idea. Let's see what 123 has to say first.
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  • Avatar of brandi1leigh

    brandi1leigh

    [17]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 02/09/06
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    I wouldn't have a problem using Yahoo. We could still use this thread to discuss the contest.
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  • Avatar of 123home123

    123home123

    [18]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/02
    • level: 55
    • rank: Bounty Dog
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    Could be interesting, especially if there are a lot of people. On the other hand, it would no longer be a TV.com contest. We'd also have to get everyone to sign up for a Yahoo ID.

    If we used the Yahoo group, we could have everyone post their picks on the Yahoo site and keep track of the standings on this thread as well. Most people already have a Yahoo ID. If not, it doesn't take long to set one up and we have plenty of time before Week 1 starts.

    OK, I'm taking a look at the Yahoo page. We can set up to 50 people, an automated tiebreak system if desired, an option to drop the lowest scoring week (which I don't think we should do), and different deadline options (Friday at 3 pm PT, 5 min. before 1st game of the week, 5 min. before each game).

    Before setting it up, we'd need to decide on the options. I would be in favor of using the automated tiebreak system, NOT dropping the lowest scoring week, and using the Friday at 3 pm PT deadline. I really don't like the 5-min. before deadline because I don't want the contest to be about who was scouring the news sites 10 minutes before each game starts. I'd like to have more of a relaxed friendly atmosphere like we've had in the past. We don't have any prizes at stake so I don't think we need to be too hardcore about the contest.

    I'm going to alter the poll and combine it with the deadline question. The new options will be the following:

    1) Yahoo and Week 1 deadline
    2) Yahoo and Week 3 deadline
    3) No Yahoo and Week 1 deadline
    4) No Yahoo and Week 3 deadline

    This will let us know about the majority view on both questions, to Yahoo or not to Yahoo, and when the deadline should be.
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  • Avatar of FlyingHellfish

    FlyingHellfish

    [19]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/06
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    123home123 wrote:
    Before setting it up, we'd need to decide on the options. I would be in favor of using the automated tiebreak system, NOT dropping the lowest scoring week, and using the Friday at 3 pm PT deadline. I really don't like the 5-min. before deadline because I don't want the contest to be about who was scouring the news sites 10 minutes before each game starts. I'd like to have more of a relaxed friendly atmosphere like we've had in the past. We don't have any prizes at stake so I don't think we need to be too hardcore about the contest.

    I second these guidelines.

    If we do decide for Yahoo! as mentioned already this thread would then become the primary discussion place for picks, standings, bragging, etc. Also, somewhere on the the original post you could compile a list of TV.com user names & Yahoo! ID's so we know who is who.
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  • Avatar of 123home123

    123home123

    [20]Aug 3, 2008
    • member since: 05/24/02
    • level: 55
    • rank: Bounty Dog
    • posts: 15,433
    That sounds good to me.
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