Attention DiploBallers – Two Week Warning

Ladies and Gentlemen, mark your calendars.  DiploBall IV will kick-off August 30^th, 7:00pm EST.  Week #1 will only consist of games featuring the NCAA’s BCS Top 25, so this will be a good practice round for those of you who are new to DiploBall.  However, players beware… with the start of the NFL season, Week #2 will be a completely different animal.  Starting Week #2 you’ll not only have the BCS Top 25, but you’ll also be picking ALL sixteen NFL games.  

I would like to encourage everyone to take a moment in visit www.PoolTracker.com and make sure you are able to sign in and access “DiploBall IV”.  If not, please email me (diploball@gmail.com) and I will send you a fresh invite.

For those of you who are new to DiploBall, please take the time to review the information below:

About DiploBall

Players

DiploBall participation has grown every year, starting with a mere 12 players four years ago and now has 30+ players living all over the world.  Our players consist of are Diplomats, members of Military, and their friends and family.    

Games

DiploBall includes, both, NCAA and NFL games in a combined Pick ‘Em format.  The season lasts 22 weeks, starting with the first week of NCAA regular season and continuing through the NFL regular season, NCAA conference championships and bowl games, NFL playoffs and Super Bowl.

Scoring

DiploBall is not merely about picking games correct.  It is about being confident in your picks. 

DiploBall uses a confidence based (Jeopardy style) scoring system. Essentially, players assign a point value to each game based on how confident they are in their pick to win.  The higher the value the more confident the players are and vice versa.   When a player picks the winner correct, they will receive the number of confidence points they assigned to that game, however, if they guess incorrectly, they will lose those points.

Picks

You can make your picks any time before a games kick off.  Each game has a different kick off time, so if, for some reason, you forget to make picks and miss a game or two, don’t worry, you’re still eligible to make picks for the remaining games that week.

PoolTracker Tip:

I will admit it, PoolTracker isn’t the most user friendly Football Pick ‘Em host out there.  We use them because they’re the only one who can support our 22-Week format, not because they are awesome.

So, being that I’m extremely anal retentive, I have developed a method to help me enter my picks into PoolTracker SUPER quick, without having issues with repeating or missing weights, which is something a lot of people have issues with.  Although my method might sound a bit complicated, trust me.  Once you get the hang of my method, you’ll be saving a ton of time (and headaches).

Here is what I do, in 5 easy steps:

STEP 1:  Populate Games into an EXCEL Spreadsheet and Pick Your Winning Teams

Typing 40 games into an EXCEL spreadsheet might sound daunting, but it can be done SUPER fast and save you LOTS of time in the long run.

Below is an example of what my picks might look like after Step 1.  Please note three things:

1.       The numbers in the first column.  This is very important.  You will need these numbers for the Step 4… it is also important that the games are numbered in the SAME order they are listed on PoolTracker.

2.       The green highlighting.  Those are my picks to win!  Go figure.

1	Mississippi State		Memphis
2	UNLV		Wisconsin
3	Youngstown State		Michigan State
4	TCU		Baylor
5	Akron		Ohio State
6	Miami (OH)		Missouri
7	Utah State		Auburn
8	Kent State		Alabama
9	Appalachian State		Virginia Tech
10	Chattanooga		Nebraska
11	Louisiana-Monroe		Florida State
12	Minnesota		USC
13	South Florida		Notre Dame
14	San Jose State		Stanford
15	East Carolina		South Carolina
16	Florida Atlantic		Florida
17	LA Lafayette		Oklahoma State
18	Missouri State		Arkansas
19	Boise State		Georgia
20	Oregon		LSU
21	Tulsa		Oklahoma
22	Marshall		West Virginia
23	SMU		Texas A&M

STEP 2:  Sort Your Pick from Most Confident to Least Confident

Using an EXCEL spreadsheet makes this part very quick and easy.  Simply move rows up and down until you have the order you want. 

Make sure you slide EVERYTHING on the row… you want the number in the first column to ‘live’ with the game it represents.

When you are done, your most confident pick should be at the top and your list should work itself down to your least confident pick.

Below is what my picks looked like after Step 2:

5	Akron	Ohio State
2	UNLV	Wisconsin
8	Kent State	Alabama
17	LA Lafayette	Oklahoma State
11	Louisiana-Monroe	Florida State
14	San Jose State	Stanford
16	Florida Atlantic	Florida
1	Mississippi State	Memphis
22	Marshall	West Virginia
7	Utah State	Auburn
21	Tulsa	Oklahoma
6	Miami (OH)	Missouri
12	Minnesota	USC
23	SMU	Texas A&M
3	Youngstown State	Michigan State
9	Appalachian State	Virginia Tech
10	Chattanooga	Nebraska
15	East Carolina	South Carolina
18	Missouri State	Arkansas
4	TCU	Baylor
13	South Florida	Notre Dame
19	Boise State	Georgia
20	Oregon	LSU

STEP 3: Weight Your Picks

This is the easiest step.  Now that your picks are already in your confidence order, all you need to do is add a 4^th column called and countdown to ‘1’.

It should look like this:

5	Akron	Ohio State	23
2	UNLV	Wisconsin	22
8	Kent State	Alabama	21
17	LA Lafayette	Oklahoma State	20
11	Louisiana-Monroe	Florida State	19
14	San Jose State	Stanford	18
16	Florida Atlantic	Florida	17
1	Mississippi State	Memphis	16
22	Marshall	West Virginia	15
7	Utah State	Auburn	14
21	Tulsa	Oklahoma	13
6	Miami (OH)	Missouri	12
12	Minnesota	USC	11
23	SMU	Texas A&M	10
3	Youngstown State	Michigan State	9
9	Appalachian State	Virginia Tech	8
10	Chattanooga	Nebraska	7
15	East Carolina	South Carolina	6
18	Missouri State	Arkansas	5
4	TCU	Baylor	4
13	South Florida	Notre Dame	3
19	Boise State	Georgia	2
20	Oregon	LSU	1

STEP 4:  Sort Your Picks by the FIRST Column

Honestly, all the hard work is done… the only thing you need to do before entering your picks into PoolTracker is sort by the first column:

1	Mississippi State	Memphis	16
2	UNLV	Wisconsin	22
3	Youngstown State	Michigan State	9
4	TCU	Baylor	4
5	Akron	Ohio State	23
6	Miami (OH)	Missouri	12
7	Utah State	Auburn	14
8	Kent State	Alabama	21
9	Appalachian State	Virginia Tech	8
10	Chattanooga	Nebraska	7
11	Louisiana-Monroe	Florida State	19
12	Minnesota	USC	11
13	South Florida	Notre Dame	3
14	San Jose State	Stanford	18
15	East Carolina	South Carolina	6
16	Florida Atlantic	Florida	17
17	LA Lafayette	Oklahoma State	20
18	Missouri State	Arkansas	5
19	Boise State	Georgia	2
20	Oregon	LSU	1
21	Tulsa	Oklahoma	13
22	Marshall	West Virginia	15
23	SMU	Texas A&M	10

STEP 5:  Enter Picks into PoolTracker Line-By-Line

Now that your picks are back in the same order as they’re posted on PoolTracker it is very easy to plug in all your pick and weighting information.

Give it a try.  It won’t add any more time to your picking process and if you use this method I guarantee that you’ll enter your picks into PoolTracker correctly the first time… every time.

PoolTracker is far from perfect; however, for you returning DiploBallers, once the Post Season begins you’ll understand why I made the switch.