DiploBall 3, Week 22: The End!

DiploBall 3, Week 22:  The End!

NY Giants… on behalf of the Atlanta Falcons… “You’re welcome!”

As for the rest of you… Thank you for a wonderfully exciting 3^rd season of Diploball!  Not only has this been our biggest season yet, this season has also seen the highest level of participation throughout the season.  Heck, 15 of you actually stuck with it until the end! 

I would say I am glad it’s over… but the truth is I’ll be itching to play in about a month. 

I hope you all had fun and will come back next year… bring a friend!  And if you’re feeling fancy, you can always join the DiploBall Legacy League as well!

Anyway, until then enjoy the final recap of the season:

Super Bowl

Honestly, I’m pretty surprised.  I was really expecting most people to pick the Patriots, but I was dead wrong.  The majority of players took my advice and went with the Giants!  8 people are getting the bonus:

Steak n Potatoes: 72 points, reversing a 36 point miss from week 18.

Jim Schutz:  60 points, reversing a 30 point miss from week 12.

Badger: 62 points, reversing a 31 point miss from week 11.

Robbins:  70 points, reversing a 35 point miss from week 18.

Jp:  64 points, reversing a 32 point miss from week 11.

Ryan:  72 points, reversing a 36 point miss from week 12.

Jeff:  72 points, reversing a 36 point miss from week 12.

Hess:  74 points, reversing a 37 point miss from week 12.

**********

NCAA Standings

Before I get to the overall standings, I thought it would be fun to look at the NCAA and NFL games separately.  Here is DiploBall 3’s NCAA leader board:

Rank	Total Picks	Total Points
1st	VJ	VJ
2nd	Jim	Jim
3rd	Badger	Badger
4th	BigCat	Ryan
5th	President Malaise	Jp

Picks

·         Past Winner: Jp (DiploBall 1 & 2) – This year I didn’t even break the top 5.

·         This is Jim’s second year in second place.  Last year he tied with Robbins; they were only one game behind me.

·         BigCat was also in 4^th place for NCAA picks last year.

·         Three people in the bottom 15 had better accuracy ratings than VJ.  I wonder what would have happened if they consistently participated.

·         Also, VJ’s 245 correct NCAA picks is a new DiploBall record… however we had almost 70 more NCAA games than previous years, so next year will be the real test.

·         No one who played in DiploBall 1 made the top 5.

Points

·         Past Winners: Jp (DiploBall 1) and Jim (DiploBall 2)

·         Jp is the only play from DiploBall 1 who made the top 5.

·         Ryan is up!  Last year he ended in 6^th place, in terms of NCAA Points.

For a complete look at this season’s NCAA breakdown, please visit here: http://diploball.blogspot.com/p/ncaa-standings.html

**********

NFL Standings

Rank	Total Picks	Total Points
1st	Jp	Jp
2nd	Jim	Jim
3rd	President Malaise	Ted
4th	VJ	ARose
5th	Ryan	VJ

Picks

·         Jeff was last year’s big Picks winner after rallying in the latter half of the season, but he just couldn’t make it work this year.

·         This is my first time at the top of the NFL Picks, although I can in 2^nd for DiploBall 1 and in 3^rd for DiploBall 2.

·         Once again, Jim stays in second place.

·         And Ryan is the most improved player!  Last year Ryan came in DEAD last in NFL Picks.

Points

·         This is my second time winning NFL Points, I won during DiploBall 1.  Last year Jeff pulled out the victory, while I finished in 7^th.

·         Last year Jim finished in 5^th place, while Ted was second to last, just above Ryan.

For a complete look at this season’s NFL breakdown, please visit here: http://diploball.blogspot.com/p/nfl-standings.html

**********

Overall Standings

Rank	Total Picks	Total Points
1st	VJ	VJ
2nd	Jim	Jim
3rd	Jp	Jp
4th	President Malaise	Badger
5th	Badger	Ryan

Picks & Points

·         VJ is officially the 3^rd member of the Schutz family to win DiploBall.  Jp won DiploBall 1 and Jim won DiploBall 2.  In all three occurrences, the champion won both the Picks and Points categories.

·         This is the first season of play for President Malaise and Badger… you guys played a fantastic season!

·         Once again Ryan finishes the Points season in 5^th place.  His 7^th place finish in the Picks really cost him.

·         Honorable Mentions go out to Ted, Hess, BigCat, Steak n Potatoes and EricC who managed to crack into the top 10!

·         As for the rest of you… there is always next year!

For a complete look at this season’s Overall Standings, please visit here: http://diploball.blogspot.com/p/overall-standings.html

DiploBall 3, Week 21: Go Giants!

The ‘Falcons Bump’ is alive and well… but do the Giants have what it takes to defeat the Patriots?  Do you have the guts to embrace the ‘Falcons Bump’ for your final pick?  I know I do!  Go Giants!

This is it everyone!  One more week will decide you place in DiploBall history. 

As for week 21, four people had a perfect week earning them quite a bonus:

Badger – 62 Bonus Points!

Back on Week 12 Badger lost 31 points when #3 Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State.  And now, thanks to his perfect week, his losing pick has been changed from a negative to a positive, giving him 62 extra points! 

I guess the big question is this: “Did the bonus help Badger in the standings?” 

Answer: YES

This 62 point bonus has moved Badger from 7^th place to 5^th place overall.  Furthermore, Badger is only 44 points behind Ted.  Potentially, if Badger get the Super Bowl correct he will be eligible to correct another 31 point loss for another 62 point bonus.  So, if Ted gets the game wrong or doesn’t make a pick… 4^th place could be Badgers!

President Malaise – 66 Bonus Points + 19 Point Score Adjustment

Mr. President, on Week 9 didn’t you pick New Orleans for 33 points and lose?  Not anymore!  Boom!  66 points!

Scoring Adjustment: Periodically throughout the season we’ve caught issues where PoolTracker neglected to register weights for some folks.  We caught most of them as the season progressed, however, while auditing Malaise’s scores, for his bonus, I noticed that his 19 point weight on  Arizona State, during Week 9, didn’t register.  So, congratulations… that’s an extra 19 points for you!

BTW, the Arizona State game didn’t register for six other players and I’ve corrected everyone’s scores: Nate (28 points); Rolltide1 (22 points); Pac12Bear (32 points); Jeff (11 points); Arose (13 points); and Robbins (21 points).

As for Malaise, these bonuses were unable to move him up from 8^th place.  However, with a correct pick at the Super Bowl, Malaise could earn himself another 66 point bonus!

EricC – 70 Bonus Points

EricC has earned himself a 70 points bonus after his perfect week reversed the 35 points he lost in week 11 when TCU beat Boise State.

EricC, I have good news and bad news.  Although you’ll be eligible for another 66 points if you get the Super Bowl correct, won’t be enough to get out of 10^th place… however the good news is that there is no way Eric ‘Rolltide1’ Parker can catch you!

Arose – 74 Bonus Points + 73 Point Scoring Adjustment

Arose totally made out this week.  Not only did she get to reverse for 37 points Stanford lose from Week 18 and get an extra 13 points from the Week 9 scoring adjustments… when auditing her scores I cause two games that didn’t register from Week 12: 24 (U Ar over Co State) and 36 (TCU over MS State)!!!

These extra points have moved Arose from 13^th place to 12^th place!

Incidentally, Hess had the same score issue for Week 12.  After correcting his weights, Hess has regained a total of 51 points.

*** These score adjustments should populate into the PoolTracker System by tomorrow morning.  Please take a moment and check your scores.  You should check to see if you have a correct pick registered with ‘0’ points.  If so… you could get some points back too!

The Season Standings Going into the Super Bowl:

1	VJSchutz	6121
2	Jim Schutz	6043
3	Jp	6017
4	Ted Craig	5609
5	Badger	5565
6	Ryan	5548
7	BigCat	5537
8	President Malaise	5431
9	Hess	5339
10	EricC	5217
11	RollTide1	4888
12	ARose	4793
13	Steak n Potatoes	4738
14	vnibarger	4359
15	Nate	4241
16	Rada	4030
17	Robbins	4023
18	Big Dave	3990
19	PAC12BEAR	3623
20	Jeff	3053
21	Tashkent1	3010
22	mbounds	2327
23	dnibarger	1447
24	Skiclimb2011	148

DiploBall 3, Week 20: The Falcons Bump

Man!  I am totally kicking myself for not picking the Giants.  In my heart of hearts I thought they were going to win, but the numbers weren’t supporting my theory… so I couldn’t justify picking them.

However, there might be some truth to my ‘Falcons bump’ theory.

In the last four seasons the Atlanta Falcons have made the playoffs three times.  All three times they lost in the first round of the Wild Card games.  In 2008/2009 they lost of the Arizona Cardinals and in 2010/2011 they lost to the Green Bay Packers… both teams went on to win the NFC Conference Championship for berths into the Super Bowl. 

Oddly enough… the season in-between (2009/2010), when the Falcons came in 7^th overall in the NFC, barely just missing out on a Wild Card berth, they came in second place in the NFC South.  Essentially losing their division to the New Orleans Saints… and you guessed it… that was the year the Saints humiliated the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl.

You get the idea.    

Does the ‘Flacons Bump’ really exist?  I don’t know… we’ll see.  Back in 2007 the New York Giants beat the Falcons in the third week of regular season and went on to win the Super Bowl… so… can beating the Falcons ago bring home the gold for NY?  As I said, “We’ll see.”

Week 20 Recap:

Only one person got three games correct this week, so we were close, but no cigar, for taping into the new ‘Perfect Week’ rule… and well… with so few points at stake, we were plagued with an abnormally larger number of ties.  14 people actually participated this week… and if you ignore the silly ‘tie break’ rule, we all landed in one of five placements:

1^st Place: Badger and EricC (4 points)

2^nd Place:  President Malaise (3 Points)

3^rd Place:  Robbins, VJ, Jp, Jim, and Pac12Bear (2 Points)

Honorable mention goes to Pac12Bear for getting three out of four games correct.  Unfortunately his 4 point weight on Green Bay didn't pay off.

4^th Place:  BigCat and Ryan (0 Points)

Last Place:  Ted, Steak N Potatoes, Big Dave, and Jeff (-4 Points)

With only two games this week there is a real shot at having a perfect week!  Who can do it???

DiploBall 3, Week 19: …

I don’t want to talk about it.

1^st Place:  Pac12Bear with 34 points

2^nd Place:  Robbins with 15 points

3^rd Place: ARose with 13 points

Last Place: President Malaise with -40 points.

DiploBall 3, Week 18: It’s All Up to the Wind

Happy New Year everyone!

This season of DiploBall has taught me a very important lesson.  It has taught me the difference between taking random chances and calculated risks.  Taking random chances comes with a great deal of dread… candles may be lit and prayers said… and when it doesn’t go my way all I can think about is how stupid I was for taking such a ridiculous chance.  However, taking a calculated risk might not always go my way… but regardless of the outcome I still feel great for going for it!   

Although my 4^th place finish this week ended up dropping me back down to 3^rd place overall I am very pleased with how I played.  Out of the ten games I missed, seven of them were decided a touchdown or less.  If the wind had been blowing in a different direction for Wisconsin, Stanford, Houston, NY Jets, or Iowa State, (any one of them, not all of them)… Pops wouldn’t be enjoying such a nice lead.

Oh well.  That’s why their calculated risks.  Now I have to focus on getting a perfect week to get back some of the points I’ve lost in previous week!

The game isn’t over yet!

1^st Place: Ryan (5)

It has been a remarkable few weeks for Ryan.  For the last three weeks he has manages to place in the top four… and that consistency has propelled him from 9^th place all the way to 5^th in the season standings!  With four weeks left and the ‘Perfect Week Bonus’ on the line… can Ryan make up the 87 points he needs to take 4^th away from Ted?

2^nd Place & ‘Most Correct Picks’: Jim Schutz (2)

VJ called this during our pregame Schutz family babble.  Jim is by far the strongest NCAA picker of the family, and it is no surprise he wound up on top… I just wish he hadn’t done so well, because now I’m back to having two people to topple in the next four weeks.

3^rd Place: VJ Schutz (1)

Seriously.  I was watching our picks very closely and I know poor old dad was sweating a lot this week, especially going into the final three games.  He had gone big, with more than 20 points, on UGA, Oregon, and OK State.  I had done the complete opposite, having gone low, supporting all three rival teams… and you can imagine… with Michigan States OT win, the gantlets had been thrown.    Unfortunately, my other two picks had wound up just a tad to short.

NCAA MVP of the Week: President Malaise (8)

If you ignore Jason’s NFL standings, he had a really amazing week!  He actually tied Jim and VJ for the most correct Bowl Game picks, 18 out of 21.

NFL MVP of the Week: Hess (9)

Hess ended up in second place for the NFL games, with 12 out of 16 games and 256 points earned!

Last Place: Rada (16)

Oh Rada… I had really hoped you’d start your year on a better note!