DiploBall 3, Week 13: New DiploBall Records Abound!

Judging by the amazing picks this week, I’ll trust everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Things were pretty quiet for us… if you call 15 couples sharing Thanksgiving while three times as many kids trash the joint “quiet”.    Right now, we’re just looking for ways to feel festive surrounded by warm weather.  Listen, I’m a Georgia boy, so I’m used to mild winters, but its 83 degrees out right now… and that’s just ridiculous!  Go Falcons!

1^st Place: Will ‘BigCat’ Sanders (5)

Will is the man this week!  Not only is Will the only player to break 500 points, but he busted the DiploBall record books wide open!  Will now holds the record for the ‘highest single week points accuracy rate’ in DiploBall history.

Back in Season 1, Week 7 John Robbins became the first DiploBaller to break 90% (90.15% to be exact) in a single week… but his honor was short lived, because five short weeks later Rada stole the title from John with a score of 90.32%; a record that stayed intact until Season 3, Week 1 when the Brother Schutz tied with a 94.20%* accuracy rate (but, that was a college only week so the record gets an asterisk).  However, 2 weeks later my dad became the fifth person to break 90% in a given week, earning a 93.08% accuracy rate in a standard duel college/pro week of play.

And now… Will ‘BigCat’ Sander… the sixth DiploBaller to EVER best 90% has set the bar even higher… with a staggering 95.08% single week points accuracy rate.

2^nd Place (Most Correct Picks): Eric ‘Rolltide1’ Parker (4)

Will’s not the only person to rise in the ranks this week.  Together, Eric and Will knocked Ted from 4^th to 6^th place in the season standings.  Although, Eric came up short when it comes to points, he laid the smackdown on some picks, getting 29 games correct!

3^rd Place (Most Correct Picks): VNIBarger (15)

Also getting 29 games correct, VNIBarger jumped two spots in the rankings, from 17^th to 15^th!  Most incredible is that VNIBarger picked ALL 26 college games correct.

NCAA MVP of the Week:  Badger (7) and Tashkent1 (20)

VNIBarger wasn’t the only player to have a perfect college week.  A total of three folks nailed it to the wall!  Badger and Tashkent1 were out for a little bit of redemption and got it. 

NFL MVP of the Week: Jp (3)

I normally wouldn’t throw an honorable mention my way, but I had a really good week on the NFL games this week.  I went 15 for 16 and racked up a 93.10% single week NFL points accuracy rate, which is now a new DiploBall record!   Plus, I beat my Dad (currently in 1^st place) by 46 points this week… for a grand total of 66 points in the last two weeks… almost cutting his lead in half!  Look out Dad!  First I’m going to take out brother… and then I’m coming for you!

‘Most Correct Picks’ Honorable Mention: Hess (10)

Okay… so Hess had a successful but strange week mainly because he didn’t get his picks in on time and forfeited the first 4 games.  However, this didn’t stop him from putting up some serious numbers.

1. Hess was actually the 4^th person to have a perfect college week… well, near perfect.  Since he missed a game and only went 15 for 15 I couldn’t give him NCAA MVP.

2. Hess didn’t technically pick the most number of games correct.  That was actually a three way tie between Rolltide1, VNIBarger, and me with 29 games.  However, Hess did set a new DiploBall record this week by producing the highest overall single week picks accuracy rate of all time:  92.86%

Now, some might say,” hogwash!  Hess only picked 28 games, not the full 32!”  This is true. However, he still got 92.86% of those 28 games correct… and remember, we all live busy and stressful lives traveling around God knows where… and it has always been a DiploBall tradition to judge players on what you do pick, not what they don’t pick.    

Plus, in previous DiploBall seasons CBS Sports was only giving us 15 college games per week.  And as a result, during NFL bye weeks, we were regularly getting 28 games.  So, as far as I am concerned, the record stands!  Perhaps with an asterisk… perhaps not.

 ‘Random Pick Of the Week’ Honorable Mention: BigCat (5), Ryan (9), Robbins (17), and Jeff (21)

Well… this was a pretty straight forward week without many upsets; however Denver over San Diego was a bit of a nutty choice that ultimately paid off… so my hats off to the four of you that went for the jugular!

Last Place:  Jeff (21)

(snicker) (laugh) (point)… no… seriously… (rolling on the floor laughing)… I… I just… can’t… stop… (Jp continues laughing)…yeah… so… (giggle snort)… last year… this was around the time Jeff started mounting a comeback… steadily moving up the ranks each week.  (busting out laughing)… perhaps… Jeff would feel better about himself if he turn his monitor upside down.*

*Please note… when I’ve known you for over 17 years and you still return my phone calls, you too will be mocked relentlessly for your failures… or if your name is Dave, Eric, or John… you’ll be mocked too.

Have a great week everyone! 

DiploBall 3, Week 12: Happy Thanksgiving!

What am I thankful for this week?  Well… believe it or not, I’m thankful for my 7^th place finish.  Seriously, especially since the two people ahead of me finished in 12^th and 13^th!  J

Being Thanksgiving week and all, my schedule is pretty tight and I don’t have time for my normal long and boring recap… so you’ll just have to settle for an abbreviated version. 

Don’t forget!  There are lots of games this Thursday and Friday!  Get your picks in early!

Happy Thanksgiving!

1^st Place: Ted Craig (4)

Ted had a wicked awesome week, jumping from 7^th place to 4^th! 

2^nd Place: EricC (11)

This was a great week for Eric!  Although he better pick-up the pace if he wants to break into the top ten!

3^rd Place: Big Dave (18)

I would like to think I helped motivate Big Dave!  Worst to first third!

NCAA MVP of the Week:  ARose (12)

This was a VERY good week for ARose!  She actually had the best points earned percentage, however she fell short because she missed the first 5 games.  If she had actually made picks for all 37 games, statistically speaking, she could have won the entire week!

NFL MVP of the Week: Pac12Bear (19)

 Can you believe it?  Pac12Bear must have been channeling some crazy NFL juju.  His points earned percentage was over 90%!  I bet Pac12bear wishes he had weighted those games higher!

‘Most Correct Picks Of the Week’ Honorable Mention:  Rada (15)

Rada was on fire this week!  Although she finished in 6^th place, she tied with Big Dave for the most correct picks!  29 out of 37.

 ‘Random Pick Of the Week’ Honorable Mention: Robbins (16)

Normally, I would give this nod to the person who correctly predicted a totally random upset… however… this week I decided to give the honor to someone who went all in on an upset and lost.  And upset that almost happened.  Georgia Tech certainly didn’t ‘destroy’ Duke with their 7 point victory.  If Robbins 32 point weight on Duke worked out in his favor he would have ended the week in 4^th place rather than 19^th.

Last Place:  Tashkent1 (20)

Well Tash… I guess the good news is that there are four people behind you in the season standings… granted, only one of them actually plays each week. 

DiploBall 3, Week 11: The Gauntlets Have Been Thrown!

Okay… so… despite my 13^th place finish… I have to say… this week was AWESOME!

Seriously, have you looked at the standings?    It’s crazy!  We’ve shifted around as much as the BCS rankings! 

And let it be known… we have a new season leader.  VJ ‘Pops’ Schutz has stripped the top spot away from his first born.  And get his… my dad came in 8^th place this week… and the seemingly unstoppable Jim finished the week in 19^th!  Finally proving… after 11 weeks of play… halfway into the season… that anything can happen!

1^st Place: Will ‘BigCat’ Sanders (5)

Will’s win this week wasn’t just a victory… it was a throttling.  This week’s win moved Will from 8^th place overall to 5^th.  And although he is still 424 points out of 1^st… this week alone Will earned 156 points more than our leader.  If he can manage to keep this kind of momentum for the second half of the season who knows what will happen.

2^nd Place: Eric ‘RollTide1’ Parker (4)

Will isn’t the only player to jump three spots in the standings this week.  Eric jumped from 7^th to 4^th.  This is Eric’s 3^rd season of DiploBall and I have to say… he’s breaking his pattern.  In previous seasons Eric always started strong and slowly tapered off… however, this season he’s doing the opposite. Bring it!

3^rd Place: Steak n Potatoes (14)

You know?  I have no idea who Steak n Potatoes is… so I can’t really say anything personal about him or his picks… except that Steak rocked the house this week.  Only three people scored more the 400 points in a week where our group average was only 287 points... so yeah.  This week really affected our standings.

NCAA MVP of the Week:  VNIBarger (17)

VNIBarger’s 3^rd place NCAA and 4^th place overall finished bumped her up another ranking.  Not bad for minimal sleep!

NFL MVP of the Week: Rada (16)

In a week where Jim ‘earned’ -59 points in the NFL games, Rada brought home 129 points and a 68% accuracy rate!  If that’s not worth noting I don’t know what is.

‘Random Pick Of the Week’ Honorable Mention: Eric ‘RollTide1’ Parker

Now, Eric wasn’t the only person to pick TCU over Boise State.  ‘Pack12Bear’ also picked TCU for the win.  However, Eric picked wagered 20 points… which I would normally call insane.  Then again, Will the BigCat picked Oakland over San Diego for 18 points… so maybe the two of them are fishing for upsets and just got lucky.  Who knows…?

Last Place: Big Dave (18)

You know?  Season 1 was a very bad year for Dave… he appeared in this part of the recap a lot that season and I probably gave him five years worth of ribbings for it… so I’m going to give him a pass today.

Have a good week everyone! 

DiploBall 3, Week 10: Worst Week EVER… Literally

Had a bad week?  Well, don’t feel too bad because you’ve been a part of DiploBall history.  Diploball 3, Week 10 is officially the worst overall week we have EVER had as a group.

Yes, this week was worse than DiploBall 1, Week 9, where we only earned 62.38% of the available points.

And yes, this week we even topped our dismal showing during Season 2, Week5, where we only earned 50.20% of the available points.

Yep… this week was pretty darn bad… as a group; we only managed to earn 37.15% of the available points.  And for the first time in DiploBall history, our winner earned less than 50% of his available points.

Yeah… it was a bad week.

On the bright side, VNIbarger is back from her maternity leave!  Congrat!

1^st Place: Badger (4)

What did I say?  Huh?  Didn’t I tell you to watch out for this guy last week?  Well, now he’s on top and judging by Ted’s dismal performance this week Badger isn’t interested in a battle over 4^th… it looks like he might be interested in 3^rd.  Game on BADGER!

2^nd Place: Jim Schutz (1)

Well, this is Jim’s seventh Top 3 finish this season and we’re only 10 weeks in… which should give everyone a certain amount of concern.  Last season Jim dominated all season long and ultimately pulled up an easy season victory… and he only placed in the Top 3 six times.  So… has Jim locked up yet another season victory?  It’s tough to say… there is still a lot of time left… but if Jim continues to be this consistent it’s going to be VERY tough.

3^rd Place: BigCat (8)

BigWill is up a place in the standings after this third place finish.  Next on his hit-list is RollTide1... and although a gap of 83 points probably looks huge… remember… 4^th place Badger beat 5^th place Ted by 96 points this week.  Anything can happen!

NCAA MVP of the Week:  Robbins (15)

Robbins came in 2^nd place overall in the NCAA games, picking 13 out of 17 correct and earning 213 points!

NFL MVP of the Week & ‘Most Correct Picks’ Honorable Mention: Tashkent1 (20)

Despite this being a bad week over all Tash still managed to pick 22 out of 31 games correct AND claim the NFL point’s victory!  If only his weighing has been a little stronger, Tash could have found himself on the overall leader board!

‘Random Pick Of the Week’ Honorable Mention: Jeff (22)

Picking the Giants over New England was a gutsy move, and despite the close game, it worked out in the end.  Incidentally, Steak N Potatoes also picked this game correctly.

Last Place: Nate (13)

So Nate… is losing this week more or less humiliating than being dunked by an army of five-year-olds in the Oakwood pool?

DiploBall 3, Week 9: Simply Schutz-tastic

1^st Place: VJ Schutz (2)

With an impressive 26 out of 33 game week, my Pops is now only 22 points off of first place!  That’s one game folks! 

2^nd Place: Jim Schutz (1)

Much like last year, Jim has been in first place for, pretty much, the entire season.  However, it looks like Jim is going to sweet a little more than last year.  Although… Jim also picked 26 out of 33 games correct this week… so if he keeps that up, he’s lead may be secured.

3^rd Place: Jp (3)

Although I should probably celebrate yet another Schutz family victory… I have to admit something… being the baby of the family… I’m pretty darn tired of being in third place!  I’ve always been third!   I don’t know folks… it’s time for something drastic… like… I don’t know… perhaps I will do the unthinkable next week and make better picks!  Anway… I’m only 126 points off the lead… which is less than the normal difference between out weekly winners and weekly losers. 

‘Random Pick Of the Week’ Honorable Mention: Robbins (15)

Something to keep in mind about Robbins is that he loves to go for the upsets.  Even if it costs him the week… or the season… he likes to be the guy who plays bold… and that boldness certainly paid of this week with his 12 point pick on St. Louis over Dallas… although he still ended up in second to last place.

‘Most Correct Picks’ Honorable Mention: Ted Craig (5)

Now… technically, Ted did not get the most overall picks this week… that honor went to a couple people in our top three.  However, Ted legitimately score the ‘Most Correct Picks’ out of the NFL games (11 out of 13)… so this week’s Honorable Mention Goes to him.

NCAA MVP of the Week:  Badger (4)

I think we all need to watch out for Badger.  Not only did he come in third place in the NCAA games this week… he successfully bumped Ted out of the 4^th Place Overall slot.  A ranking he hasn’t held since Week 3. 

NFL MVP of the Week: Nate (13)

For the most part, Nate had a pretty good week… and by ‘pretty good’ I mean he scored the most points in the NFL games.  Not bad!

Last Place: Tashkent1 (20)

Tash… we have to stop meeting like this.

DiploBall 3, Week 8: Tie-Breakers A-Go-Go

Okay… so this was probably one of the worst football weeks I’ve had in quite some time.  I was 9^th place overall in DiploBall, I picked more NCAA games wrong than anyone else in the league… and get this… I faced my son in our DiploBall Fantasy League… and he beat me!   Not by a little… by a lot!  He beat me by 37 points!  I had to leave the room… I didn’t want him to see me cry. 

(PS: the DiploBall Fantasy League will have four expansion teams available next season… so claim your spot now if you’re interested).

Score Adjustments

PoolTracker seemed to be a bit fussy this week.  For some reason, five players lost their weights for the Texas A&M game.  I’m not really sure why, but I’m working with the folks at pooltracker to identify the problem. 

All five players picked the Texas A&M game correctly, and except for my dad, the other four players had missed submitting a pick for the Friday night game, so they each ended up with two unused point values.  I gave them the benefit of the doubt and applied the higher of the two unused values on the Texas A&M game.  Here is how it broke down:

·         Big Dave = 23 Points

·         Jeff = 11 Points

·         Nate = 28 Points

·         RollTide1 = 19 Points

Also, for some reason Pooltracker dumped almost all of President Malaise‘s NFL picks.  I rebuilt those picks the best I could.   Mr. President please let me know if you have an issue with what I did.

1^st Place & ‘Random Pick Of the Week’ Honorable Mention: Badger (5)

Badge had a solid week over all, but he can thank Purdue’s win over Illinois for his victory.   It was only worth 2 points, but those 2 points allowed him to tie VJ and beat him out with the MNF tie-breaker!  Not bad!

2^nd Place: VJ Schutz (2)

I know… second place is always tough to take, especially when you scored the same number of points as 1^st Place.  Darn tie-breaker!  However VJ, you’re on the leader board this week… probably because he gave the Falcons the respect they deserve.

3^rd Place: Big Dave (19)

BIG DAVE!  You’re made it!  This is Big Dave’s third (love/hate) season playing Diploball… and honestly… he gets better and better every year!  I don’t know about you Dave, but I’m sure you don’t miss being the butt of my ‘loserville’ jokes.

‘Most Correct Picks’ Honorable Mention: President Malaise (7)

Although Jason, aka President Malaise, aka ‘Going to lose next week’s Fantasy League game against Jp’, seemed to have terrible Pooltracker karma this week, what with his weights disappearing and all… however, Jason’s karma for picking games correct seemed to be untainted, picking 25 games correct!

NCAA MVP of the Week:  Nate (13)

Nate’s accuracy was pretty impressive this week when it came to the NCAA games, earning 89.6% of the points he assigned to those games.  Better than anyone else.

NFL MVP of the Week: BigCat (10)

Okay, I have to recognize William ‘BigCat’ Sanders.  When it came to raw points, BigCat actually tied with Big Dave, however he missed the MNF tie-breaker by 2 points!  BUT!  Will legitimately took 3^rd Place in the NFL games this week, so for that, we tip our hat!

Last Place: Steak N Potatoes (14)

Yeah… ‘loserville’ is never fun… but better you than me!

DO NOT FORGET!  Rice and Houston play Thursday night!  Get your picks in sooner than later!

Take care,

-Jp

DiploBall 3, Week 7: It’s My Fault… I Have a Mean Handshake!

Well, it was quite the week; mainly because my wife had to travel back to the States unexpectedly leaving our five-year-old boy in my capable hands… which was awesome!  And I wish I could say we watched copious amounts of football during our MAN weekend… but we didn’t.

Apparently my bad football watching karma will never end.

When I was researching possible posts, Suriname stood out because all of their houses are outfitted with AFN satellites and receivers.   And for those of you familiar with AFN you’ll know that during football season there can be as many as four or five games on at any given time.  Plus, we’re only an hour ahead of EST making this a perfect post for watching football live!  Why else would you want to move to Suriname for three years?  (That’s a rhetorical question).

Well… apparently I overlooked some important information.  Suriname actually falls outside the satellite footprints for the full AFN channel line-up.  Instead, we get something called ‘Direct To Sailors’ AFN… which consists of only 3 stations: Sports, News, and Primetime.  Our Primetime feed rarely shows sports, so we almost never get more than one game at a time… not that it matters, because we almost never the games I care about!  And for the past few weeks, the Sports channel has been focusing their attention on baseball and car racing… which has been a bit of a bummer. 

How am I supposed to indoctrinate my son into the way of the Falcons if we can’t watch any games!?!

Oh well… enough complaining… on to the recap!

1^st Place:  Jim Schutz (1)

So… I’m pretty disappointed.  Currently my brother is on a cross country road trip, so of course, I figured this week would be an opportunity for everyone to catch-up a little.  Well… apparently that was an ill-conceived idea.     

However, no one is hurting more than President Malaise, who faced Jim head-to-head this week in the DiploBall Fantasy League (different from the Pick ‘Em League).  Jim never updated his team and started two players on their bye-week and one player out due to an injury…  yet, he still beat President Malaise by 8 point officially taking the lead in the league standings. 

2^nd Place: Eric Collings (9)

This is a HUGE victory for DiploBall veteran Eric Collings.  Currently in 9^th place over all, Eric has been struggling this year to get his footing.  Does he have it now?  Who know?!?  All I know is this… Eric earned 94.62% of the points he weighed against the NFL games… which is pretty flipping crazy awesome!

3^rd Place: VJ Schutz (2)

What can I say?  Dad actually picked the Falcons this week and he made it onto the leader board.  Let that be a lesson to you!

‘Random Pick Of the Week’ Honorable Mention:  Rada (18)

I hate honoring Rada for picking Georgia Tech to lose, but I’d rather see Tech lose than the Falcons, so I’m cool with it.  Plus, Rada was the only person to pick Virginia… for 8 points!  Not bad!

‘Most Correct Picks’ Honorable Mention: RollTide1 (5) and Badger (6)

RollTide1 and Badger had a great week with 26 correct picks (tied with Jim Schutz).  In 5^th and 6^th place respectively, they are sitting in a very good position to move up the ranks if they continue making these kinds of strong picks!

NCAA MVP of the Week:  John Robbins (17)

You know… I find it interesting how the numbers can fall.  Although Jim was the all around winner this week, if you separate the NCAA and NFL standings, Jim didn’t even rank in the top three of either. 

This week’s clear NCAA winner was none other than John Robbins who picked 15 out of 17 games correct and earned himself 324 points from those games alone!

NFL MVP of the Week: Steak N Potatoes (16)

Although Nate earned 199 points from the NFL games this week, more points than anyone else, he only earned 80.24% of the points he assigned on those games.  That said, Steak N Potatoes earned 134 out of the 145 points he assigned to the NFL games… giving him a staggering 92.41% NFL accuracy rate! 

Loser of the Week:  Tashkent1 (19)

This was just a bad week for Tashkent one.  He had assigned most of his points to the NFL games and landed a dismal 53.85% accuracy rating… and there was simply no way his 75.82% accuracy rating for the NCAA games were going to help.

Well, that’s all for this week folks!  As you can probably tell, I’ve finally gotten organized and I’m starting to track everyone’s stats.  I’m still crunching the first few weeks, but I should have some interesting statistics to throw your way in the next few weeks!

Remember!  West Virginia and Syracuse play Friday night!  So don’t forget to make your picks!  Unless your name is Jim Schutz… and please… by all means… take a nice long gander at the Grand Canyon and don’t give DiploBall a second thought this week!