Football Pickem Pool

We've thought about adding an auto-reminder feature when picks are not selected for a person, but we concluded that's what your group members are for -- and that's why we made it easy to send messages from the Your Group Members screen.  (look at the end of the list, under the last name and you'll see a Send email link)

If you see someone who hasn't made their picks, send them an email, call them -- or do nothing and heckle them for their foolish blunder when the pick window closes.

If you're out of town, in some remote corner where the internet doesn't exist, then call someone in your group - give them your ID and password and have them do a Pick Wizard for you -- that's better than getting all zeros.

Every week begins pretty much like this... no picks, no points.   It's a scary place to start.

I don't care how good you think you are, it's a blank page staring you in the face.   Writer's block.  Point paranoia... E'picktile dysfunction.   I don't care what you call it, it happens every week.

It hits the hardest when you're pressed for time or you just don't really have burning desire to think about what might happen.  Sure, there are 1000 other places to find out what others think, but that takes effort too.  

Enter stage left... the Pick Wizard.

It's not really a wizard, and the results may be just a crappy as the ones you come up with -- but at least if you use this, you have an excuse.    

What is Pick Wizard?   We're about to get to that...

It's simple.  Think of it as cheating, but in a good way because it was our idea.

Pick Wiz will look at whatever everyone else did and make the wild ass assumption that they know what they're doing.  (Did you know that many lay people combined can be more effective than a team of specialists?  It's true.  We just don't remember where that was quoted, so you'll need to take our word for it.)

Pick Wiz will look at all the picks and all the points, then determine a trend based on that group.  Think it stops there?  No way.  It also looks at where the teams are playing and even factors in weather conditions and how many freaks were in the hotel lobby the night before --putting the visiting team at a distinct advantage, depending of course on your coaching style.

In just a few seconds, all your picks are made, along with the mathematically correct point values placed in just the right places.   How much better does that get?

Can we promise you winners each week?   YES!   But only if the rest of the players in League know what they're doing.   (If half the league is faking it, or if everyone is using the Wiz... then hey, the playing field is very level.)

Instructions:

It's pretty simple... 

When you select your Make Picks screen, you will see a Pick Wizard button in the upper right corner.   It will look something like this:

All you need to do is click it -- and all the picks and points will be entered for you.  However your job is NOT done!  If you have any shred of team spirit you will review the selections and make sure you agree with what The Wiz has suggested.  Remember, these are highly accurate mathematically correct SUGGESTIONS that are every bit as good as any guesses you might make.   What's lacking is the emotional content that only you can provide.

So there you have it.   You click Pick Wizard, make a few tweaks, then click Save.   You're done.

Pick Snooper shows you how everyone in the league (e.g., NFL-2006) is making picks for the current week.  There are two parts to Snooper - Picks and Points.

The top half of Snooper is picks.   This gives you an idea of how all players are making selections for the current week.  It's divided into four categories:   High, Medium, Low and Long Shot.   Let's take game 1 of the 2006 NFL season:  Steelers vs Dolphins.   According to the Pick Snooper, most believed the Steelers would win:

So based on this, if you didn't have your own opinion, it would be wise to select the Steelers to win.   But what about points?    For this, you would use the lower half, Point Snooper.

Point Snooper lists all games in order of confidence, where confidence is the result of how points were allocated. The first game listed is where the most points have been placed, with the last game being the least.  So...if you wanted to use this exactly as-is, in a 16 game week, the first game listed would get 16, the last 1.

Based on this, the correct pick would be Steelers, with at least 4 points being allocated. (because it was 4th from last in the above list)   However, because everyone felt strongly that the Steelers would win, putting more than 4 points would be have been a reasonable move. 

The Result:  Steelers 28,  Dolphins 17 

Each week there are a specific number of games.   Using NFL as an example, week 1 has 16 games.    This means you can earn a total of 136 points for the week.   e.g.,  1+2+3+4 ... 16 = 136

Think of the points as money.  You're making a wager on each game.   The game on which you have the most confidence, you would wager the most money... in the above example, that would be 16.

It usually works like this...

Find the one game that you know you can predict the outcome.  Select the winner, then put 16 points on that game.  The above illustrates what this would look like if you felt the Steelers would win.   (again, assuming this is a 16 game week.  If only 15 games were being played, then 15 would be the maximum point value)

Then find the next game you are more confident about ... pick the team you like, then give them 15 points...  you keep doing this until you get to the 1 point game -- the one you are least confident about.

If this is too much work, just use the Pick Wizard and all of these decisions will be made for you!