Week thirteen recap
Early recap this week since noone picked the Sunday or Monday night games.
Another stumble by the Steelers, the second in three weeks, knocked out another 14 players. So after thirteen weeks, we have gone from 367 to 54 players. If we hadn’t had buybacks this year (they are gone next year), that number would be 34.
So let’s update who is picking who so far this season.
A few weeks ago, NFC teams held the advantage in times picked, and that continues to be true. Out of 2,776 picks so far this season, NFC teams have been picked 1,565 times; AFC 1,211.
Led by the Eagles, the NFC East is still the most popular division to go to, at 22% of all picks. The NFC North is second at 18%, and the AFC North is next at 17%. The Ravens are the most popular pick so far, edging out the Eagles by seven. The Vikings and Packers come in third and fourth, respectively.
However, breaking that down by wins, the Ravens is still on top, winning 211 of the 217 times they were picked. Coming in second, the Vikings are perfect so far, going 192 for 192. They needed overtime to pull it out today, but the still-undefeated Saints are third with 160.
Which teams turned out to be bad picks? Well, the Packers top this list, having lost 91 of 180 picks. Primarily due to their upset loss to the Raiders, the Eagles come in second, 73 of 210.
Speaking of the Raiders, their upsets against picked teams are responsible for eliminating 118 players, which is almost a third of the pool. First they beat the three-point favorite Chiefs in week two. Then it was the 14-point favorite Eagles in week six. Then it was the nine-point favorite Bengals two weeks ago. And finally the 15-point favorite Steelers this afternoon.
The Bengals come in second, having caused 82 eliminations. 74 of those came in their week two upset of the eight-point favorite Packers, so a number of those players did buy back (13 of those players are still in the pool now).
There are still four teams that noone has picked so far: the Browns, Raiders, Rams, and Buccaneers.
All picks are due at Sunday at 10am ET. If you want to pick the Thursday night game, those picks must be in by Thursday at 5pm ET.
December 6th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Sad to hear no buybacks… not even for the first week? haha
December 6th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Including last year (in a different pool), Oakland has knocked me out back-to-back seasons (Week 15 vs. HOU). They’re 9-19 in their last 28 games, and 2 of those wins just happened to be when I picked against them. Unreal.
December 7th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Removing the buybacks is not smart. You will kill the pot. You should seriously re-think that decision.
December 7th, 2009 at 12:13 am
I just think the ONE buyback you are allowed during the first 5 weeks is well worth the extra 1500 in the pot. Sure if there’s no buybacks there’s only 34 left, but they’re only playing for $3,670 and not $5,240. Your pool, your call but I think you’d attract more people keeping the buyback.
December 7th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
i think the Browns can upset the Steelers this thursday. you can’t trust the Steelers this year it seems. i think we’ll lose some more this week with a lot of close games. like Bill said before, some people are running out of ammo with their picks.
December 7th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
@Eric
I think there’s enough players now that we don’t need buybacks to extend the game anymore… We might actually end up with more players cuz there were quite a few that didn’t like buybacks cuz then it wasn’t a true survivor pool.
December 7th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
kill the buybacks forever, dude. your pool is popular enough without them. hopefully i will win it this year and not have to split it with any of those who bought back. KW#1
December 7th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Kill the buybacks and raise the $$ per entry that way you still have a big pot in the end. Make it $15 or $20 per entry instead of $10 and the pot will be close to what it was with the buybacks. Just my opinion.
December 7th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
…or split the difference. At the beginning of the season (before buybacks), take half the pot and award that to the last survivor(s) that don’t use a buyback. Take the other half of that initial pot, add the buyback money, and award that to the overall winner of the pool (whether they use a buyback or not).
December 7th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
that’s dumb
December 9th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I agree that removing the buybacks is not smart. Why decrease the amount of money in the pot? I’m sure a more creative solution could be thought of.
Here are some ideas:
1) Reward those people who have not bought back with more of the pot. For example: Give 70% of the pot to those who did not buyback and 30% to those who did. So if the pot was $5000 and there 10 winners (say 2 who never bought back and 8 who did) then 70% of 5000 = $3500 / 2 non-buy back winners = $1750 to them and %30 of 5000 = $1500 / 8 who bought back = $187.5 to them. Or do 60/40 whatever you think is right. At least this way you are rewarding those who never needed to buy back and truly survived and also rewarding those who did buy back and survived after that.
2) Create a pay-out structure for those who win by creating a tie-breaker for week 17. Such as make players pick 2 additional pick of the teams which they have remaining in wk 17. Then you can payout based on those who got 2 additional teams right and those who got one right.
I really think #1 above is a great solution w/out having to decrease the pot.
Or if you do remove buyback, then can we please increase the number of entries from 5 to say 7 or more.
December 9th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
go ahead and remove buybacks. it doesn’t matter to me. it will just weed out the competition faster like you’ve said before. so what if the pot is smaller. $5240 is a good pot for this year, but without buybacks it would have been around $3500 if i remember correctly. either amount is more than i have right now in my pocket and i wouldn’t scoff at taking a share of (or all of) it. i’m not opposed to raising the entry fee either without buybacks. but also you should leave the amount of entries alone. if people want to make more money with more entries, they can enter other pools. this isn’t the only game in town.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Up the Irons!
December 10th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Since it is almost game time, I will admit I picked Pittsburgh.
But it wasn’t an easy decision, seeing how badly they have played the last 3 weeks (and who they have played against). I really don’t see them losing to THE WORST team in the league! Oakland is actually pretty decent now, with Gradkowski behind center now.
We will see I guess… Go Steelers!!
December 10th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
and P.S….. that is a dumb saying… Up the Irons?? Seriously… this isn’t GOLF!
December 10th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
what the hell does ‘Up the Irons’ mean? and i guess no one was brave enough to take the Steelers tonight? probably a good thing for them.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
sweet cream on an ice cream sandwich!!! why would anyone want to pick the Steelers? i think i called this one a couple days ago.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Well it was fun boys and girls. I knew the Steelers were no good…
Good luck to all and see you next year!
- Eric C.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:18 am
peace and chicken grease!
December 12th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Up the Irons! == Iron Maiden. Get with your metal knowledge.
Go Seahawks.
December 13th, 2009 at 6:34 am
i’m metal, just not a Maiden fan
December 16th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
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