Over the past few years, we have given the subscribers of Footballguys.com some help in playing office pools, one of the most popular methods to follow the NFL aside from fantasy football leagues. For the past few seasons, both Dave Larkin and I have written the “For The Win” column where Dave attempts to pick each and every NFL game against the Las Vegas spread. This has been a very popular feature, so this year Footballguys once again is presenting the Eliminator Challenge, where staffers have to pick a team to win each week. Just one? That sounds easy, but here is the catch – you can only pick the team you choose in a given week once all season long. Many contests and pools out there get pretty big, so an Eliminator (or Survivor) Pool can go 16 or 17 weeks.
Jeff Pasquino has provided some insight into this kind of contest previously with a preseason strategy article, which describes this kind of contest along with some advice on how to pick a team each week:
This pool will run all season long, but to keep participation up, the pool will crown the staffer with the best W-L record for the season (which means that everyone in the pool will continue to make picks every week).
FINAL PICK SUMMARY
Here are the picks from the final week of the regular season:
|
Staff Member
|
Record
|
Wk01
|
Wk02
|
Wk03
|
Wk04
|
Wk05
|
Wk06
|
Wk07
|
Wk08
|
Wk09
|
Wk10
|
Wk11
|
Wk12
|
Wk13
|
Wk14
|
Wk15
|
Wk16
|
Wk17
|
|
Aaron Rudnicki
|
17-0
|
BUF
|
TB
|
IND
|
LAR
|
PIT
|
MIA
|
NO
|
PHI
|
KC
|
GB
|
LAC
|
SEA
|
LV
|
TEN
|
BAL
|
CHI
|
MIN
|
|
Jeff Haseley
|
17-0
|
BAL
|
GB
|
IND
|
LAR
|
DAL
|
MIA
|
BUF
|
TB
|
KC
|
NO
|
PIT
|
SEA
|
MIN
|
TEN
|
CLE
|
CHI
|
LAC
|
|
Matt Bitonti
|
16-1
|
BUF
|
SEA
|
IND
|
LAR
|
BAL
|
MIA
|
KC
|
GB
|
PIT
|
NO
|
LAC
|
NYG
|
LV
|
TEN
|
CLE
|
CHI
|
MIN
|
|
Alex Miglio
|
16-1
|
BAL
|
PIT
|
JAC
|
TB
|
LAR
|
IND
|
BUF
|
KC
|
GB
|
NO
|
LAC
|
CLE
|
LV
|
SEA
|
TEN
|
CHI
|
MIN
|
|
William Grant
|
16-1
|
PHI
|
TEN
|
IND
|
LAR
|
DAL
|
MIA
|
NO
|
TB
|
PIT
|
GB
|
LAC
|
CLE
|
MIN
|
KC
|
BAL
|
BUF
|
SEA
|
|
Sigmund Bloom
|
15-2
|
BUF
|
GB
|
IND
|
BAL
|
DAL
|
MIA
|
NO
|
KC
|
NE
|
LV
|
PIT
|
NYG
|
MIN
|
SEA
|
LAR
|
CLE
|
TEN
|
|
Danny Tuccitto
|
15-2
|
BUF
|
GB
|
IND
|
LAR
|
NO
|
MIA
|
LAC
|
KC
|
PIT
|
TB
|
MIN
|
CLE
|
LV
|
SEA
|
TEN
|
ARI
|
BAL
|
|
Jordan McNamara
|
15-2
|
NE
|
PIT
|
IND
|
TB
|
SEA
|
MIA
|
BUF
|
KC
|
TEN
|
GB
|
LAC
|
CLE
|
MIN
|
NO
|
LAR
|
BAL
|
LV
|
|
Jeff Pasquino
|
15-2
|
BUF
|
TB
|
IND
|
LAR
|
DAL
|
MIA
|
LAC
|
KC
|
PIT
|
GB
|
MIN
|
CLE
|
SEA
|
TEN
|
ARI
|
BAL
|
NO
|
|
Devin Knotts
|
14-3
|
BAL
|
CLE
|
IND
|
GB
|
DAL
|
MIA
|
BUF
|
KC
|
PIT
|
NO
|
LAC
|
LAR
|
LV
|
SEA
|
TEN
|
ARI
|
PHI
|
|
Andrew Garda
|
14-3
|
KC
|
SF
|
IND
|
LAR
|
ARI
|
MIA
|
BUF
|
TB
|
NE
|
GB
|
LAC
|
NO
|
SEA
|
CAR
|
BAL
|
CLE
|
TEN
|
|
Clayton Gray
|
14-3
|
BUF
|
CHI
|
IND
|
LAR
|
DAL
|
MIA
|
KC
|
TB
|
PIT
|
GB
|
MIN
|
NO
|
SEA
|
TEN
|
BAL
|
CLE
|
LV
|
|
Andy Hicks
|
14-3
|
BUF
|
GB
|
PIT
|
LAR
|
DAL
|
MIA
|
LAC
|
TEN
|
NE
|
NO
|
MIN
|
SEA
|
KC
|
TB
|
BAL
|
CLE
|
IND
|
|
Darin Tietgen
|
14-3
|
BUF
|
TB
|
IND
|
LAR
|
DAL
|
NE
|
NO
|
TEN
|
HOU
|
LV
|
LAC
|
GB
|
MIA
|
SEA
|
BAL
|
CLE
|
MIN
|
|
Dave Larkin
|
14-3
|
SF
|
PIT
|
LAC
|
LAR
|
SEA
|
MIA
|
BUF
|
PHI
|
NE
|
GB
|
LAC
|
NO
|
KC
|
TB
|
BAL
|
HOU
|
MIN
|
|
James Brimacombe
|
14-3
|
KC
|
TEN
|
IND
|
BAL
|
DAL
|
NE
|
PHI
|
TB
|
HOU
|
GB
|
LAC
|
LAR
|
MIA
|
SEA
|
PIT
|
CHI
|
CLE
|
|
Justin Howe
|
14-3
|
IND
|
SF
|
ARI
|
LAR
|
BAL
|
MIA
|
BUF
|
KC
|
GB
|
NO
|
LAC
|
SEA
|
PIT
|
TEN
|
CLE
|
TB
|
MIN
|
|
Sean Settle
|
14-3
|
PHI
|
BUF
|
IND
|
DAL
|
ARI
|
MIA
|
KC
|
LAR
|
PIT
|
GB
|
LAC
|
SEA
|
LV
|
TEN
|
BAL
|
TB
|
NO
|
|
Chad Parsons
|
13-4
|
BAL
|
SF
|
IND
|
LAR
|
KC
|
MIA
|
LAC
|
TB
|
PIT
|
GB
|
MIN
|
NO
|
SEA
|
TEN
|
CLE
|
BUF
|
DAL
|
|
Matt Carey
|
13-4
|
IND
|
MIN
|
ARI
|
DEN
|
HOU
|
MIA
|
LAC
|
KC
|
PIT
|
GB
|
BAL
|
CLE
|
LV
|
SEA
|
BUF
|
CHI
|
TB
|
|
Justin Bonnema
|
12-5
|
IND
|
BUF
|
LAC
|
NO
|
HOU
|
NYG
|
LAR
|
KC
|
WAS
|
GB
|
MIN
|
CLE
|
MIA
|
TEN
|
BAL
|
TB
|
ARI
|
|
Jason Wood
|
12-5
|
IND
|
PIT
|
ARI
|
BAL
|
LAR
|
ATL
|
KC
|
TB
|
HOU
|
PHI
|
LAC
|
GB
|
LV
|
NO
|
BUF
|
CLE
|
SEA
|
DISCUSSION
The final week of the regular season made it quite interesting. Despite only having half of the league to choose from, only three staffers suffered losses in the very challenging regular season finale for this season. Only Devin Knotts (Philadelphia) took a loss amongst the teams with two or fewer blemishes on their records in the group, so overall the entire staff had a banner year in a very difficult span of four months. Minnesota came through for six of the staff, including three of our top five teams. That gave Aaron Rudnicki a perfect season at 17-0, a remarkable feat - but it still left the door open for Jeff Haseley to tie him with another perfect record. Jeff deciphered that Aaron was going to take Minnesota, so he decided to roll the dice and go for the outright win rather than settling for a tie and took the Chargers - and Los Angeles came through against a resting Chiefs team. Congratulations go to our co-winners and their perfect season!
Season-long winners: Aaron Rudnicki and Jeff Haseley - Perfect 17-0 Seasons!
I want to thank you all for sticking around with us for another exciting season and contest. Best of luck to you in any playoff contests and we will see you again in the fall. Happy New Year!
Questions, suggestions, and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com
