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, the staff members have done the Staff Confidence Pool Challenge, where numerous staffers try and pick the winners each week with a confidence ranking, and Jeff Pasquino’s “For The Win” column where Jeff attempts to pick each and every NFL game against the Las Vegas spread. Both of these have been very popular features, so this year Footballguys is adding a combination of the two called the “Against the Spread” Challenge and also 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.
Note that the links above are for 2013 articles. Please see the Week 17 2014 Page at Footballguys.com for the 2014 Week 17 updates.
Jeff Pasquino has provided some insight into this kind of contest with two pre-season articles, first one that describes this kind of contest along with some advice on how to pick a team each week:
The second article is rather interesting, which describes Jeff’s preseason plan to get all the way through 17 weeks. Will it work? We are about to find out.
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 YEAR-END SUMMARY
Here are the final standings for the 2014 NFL regular season, along with the results and standings from Week 17:
| Staffer | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
| Aaron Rudnicki | 16-1 | PIT | GB | NE | SD | NO | DEN | BUF | KC | CIN | BAL | WASH | INDY | STL | MIN | NYG | DET | SEA |
| Dave Larkin | 15-2 | PHI | DEN | NE | SD | DET | TEN | BAL | CLE | CIN | AZ | MIA | GB | STL | NO | NYG | PIT | HOU |
| Jeff Haseley | 15-2 | NYJ | DEN | NE | PIT | SD | AZ | DAL | KC | CIN | BAL | NO | INDY | HOU | DET | NYG | GB | SEA |
| Alessandro Miglio | 15-2 | NYJ | TB | NE | SD | NO | DEN | AZ | CLE | CIN | PIT | SF | INDY | HOU | GB | KC | JAX | SEA |
| Dan Hindery | 14-3 | PHI | DEN | INDY | SD | GB | BAL | NE | KC | SEA | CIN | PIT | SF | MIA | NO | DET | STL | HOU |
| James Brimacombe | 14-3 | PHI | DEN | NE | SD | GB | SF | SEA | KC | CIN | AZ | CLE | CHI | STL | DET | BAL | BUF | HOU |
| John Lee | 14-3 | PIT | TB | NE | SD | GB | TEN | WASH | CLE | CIN | AZ | NO | SF | INDY | NO | KC | SEA | BAL |
| Matt Bitonti | 13-4 | NYJ | SEA | NE | PIT | PHI | DEN | BUF | KC | CIN | BAL | NO | SF | INDY | MIN | DET | GB | NYG |
| Maurile Tremblay | 13-4 | DEN | AZ | NE | PIT | CIN | TEN | SEA | MIA | NO | PHI | WASH | DAL | DET | GB | BAL | BUF | HOU |
| Jeff Pasquino | 13-4 | PHI | GB | NE | PIT | SD | DEN | CLE | KC | SEA | DAL | NO | SF | INDY | DET | BAL | STL | HOU |
| Clayton Gray | 13-4 | PHI | DEN | NE | SD | DET | SEA | BAL | KC | CLE | AZ | WASH | INDY | MIA | GB | NYG | BUF | HOU |
| Jason Wood | 13-4 | PIT | HOU | NE | ATL | SD | DEN | SEA | DAL | KC | BAL | CHI | INDY | MIA | GB | DET | PHI | CAR |
| William Grant | 13-4 | NYJ | GB | NO | PIT | NO | CIN | NE | MIA | SEA | BAL | SD | INDY | HOU | DET | KC | DEN | DAL |
| Justin Bonnema | 12-5 | NYJ | WASH | NE | SD | DET | TEN | CHI | TB | CIN | BAL | PIT | CHI | STL | SF | NYG | DEN | SF |
| Steve Holloway | 12-5 | CHI | DEN | CIN | PIT | NO | SD | BAL | DAL | KC | SEA | CLE | INDY | STL | SF | NE | MIA | HOU |
| Mark Wimer | 12-5 | NYJ | TB | CIN | WASH | GB | TEN | CLE | DAL | KC | BAL | NO | PHI | INDY | DET | NE | CAR | DEN |
| Steve Buzzard | 11-6 | PHI | DEN | NO | PIT | GB | SEA | NE | DAL | SF | AZ | SD | INDY | HOU | DET | BAL | STL | MIA |
| Ari Engel | 11-6 | NE | NO | CIN | SD | SEA | DEN | DAL | DET | SF | BAL | NYG | GB | INDY | CHI | NYG | JAX | ATL |
| Andy Hicks | 11-6 | CHI | DEN | NO | SD | DET | CIN | NE | DAL | CIN | SEA | SF | INDY | PIT | GB | NYG | PHI | BAL |
| Andrew Garda | 10-7 | PHI | AZ | MIA | PIT | NYG | TEN | CHI | CLE | CIN | NO | MIN | DEN | DET | STL | BAL | BUF | NE |
| Phil Alexander | 9-8 | PHI | TB | NE | PIT | DET | SD | AZ | MIA | CIN | BAL | DEN | KC | NYG | NYG | CAR | NO | MIN |
| Bear Heiser | 8-9 | PHI | NO | NE | SD | PIT | GB | SEA | KC | SF | AZ | WASH | STL | NYG | SF | INDY | BUF | CHI |
CONCLUSION
Many thanks to the 21 staffers who participated this year, especially Steve Buzzard and his excellent weekly commentaries.
Congratulations to this year's winner, Aaron Rudnicki, who managed to go a near-perfect 16-1 on the season. The only blemish on his otherwise perfect run was a Week 11 loss by Washington against Tampa Bay. Nice job, Aaron.
Dave Larkin, Jeff Haseley and Alex Miglio finished strong at 15-2, one game behind first place.
Thanks again for reading this season, and I look forward to helping you win some more Survivor pools next year!
Happy New Year! Enjoy the NFL Playoffs!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.