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 1 2014 Page at Footballguys.com for the 2014 Week 1 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 pre-season 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).
THIS WEEK'S PICK SUMMARY
Here are the picks for this week.
| Staffer | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andy Hicks | CHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Mark Wimer | CHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Alessandro Miglio | NYJ | |||||||||||||||||
| Matt Bitonti | NYJ | |||||||||||||||||
| William Grant | NYJ | |||||||||||||||||
| Andrew Garda | PHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Bear Heiser | PHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Clayton Gray | PHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Dan Hindery | PHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Dave Larkin | PHI | |||||||||||||||||
| James Brimacombe | PHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Jeff Pasquino | PHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Steve Buzzard | PHI | |||||||||||||||||
| Aaron Rudnicki | PIT | |||||||||||||||||
| John Lee | PIT | |||||||||||||||||
| Maurile Tremblay | DEN | |||||||||||||||||
| Justin Bonnema |
DISCUSSION
Nineteen staffers are in the pool (with one to still catch up with the rest of us), and it should be quite interesting right out of the gate. Week 1 has just one team favored by more than 10 points, and that is the clear favorite choice this week as the Eagles received 9 of 19 choices. The next favorite was the Jets with four staffers selecting another home team against the only rookie starting quarterback for Week 1 in Oakland's Derek Carr. Two other teams each received two selections - the Bears at home against Buffalo and the Steelers hosting Cleveland. Only two staff members went out on their own in Week 1, as Ari Engel selected New England on the road at Miami, while, Maurile Tremblay went with Denver at home hosting Indianapolis. This could be quite interesting come Tuesday in the standings.
Please note a few things: First, Justin Bonnema is a little late to the party, and his selection did not make publication time. I'll get on him to make sure his picks are in sooner in the future. Also, we will be doing these picks every week, win or lose, to keep it entertaining all season long. Normally a Survivor / Eliminator pool would end once all but one player lost once, but to provide our subscribers with more perspectives, everyone will pick every week even if they lose. That said, we will still try and honor the spirit of an Eliminator / Survivor Pool, trying to win every week and not re-use any teams during the year.
COMMENTARY
Each week, contestants are invited to submit any comments that they might have about their picks. If they submit them early enough, we post them with the article. If not, the comments will be within the section below.
Jeff Pasquino: I decided to stick with my preseason plan and roll the dice on the Eagle at home over Jacksonville, which feels as safe as I can feel for Week 1. Philadelphia is the biggest Week 1 favorite in Las Vegas. This pick allows me to hold on to numerous other good teams for later in the year.
Clayton Gray: Week 1 is the hardest week of the year. We are still slaves to our biases from last year, but it seems like the Eagles are way ahead of the Jaguars right now. That's about as safe as it gets for opening week.
Good luck this weekend!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.