11/05/24
June 14, 2006
June means football: Okay, I admit it: with the Olympics, NHL, and World Cup picks, the CFL season totally caught me by surprise. We were itching for a pick 'em last year without those aforementioned events to play with, so we did the CFL pick 'em, and it was definitely a spot of fun, keeping us entertained through those otherwise desolate summer months. The 2006 season starts up Friday night. What say you all? Shall we do it again?
posted by DrJohnEvans to fantasy at 05:43 PM - 18 comments
Sounds like fun. I'm in, although I doubt I will see a single game here in good ol' Alabam'. Gonna do some CFL goooooogleing to see what the "experts" say. If a kind Canadian (or anyone else for that matter) spofite would like to drop a link or two I'd be most grateful.
posted by Folkways at 06:34 PM on June 14, 2006
I've always found TSN's CFL coverage to be quite competent, especially the ubiquitous Schultz vs. the World feature. Also, at the bottom of this page there are links to PDFs which detail the CFL's American broadcast schedule. You may be in luck. Also, traditionally, we've just picked winner and spread.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 06:57 PM on June 14, 2006
Woo hoo! Montreal by 11 [insert snarky comment about Als being goodish until it counts] BC by 15 [insert snarky comment about Lions QB situation] Toronto by 18 [insert snarky comment about Ricky Williams] Edmonton by 9 [insert snarky comment about Calgary being on the border between lousy and OK]
posted by gspm at 10:22 PM on June 14, 2006
I hereby nominate Dr. John as the new ambassador to the United Nations from Canada. [insert snarky comment about Canada] My picks, Mr. Ambassador: Montreal by 8 B.C. by 12 Toronto by 10 Calgary by 7
posted by The_Black_Hand at 05:19 AM on June 15, 2006
Woo Hoo - CFL Football is back! Winnipeg by 3 BC by 7 Toronto by 11 Edmonton by 6
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:03 AM on June 15, 2006
Okay, here's how we did it in the playoffs, and how I think we should do it this year. I think basing the Margin of Error on the actual result is a much better idea than basing it on even an educated pick 'em beforehand. I also played with a few numbers last year, and I feel that a MoE factor of +/- 0.3 scales well. Feel free to debate if you think otherwise. Here's how she works. You pick who you think will win, and by how much. You then get points based on the result:
- picked the winner? You get 1 point.
- picked the winner, and a spread within the Margin of Error? You get 2 points.
- picked the winner, and you nailed the spread right on? You get 3 points.
- didn't pick the winner, but nailed the spread right on? You get 1 point.
spread - round(0.3 * spread) <= Margin of Error <= spread + round(0.3 * spread) So you can get rewarded for being close to the spread even if you're not spot-on. The bigger the spread, the bigger the margin of error, so you don't have to be as accurate when predicting a blowout as you would when predicting a close game. Here are some examples: | Actual Spread | Margin Starts at | Margin Ends at |
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 | 5 | 9 |
| 11 | 8 | 14 |
| 20 | 14 | 26 |
Outcome | Your score |
| Toronto by 20 | 2 points (winner + spread within MoE) |
| Toronto by 10 | 1 point (winner only) |
| Toronto by 15 | 3 points (winner + nailed spread) |
| Hamilton by 15 | 1 point (nailed spread only) |
| Hamilton by 43 | 0 points (and deservedly so) |
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:05 AM on June 15, 2006
Argh. Sometime between now and last fall, the site's stylesheets were rewritten a tad, and now it's tougher to make tables look pretty. Thanks for bearing with me.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:10 AM on June 15, 2006
Who said I'm bearing with you? If those style sheets don't look pretty - I'm hissy fitting you into the middle of next week. Oh, and thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule yadda, yadda. No, seriously, not important.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 01:54 PM on June 15, 2006
oh, god, we're already there? I've been drinking at a world cup bar all day. shi-i-i-it. okay. Montreal by 9 (ja! nine!) Saskatchewan by 4 (missed FG one way + TD the other) Toronto by 11 (Ricky's best game of the first half of the season comes right out of the gate) Edmonton by 7 (late TD disappoints many locals) do not follow me into this hole.
posted by chicobangs at 05:35 PM on June 15, 2006
Thanks DJE for the links. The picks from Alabama are as follows. Winnipeg by 6 Saskatchewan by 8 Hamilton by 2 Calgary by 14
posted by Folkways at 05:51 PM on June 15, 2006
What the hell. I had a creditable placing in the play off pick 'em. However my dumb beginners luck will probably be shown up over a full season. Montreal over The Peg by 6 BC over Sasquatch by 12 Tronto over Where The Fuck Is Hamilton I Thought It Was In New Zealand by 10 I Went Out With A Girl From Edmonton So I Better Pick Them over Calgary Who She Used To Hate And Whenever The Flames Were Playing The Oilers Would Yell At The Screen by 5
posted by owlhouse at 09:13 PM on June 15, 2006
Hmm I know less about the CFL than I do about the World Cup but since I'm doing decent in that... Montreal by 6 BC by 12 Toronto by 3 Edmonton by 6
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:09 AM on June 16, 2006
Same here YYM, so here goes nothing: Winnipeg by 3 B.C. by 9 Toronto by 10 Calgary by 13
posted by MrFrisby at 06:03 AM on June 16, 2006
I should point out that anyone can join in the pick 'em at any point through the season, but of course your picks for a game are valid only if they're posted before kickoff. Last year, the winner didn't start picking until the second week, so maybe the rest of us are going about it the wrong way. I think that's it for rules.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 09:32 AM on June 16, 2006
Okie, my picks. Fortunately, I just now read the Globe's CFL season preview, which leaves me in an excellent position to blame someone else when things go wrong. Montreal by 3: Apparently the Blue Bombers have completely rebuilt their defence, although given their performance last year I'd argue against the use of the prefix "re-". In Montreal, as usual, nobody knows what the hell is going on. Saskatchewan by 7: Saskatchewan made a killing in the Renegades' dispersal draft. The names of all their pickups elude me at the moment, but I'm sure they'll make an impact. Toronto by 11: Hamilton is supposed to be all new and improved with Jason Maas and Josh Ranek, but I'm not going to start doubting Damon Allen until he gives me reason. Apparently Toronto also has a new running back. Edmonton by 1: Stadium full of bitter Flames fans = Saturday night chock full-o-fun.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 09:54 AM on June 16, 2006
New CFL end zone dance: The Campfire. Touchdown scorer spins the ball on its end, rubbing and warming his hands over it. I think the other receivers were supposed to join in, but they just stood there looking kind of confused. Don't they practice these things?
posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:46 PM on June 16, 2006
That ain't new. Those guys should have learned the Campfire in TD Dances 101.
posted by chicobangs at 11:45 AM on June 17, 2006
Um, given the very brief amount of time between now and kickoff, if you want to play, go ahead and make your picks here. Week One Winnipeg @ Montreal (Friday June 16, 7:30pm) Saskatchewan @ B.C. (Friday June 16, 10:30pm) Hamilton @ Toronto (Saturday June 17, 3:00pm) Edmonton @ Calgary (Saturday June 17, 8:00pm) If we decide to do this again, I'll figure out scoring over the next couple of days. Probably it'll be something like we did in the playoffs. The threads were lost in the Locker Room excavation, but I have everything archived, I just have to dig it up.