June 24, 2011

The 7th Annual chicobangs Memorial SpoFi CFL Pick 'Em: Your solstice clock just flipped over, which means that CFL football is fast approaching! A whole summer's worth of rouges, two-and-outs, and no-yards penalties beckon on the horizon! It's our seventh season of furious pick 'em action, so please join us and make your picks inside.

posted by DrJohnEvans to fantasy at 01:41 PM - 20 comments

THE PICK 'EM - What we do

Four hundred years ago, the Founding Hosers of Canada (Jacques Cartier, Tim Horton, and Tommy Douglas) came home from the hockey game to find their igloo had melted. "Well," said they, "since we have a coupla weeks of summer here, why don't we kick this here pigskin around until hockey starts up again, eh?"

And so the Canadian Football League was born. Today, we honour their memory by picking the winners, losers, and tie-ers of each game.

THE SEASON - When we do it

The season kicks off this Thursday night and runs for 19 weeks through the summer. There are generally four games per week, running from Thursday to Sunday.

If you're in Canada, you'll find the games on TSN. If you're in the States, select games are available on the NFL Network, with all games appearing on ESPN3. Check the U.S. Broadcast Sked for the deets. And if you're somewhere else, you'll have to resort to Sirius Satellite Radio.

THE RULES - How we do it

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.

What's the Margin of Error?

It's a window around the spread that's defined as

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
111
435
759
11814
201426

So if you picked Toronto by 15, here's how you'd fare given certain outcomes:

OutcomeYour score
Toronto by 202 points (winner + spread within MoE)
Toronto by 101 point (winner only)
Toronto by 153 points (winner + nailed spread)
Hamilton by 151 point (nailed spread only)
Hamilton by 430 points (and deservedly so)

Any questions?

THE GAMES, WEEK ONE - Where we start

In lieu of attempting to sum up each team's status in a single sentence, for this opening week I'm just linking to season preview pages for each of 'em.

All times are EDT.

B.C. Lions (TSN | Sportsnet) @ Montreal Alouettes (TSN | Sportsnet) - Thursday, June 30, 7:30pm

Winnipeg Blue Bombers (TSN | Sportsnet) @ Hamilton Tiger-Cats (TSN | Sportsnet) - Friday, July 1, 6:00pm

Toronto Argonauts (TSN | Sportsnet) @ Calgary Stampeders (TSN | Sportsnet) - Friday, July 1, 9:00pm

Edmonton Eskimos (TSN | Sportsnet) @ Saskatchewan Roughriders (TSN | Sportsnet) - Sunday, July 3, 7:00pm

Good luck!

posted by DrJohnEvans at 01:41 PM on June 24, 2011

Thanks for running this again DJE.

BC by 8
Hamilton by 4
Calgary by 10
Saskatchewan by 7

posted by apoch at 01:45 PM on June 24, 2011

Best of luck to all !

Montreal by 17

Hamilton by 17

Calgary by 17

Saskatchewan by 17

posted by tommybiden at 03:17 PM on June 24, 2011

Thanks Dr J.

During the Sydney Olympics, I managed to get tickets to the field events. Montreal by 15. I saw this guy walking past me with a really long fibreglass pole. Winnipeg by 9. I asked him "Are you a pole vaulter?". Calgary by 21. He replied "No, I am German, but how did you know my name was Walter?" Edmonton by 3.

posted by owlhouse at 06:12 AM on June 25, 2011

First game jitters...

Montreal by 10

Hamilton by 15

Toronto by 3

Saskatchewan by 14

posted by Reever at 08:24 AM on June 25, 2011

Montreal by 17
Hamilton by 5
Toronto by 8
Saskatchewan by 21

posted by bender at 10:06 AM on June 25, 2011

Since I somehow managed to come out on top in the Stanley Cup pickem, I'll put my reputation back where it should be and join the CFL version. Here goes:

Montreal by 15 over BC. (BC teams - NHL variety at least - seem not to do well when traveling east)
Hamilton by 11 over Winnipeg. (Bombers are too busy celebrating the return of the NHL)
Calgary by 4 over Toronto. (You mean there's a team in Toronto that might win something?)
Saskatchewan by 18 over Edmonton. (My predicted margin is 2 less than the total letters in the combined names - maybe that's a good rule of thumb)

Dr. John by a lot for running this.

posted by Howard_T at 09:17 PM on June 25, 2011

Seeing as this may be as close to pro football as we get down here in the lower 48 I shall give it the 'ol college try.

Montreal by 13 Hamilton by 11 Toronto by 9 Saskatchewan by 5

posted by Folkways at 05:40 AM on June 27, 2011

Monty by 12 Hammy by 15 Gary by 9 Sassy by 2

Thanks, Doc John!

posted by The_Black_Hand at 12:56 PM on June 27, 2011

Who are the winners of the previous six?

BC by 10
Hamilton by 20
Calgary by 3
Saskatchewan by 18

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:53 PM on June 28, 2011

Looking back, we've had a surprising number of repeats (two).

This counts the regular season pick 'ems only. The total number of points scored is indicated in parentheses.

2010: tommytrump (61)
2009: MrFrisby (69)
2008: tommytrump (68)
2007: MrFrisby (73)
2006: DrJohnEvans (55)
2005: Well, this is awkward.

I'll have to boot up my old PC to look at my spreadsheet for the 2005 season.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:59 PM on June 28, 2011

Don't bother looking it up. I won that year. Yeah, I'm pretty sure of it. It was a runaway, as I recall. In fact, most of you were begging me not to even pick the last ten weeks of the season. Yep. True story.

posted by The_Black_Hand at 11:23 PM on June 28, 2011

Hopefully, this won't be the only pro football played this year....then again, given the current state of the Vikings, maybe I should hope it is.

Montreal by 12 Hamilton by 7 Toronto by 10 Saskatchewan by 14

posted by dviking at 02:56 PM on June 29, 2011

Montreal by 10

Hamilton by 10

Calgary by 10

Saskatchewan by 10

You mean there's a team in Toronto that might win something?

Yes, they all have a great shot at first draft choice next year

posted by cixelsyd at 04:27 PM on June 29, 2011

Montreal by 15
Hamilton by 6
Calgary by 8
Saskatchewan by 12

posted by DrJohnEvans at 05:24 PM on June 29, 2011

Montreal by 6

Hamilton by 3

Calgary by 7

Saskatchewan by 6

posted by JPR at 09:00 AM on June 30, 2011

Hey, CFL football again... great stuff!

BC by 1 Hami by 7 Argos by 2 Sask by 10

posted by argoal at 10:15 AM on June 30, 2011

OK, for the first time in a decade I won't be in the boondocks much of the summer! Don't know anything about the CFL really but here goes.

Montreal by 5

Winnipeg by 3

Calgary by 10

Saskatchewan by 5

posted by rumple at 02:36 PM on June 30, 2011

Sorry, running late but just got home and haven't flipped on the TV, so here goes:

Montreal by 13

Winnipeg by 4

Toronto by 1

Saskatchewan by 14

posted by wfrazerjr at 08:37 PM on June 30, 2011

ARGOS!! 1st win of many... I hope

posted by argoal at 01:02 PM on July 02, 2011

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