12/18/24
December 18, 2009
How to create an NFL playoff pick em?: As the commissioner of my company's fantasy football league, I'm currently putting up with tons of bitching as people are being knocked out in the playoffs and don't get to play any more. In the interest of shutting them up and getting myself another month or so of peace, I'm thinking that I will probably run a pick 'em. I'm soliciting advice for how to do that, particularly from those who have been there and done that, either as organizers or participants.
- What scoring rules do you use? In pick 'ems that we've run on Spofi in the past, I recall a points system something like this: you pick the winner and point spread in each game, and you get a certain number of points for each correct pick. But how many points should you award for each? Do you do "on the nose" spread or plus-minus?
- Of course it is illegal to gamble, and of course we would never do such a thing, but if we were to play for...say...Skittles, I'm thinking about something like this: everyone kicks in 10 skittles (or maybe 20). Post-Superbowl, the points leader gets 50% of the skittles pool, second place gets 30%, third place gets 20%. If there's a points tie they split (so for example, if two people tie for first, they each get half of 50%+30%, and the next person gets 20%). Sound good?
- Bonus questions: good idea, bad idea, what? How many points to give, and what are some good bonus questions?
- Any other pitfalls or ideas for making this more funner?
Thanks!
posted by lil_brown_bat to fantasy at 02:13 PM - 6 comments
Just calvinball it, llb. I've done a few pick 'ems here and it was fun doing it, making it up as it all went along. Just make sure that you have the spare time it takes to run the pick 'em and to process the points and create/update the leader board.
I would make the points for hitting each target low at first, then bump up the points for each one with each new round of the playoffs. That way, when someone doesn't guess very well in the first two rounds, they still have the next couple of rounds to make up those lost points.
Maybe think about providing three targets each round: the winner of each game, the point spread for each game and then a wild card of sorts. Say, the guy that has the most TDs or the guy with the most sacks. Make the wild card a different thing each round and make it an extra point or two. More importantly, though, make it something that is sure to happen every game. You *could* make the wild card the team with the most safeties in a game, but they don't happen much and some folks might grumble that you're putting points out of reach.
You run the pick 'em and I guarantee your people will have fun. We have people constantly delurking just to take part in a pick 'em around here. Why? 'Cause they're fun. You'll fun running it as well. Good luck!
posted by NoMich at 09:56 PM on December 18, 2009
I've run a couple here in the past, here's the link to the first round of the last one I did. The best advice I can give is, find where you can reliably get the stat before making it part of the bonus question.
posted by apoch at 05:48 AM on December 20, 2009
NoMich, apoch, thanks much. The bitching is going to start tomorrow AM (if not tonight...I'm half-expecting an IM from my league members who are getting knocked out this weekend) so I want to have some clue about how I'm going to run this thing. You've got me off to a good start -- thanks!
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:43 PM on December 20, 2009
lbb: I need to see you in my office. You're fired.
Sincerely, Your Boss at Fidelity
posted by holden at 10:58 AM on December 22, 2009
The CFL pick 'em uses a margin-of-error approach, in which you get 3 points for nailing the spread, 2 points for hitting a margin of error around the spread, and 1 point for winner only. The margin of error varies with the actual spread, so you don't need to be as accurate when predicting blowouts as you would when predicting a close game.
We've been using the system for four years now and are generally quite happy with it. You can take a look at the complete rules breakdown if you like. Also I can send you the spreadsheet I use if you're interested.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 03:32 PM on December 22, 2009
Sorry about the craptastic formatting, I thought that a line break at least would be respected.