12/20/24
June 25, 2012
The 8th Annual chicobangs Memorial SpoFi CFL Pick 'Em: It's the height of summer here above the Arctic Circle, which means endless days of punting on third down. That's right, it's time once again to match wits against the best CFL prognosticators on either side of the 49th parallel. Also, that one wise guy who's standing right on the 49th parallel. This time-honoured tradition runs all summer long, so don't miss your chance to get in a full season of good guesses and lucky breaks. Tighten your chinstrap and make your picks inside.
posted by DrJohnEvans to fantasy at 07:57 AM - 17 comments
Good grief!!! Is it that time already? Oh well, time's fun when you're having flies. Count me in, good Doctor, and give my best regards to our friend, Marge Innovera. Although my faithful assistant picker and geriatric cat has gone to the great litter box in the sky, I shall do my best.
Roughriders at Hamilton: Two teams each seek better results with new coaching. Tiger cats seem to be somewhat ahead of Saskatchewan starting the season, thus the pick is Hamilton by 16.
Winnipeg at BC: Blue Bombers seemed to overachieve a bit last season, and appear to be able to keep up their good work. The immediate problem is that they will be running into a buzz saw to start the year. Lions, like most successful teams, don't rebuild, they reload. The only thing that keeps me from predicting a blowout for the home team is that they had such a slow start last year. I'll go with BC by 6.
Toronto at Edmonton: It's homecoming day for Ricky Ray after he big trade. The big question is whether or not Ray can give the Argonauts' offense enough to overcome last season's woeful defense. The corollary is whether Eskimos' new QB can keep his offense rolling. This is a tough one to call, but I'll go with the home team, Edmonton by 12.
Montreal at Calgary: "Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and caldron bubble." seems to be a decent description of the Alouettes' off season. After great disappointment last year, Montreal begins to rebuild. William Shakespeare is not their coach, but bet on plenty of drama until the team gains its footing. In the meantime Calgary went through some rebuilding last season, and while successful, were unable to make the playoffs. Stampeders should start off better than the Alouettes, and I'll go with Calgary by 17.
posted by Howard_T at 01:42 PM on June 25, 2012
Saskatchewan by 4
BC by 13
Edmonton by 7
Montreal by 8
posted by bender at 05:47 PM on June 25, 2012
Roughriders by 8
Lions by 10
Eskimos by 5
Alouettes by 9
posted by apoch at 11:37 AM on June 26, 2012
Hamilton by 11
British Columbia by 13
Edmonton by 7
Montreal by 3
posted by tommybiden at 12:09 PM on June 26, 2012
Time for picks!
Saskatchewan by 3
B.C. by 14
Edmonton by 8
Montreal by 10
posted by DrJohnEvans at 01:22 PM on June 27, 2012
Hello CFLers!
The craziest off season of changes for many teams = uncertainty.
hami by 5
bc by 5
Argos by 2
stamps by 2
posted by argoal at 10:19 AM on June 28, 2012
DJE, I would like point out that making picks very similar to mine is not advisable, as I have never even seen a CFL game. ;)
posted by bender at 11:47 AM on June 28, 2012
Saskatchewan by 7
BC by 10
Toronto by 14
Montreal by 3
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 02:12 PM on June 28, 2012
Whoa! Didn't even notice that, bender. I approve of your picks!
posted by DrJohnEvans at 09:50 PM on June 28, 2012
Sacks by 2
Winnie by 4
Tonto by 6
Cgary by 8
I have no idea why I can't find the games on basic cable here in Pensacola.
posted by Folkways at 07:21 PM on June 29, 2012
Montreal by 10 BC by 14 Toronto by 3 Sask by 6
posted by andiemgarcia at 05:59 PM on July 06, 2012
THE PICK 'EM - What we do
Those of you old enough to remember the Idle Sixties will recall a day in which three-down football was nothing more than a casual leisure activity, enjoyed by all proper members of society wearing their Sunday best. But then came that fateful day on which prime ministerial candidate Robert Stanfield was felled by an underinflated ball. Public outrage over this needless death ensued, and the Canadian government passed legislation preventing amateurs from entering any field 110 yards in length. With the game of football now restricted to professionals, that left the rest of society with nothing to do except pick the outcome of the games, a tradition we proudly carry on to this day. THE SEASON - When we do it
The season kicks off this Friday night and runs for 19 weeks through the summer. There are generally four games per week, mostly running from Thursday to Sunday.
If you're in Canada, you'll find the games on TSN. If you're in the States, the occasional game is available on the NFL Network, and in the past all games appeared on ESPN3, but they don't seem to have released a confirmed broadcast sked yet. 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:
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:
So if you picked Toronto by 15, here's how you'd fare given certain outcomes:
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.
Saskatchewan Roughriders (Preview) @ Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Preview) - Friday, June 29, 7:00pm
Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Preview) @ B.C. Lions (Preview) - Friday, June 29, 10:00pm
Toronto Argonauts (Preview) @ Edmonton Eskimos (Preview) - Friday, June 30, 7:00pm
Montreal Alouettes (Preview) @ Calgary Stampeders (Preview) - Sunday, July 1, 7:00pm
Good luck!