Game of the Week Prizes NFL + COLLEGE

[bigdogdan2]

just out of curiosity how much you guys throw down on average on a "hot capper"?

7 digits

[KJALB]

Bigdog you puting to much pressure on the rest of us

[Dr Ray]

I think we should do away with the deadlines. That way, if the site goes down or slows to a crawl on game day, you can still pick the later games that are scheduled. For instance, in the NFL Game of the week contest.... if you don't post your pick by 1 pm sunday and the site is slow on sunday morning, your punishment is that you have to pick either the 4 pm or 8 pm games that day. If you don't get the pick in on sunday, there's still the monday night game to choose from. Seems pretty easy to me.

Also, as far as the college football contest.... I think the deadline should at least be changed from 11 am saturday morning to noon on saturday. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone posted a game between 11 am and noon on game day saturday in this contest. Umm.... the games don't start until noon.... why is the deadline 11 AM? I think we punish the players with these meaningless deadlines.

I agree no need for the strict deadlines.

[Dr Ray]

Lol after reading all the posts I guess the deadlines make sense.

[laxsfo99]

Hey Taxman,

Since you volunteered to maintain the stats for the 2009 weekly NFL contest, we need to hear from you about when is the deadline for posting entries.

From what I’ve read thus far, the general agreement has been it’s the contest scorekeeper’s call on when the weekly game selection is posted. For the weekly college game, Xbigpapa the scorekeeper has posted the rule (read his posts). Discussion has ended on the college contest.

So, what’s your call on the NFL absolute deadline(s)? Assuming you have read the various members posts with their input, we await your decision.

Thanks.

laxsfo99

[Taxman]

NFL Contest ~ Deadline (thoughts/comments)

I really do not have an issue with a deadline for the NFL contest. Just as long as the selection is posted prior to kickoff the play should be valid.

I generally do not start compiling the results of the plays until the Sunday night has started. All of the posts are date stamped on the website. Sometimes I have posted a 'test' to determine the current time to ensure that the play was selected prior to kickoff.

If everyone agrees, we can have selections for the Thursday night game, Saturday games, Sunday afternoon games (1PM, 4:05PM, 4:15PM), Sunday night game and Monday night game.

Let me know your thoughts on the scoring of plays:
Last year we had individuals take the opening lines and then generally add a half point to the point spread. One week, there was a subtle controversy when an individual subtracted a half point from the point spread.

To resolve this issue, why not take the Tuesday opening lines from USA Today and use those as the point spread lines. If a game you selected lands exactly on the number, you will receive a half point win and a half point loss. If the game is posted as off on Tuesday, in the spirit of fairness, the game will be off the board for the entire week.

Your comments and opinions are greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Taxman

[Monroe Eaford]

Taxman, of course I do agree with you on the whole deadline issue. This keeps it simple and better for the players IMO. You are a very wise man.

As far as the scoring of plays.... you put up the lines on tuesday or wednesday and whatever those lines are, everyone will just have to go by the posted lines. Players can't make their own lines for christ sakes. Again, lets keep it simple.

Also, I would suggest using the lines from one of the sportsbooks instead of the USA today. Screw the USA Today! I'm still pissed at them for raising their cost for the paper from 50 cents to 75 cents... fucking thieves!! Check out what Dragon is doing as far as posting the lines in the pre season contest. Thats about all you have to do. When I ran this contest, I used the lines from pinnacle. Basically, just use whatever book your comfortable with. The lines are pretty much the same.

The only other suggestion (request) I would have for you involves the results thread. Last year, after you posted the records for the week, you disappeared for the whole week and didn't answer any questions the players had about their records. Then they would have the same questions the next week about what happened the previous week and this went on and on. My suggestion is to stop around a couple of times a week to see if there are any questions that need answered. Shouldnt take you more than 5 minutes and will save you a lot of heartache in the end.

IMO, you did a pretty good job with the record keeping last year. After we disposed of the idiotic 12:30 pm deadline, I think things went pretty smooth. If you follow the helpful tips that I've just given, you should be just fine.

Also, if you need a week or two off during the season, just holler. I would be glad to help out.

your pal,
Monroe Eaford

[Taxman]

Monroe,

Very good suggestions and I appreciate your response and input.

Here are a few recommendations that we need Jeff to sign off on:
* Use the Pinnacle lines posted as of Tuesday AM.
* Use the lines as is, do not add or subtract half points, if the spread is a whole number, you have the chance of pushing
* A push will be considered a 1/2 win and 1/2 loss
* If a game is off the board on Tuesday, it is a non-play for everyone that week

Regarding the non-response for a week or two during the season, there was the deadline issue that Jeff and I were discussing, and I was waiting for a resolution prior to posting any replies or responses. I just did not want to discuss the issue until it was finalized. I hope you can understand the situation I was in at that time.

I am generally on this site daily during the football season, so posting the scoring should be complete by Tuesday and addressing any discrepancies should be handled on a daily basis (there may be an except when I am travelling).

I will leave it to Jeff to sign off on the recommended tweaks/enhancements to the contest.

Best of luck to all!
Taxman

[Bettorsworld]

All is fine with me.

Whatever makes things run smoothly.......most importantly, whatever works best for the scorekeeper. It's a HUGE help to the site and quite frankly, if it wasn't for guys volunteering to help out there is no way we would be able to run these contests.

Having said that.......let the pigskins fly!!! It's finally here. Next week at this time we will be one hour from kickoff of the 2009 college football seaosn with the Spurriers taking on NC St........

[O.N.B.]

The college rules are SET. I post a deadline of 1 hour b 4 kickoff of the first game on Sat for 2 reason: 1.Easier 2 grade. 2. Reaction time for all the followers to get down on hot cappers who post late. The object is too make $$. If a guy thats HOTT posts 2 min b 4 kick off, how the hell am I or anyone else is gonna have time to get down on the play too?

Iv been doin this for 5 years now, and every year we get more hits per week. I think last year we averaged OVER 1000 hits EVERY WEEK for the 13 week contest.

xbigpapa put it best about the deadlines in his statement here. When you post just before kick off why shold I or hundreds of people come and see what pics have been posted? Some of us plane just suck when it comes to capping.. I use most of these for a pool at work and on occaision I do take a drive to Wendover, Nevada to place a bet or two (i live in Utah and drive for a hour and a half to place a bet)... So you just took my reason away for comming to this site.. will there be any others who will feel the same as I do?

[dkp]

1. When does the College contest start? When does it end?

2. If we are using the lines from Tuesday is somebody going to go in and cut and paste the lines from Pinnacle into a thread? And do that every week?

[xbigpappa]

Read the Rules bruh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[widestrides]

ONB,

A number of us agreed with you about having an earlier deadline, mainly to help out the site. more folks will check in if they can look at the picks and have time to place a wager.

I think that is a big factor. The site puts up the prize money. We should try ot help increase traffic.

A simple solution would be to allow those who forget or are late to make it up by choosing the Sunday night or Monday night game. But the majority will get their picks in an hour b4 game time on Sunday and give folks a chance to look them over.

[YARDMAN]

WHERE DO YOU POST THE NFL CONTEST PICKS?

[widestrides]

A new thread with the lines will be coming out later this week. Look for a thread titled NFL Game of the Week - Week 1.