The Playoffs have arrived.
As promised, there is going be Pick ‘Em action for The Playoffs.
This is how things are going to work.
For starters, the pool will bump up to $22 per sheet.
Because there are less games (and normally less participants) this is how we build decent pots to shoot at.
Secondly, the format is a bit different.
As usual, you pick the teams you figure to Win. The tiebreaker game is the last ballgame of each round on Sunday Evening or Monday Night, since some rounds feature a Monday Night Game. And yes, the usual Monday Night Tiebreaker will apply in terms of the points.
What’s new for this phase of the season is that each team is given a point value according to their seed.
- The 7th seed has a value of 10 points
- The 6th seed has a value of 8 points
- The 5th seed has a value of 6 points
- The 4th seed has a value of 4 points
- The 3rd seed has a value of 3 points
- The 2nd seed has a value of 2 points
- The 1st seed has a value of 1 point
This means that the Winner will be determined by
- The number of ballgames they get right, AND
- The highest point value achieved for that round
Here is the field for the 2023 Playoffs:
Now let’s review a couple of examples to make things clear.
Example 1
(7) Los Angeles (AFC)
(2) New England ✔
In this example, say you take New England to Win. That means that if they do Win, you get 2 points and the game counts for you.
So if this is the result of the game, you Win (and those points get added to your total for the weekend). Like so
(7) Los Angeles (AFC) 20
(2) New England ✔ 34
Pretty straightforward, right?
Let’s take another example.
Example 2
(5) Los Angeles (NFC)
(4) Carolina ✔
In this example, you like Carolina at home. Remember, if you Win you get the Win and the points that go with it.
So what if Los Angeles beats Carolina?
(5) Los Angeles (NFC) ✔ 19
(4) Carolina 7
With this result, you LOSE this ballgame. You don’t get anything. The player that picked Los Angeles (NFC) gets those six points.
You do not benefit from picking a losing game.
We will take one more example.
Example 3
(6) Buffalo ✔
(3) Jacksonville
For this matchup, you pick Buffalo. And as fortune would have it, this is the game’s result
(6) Buffalo ✔ 26
(3) Jacksonville 24
Since you correctly picked Buffalo, you get credit for the game and you get the 8 points, as Buffalo is the lower seed.
This format is designed to give preference to correctly calling the upsets.
Obviously, it is still necessary (and important) to pick all the games right.
But this adds a bit of spice to the mix, and easily sorts out the players that are more skilled at picking ballgames.
For instance, let’s say that these teams Win in The WildCard Round
(4) Carolina 4 points
(6) San Francisco 8 points
(2) Chicago 2 points
(4) Pittsburgh 4 points
(3) Jacksonville 3 points
(7) Los Angeles (AFC) 10 points
it’s now possible to have a leaderboard like this:
LEADERBOARD
Player Games Points
- Player IV ✔ 4 19
Player VIII 4 17
Player X 4 13
Player III 4 13 - Player XII 3 21
Player I 3 10
These results are entirely possible.
Stated again, picking the Winner of each Playoff Game is the priority.
Correctly picking an upset factors in *heavily* but the Winner of Wildcard weekend will be the one that picks the most correct football games.
Hopefully, I didn’t over-explain this.
Trust me, it works! We’ve done this for years now (and our veteran hands already know the drill). Things go smoothly and it’s a lotta fun. For real life examples, take a look here here and here.
That’s about it. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, just hit me up.
The next post will be The Wildcard pick sheet.