Over the past few years we have given the subscribers of Footballguys.com some help in playing in office pools and other games when it comes to following the NFL. For the past few seasons, the staff members have done the Staff Confidence Pool Challenge, where numerous staffers try and pick the winners each week with a confidence ranking, and Jeff Pasquino’s “For The Win” column where Jeff attempts to pick each and every NFL game against the Las Vegas spread. Both of these have been very popular features, so we added a combination of the two called the “Against the Spread” Challenge and also the Eliminator Challenge, where staffers have to pick a team to win each week. Just one? That sounds easy, but here is the catch – you can only pick the team you choose in a given week once all season long. Many contests and pools out there get pretty big, so an Eliminator (or Survivor) Pool can go 16 or 17 weeks.
Jeff Pasquino has provided some insight into this kind of contest with two pre-season articles, first one that describes this kind of contest along with some advice on how to pick a team each week:
The second article is rather interesting, which describes Jeff’s pre-season plan to get all the way through 17 weeks. Will it work? We are about to find out.
This pool will run all season long, but to keep participation up, the pool will crown the staffer with the best W-L record for the season (which means that everyone in the pool will continue to make picks every week).
THIS WEEK'S PICK SUMMARY
Here are the picks for this week, along with the results and standings so far:
| Staff Member | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
| Dave Larkin | 14-3 | DAL | NO | NE | ATL | GB | MIN | AZ | STL | CIN | PIT | SEA | KC | CHI | CAR | NO | OAK | DEN |
| Alex Miglio | 13-4 | GB | NO | SEA | INDY | ATL | NYJ | AZ | STL | NE | CAR | PHI | HOU | CIN | DEN | JAX | KC | PIT |
| Jason Wood | 13-4 | GB | NO | INDY | SD | NYG | NYJ | ATL | AZ | NO | NO | DAL | JAX | CIN | SEA | NE | HOU | DEN |
| James Brimacombe | 12-5 | GB | INDY | NE | INDY | DEN | SEA | AZ | STL | CIN | CAR | PHI | JAX | PIT | NYJ | KC | DET | NYG |
| Aaron Rudnicki | 12-5 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | NYG | DEN | SEA | STL | NO | CIN | CAR | AZ | CHI | NYJ | NE | PIT | INDY |
| Andrew Garda | 12-5 | MIA | AZ | CIN | BUF | BAL | HOU | ATL | CAR | NO | GB | JAX | SEA | DEN | NYJ | NE | PIT | INDY |
| Bear Heiser | 12-5 | MIN | BAL | SEA | SD | GB | CIN | MIA | STL | NO | BUF | ATL | DET | AZ | KC | TB | DEN | WASH |
| Justin Bonnema | 12-5 | NYJ | MIA | NYG | INDY | BAL | PHI | STL | NO | CIN | BAL | SEA | KC | WASH | TB | NE | DET | PIT |
| John Lee | 12-5 | NYJ | NO | CAR | INDY | BAL | GB | STL | HOU | NO | DEN | SEA | CIN | CHI | KC | NE | BUF | PIT |
| Steve Holloway | 12-5 | MIA | INDY | SEA | BUF | ATL | NE | STL | AZ | SD | CIN | CAR | JAX | PIT | KC | MIN | DET | DEN |
| Chris Feery | 11-6 | DEN | NO | INDY | SEA | NYG | NE | AZ | ATL | CIN | GB | CAR | KC | CHI | NYJ | JAX | PIT | PHI |
| Jeff Haseley | 11-6 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | ATL | NYJ | AZ | STL | CIN | DEN | PHI | KC | NE | CHI | MIN | PIT | CAR |
| Clayton Gray | 11-6 | GB | NO | NE | AZ | ATL | DET | SD | STL | CIN | CAR | SEA | KC | WASH | DEN | MIN | PIT | HOU |
| Jeff Pasquino | 11-6 | DAL | INDY | NE | GB | ATL | SEA | AZ | STL | NO | CIN | CAR | KC | CHI | NYJ | MIN | PIT | DEN |
| William Grant | 11-6 | DAL | MIA | SEA | DEN | BAL | NYJ | STL | ATL | CIN | GB | CAR | AZ | CHI | NE | KC | PIT | INDY |
| Dan Hindery | 11-6 | NE | BAL | HOU | SEA | KC | NYJ | AZ | STL | NO | GB | ATL | CIN | MIA | KC | MIN | PIT | CAR |
| Ari Ingel | 11-6 | JAX | BAL | SEA | INDY | KC | DEN | SD | DET | NE | CIN | CAR | AZ | MIA | KC | MIN | PIT | CIN |
| Andy Hicks | 11-6 | DEN | INDY | NE | SEA | KC | GB | AZ | STL | CIN | BAL | PHI | NYJ | CAR | MIA | JAX | BUF | PIT |
| Mark Wimer | 11-6 | GB | TEN | NE | OAK | NYG | NYJ | ATL | AZ | DEN | OAK | CAR | HOU | WASH | KC | JAX | MIN | PIT |
| Steve Buzzard | 11-6 | DAL | MIA | NE | SEA | GB | NYJ | AZ | ATL | NO | CIN | CAR | JAX | CHI | KC | MIN | DET | PIT |
| Justin Howe | 10-7 | CIN | BAL | CAR | SD | KC | TEN | WASH | STL | MIN | PIT | SEA | AZ | NE | TB | JAX | INDY | NYJ |
| Maurile Tremblay | 10-7 | SEA | NE | CAR | CIN | AZ | TEN | MIN | STL | ATL | PIT | NYJ | TB | DEN | KC | BUF | DET | DAL |
| Matt Bitonti | 10-7 | NYJ | MIA | SEA | OAK | GB | CIN | BUF | AZ | NO | PHI | ATL | JAX | PIT | KC | NE | HOU | CAR |
DISCUSSION
A solid finish for the staff with just three errors for the group. Dave Larkin continued his strong finish to cap off a great season where he went 14-3 (including using the same team twice) and led the way for the staff. Alex Miglio and Jason Wood finished one game off of the pace. Congratulations to all three. Many of the staff (including myself) struggled this year with so many upsets this season, and the entire group had 127 losses, or about 7-8 a week. As you can see from the results, a few weeks were particularly bad, trainwrecking the whole staff.
I hope you enjoyed this season's Eliminator Pool. Happy New Year and see you next season!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.
