Over the past few years, we have given the subscribers of Footballguys.com some help in playing office pools, one of the most popular methods to follow the NFL aside from fantasy football leagues. 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 this year Footballguys is adding 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 preseason 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).
FINAL STANDINGS
Here are the picks for the 2016 regular season and the final standings:
| Staff Member | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
| Andy Hicks | 16-1 | SEA | NE | GB | CIN | MIN | TEN | KC | DAL | SD | BAL | PIT | BUF | DEN | DET | ATL | LA | INDY |
| Clayton Gray | 16-1 | SEA | DEN | MIA | CIN | MIN | NE | ATL | NYJ | DAL | BAL | NYG | TEN | OAK | DET | BUF | GB | INDY |
| Matt Bitonti | 15-2 | KC | BAL | MIA | CIN | PIT | NE | GB | NYJ | DAL | AZ | NYG | BUF | OAK | DET | ATL | TEN | WASH |
| Andrew Garda | 15-2 | PHI | BAL | NYG | HOU | OAK | BUF | DEN | MIN | KC | AZ | PIT | TEN | SEA | DET | GB | NE | ATL |
| William Grant | 14-3 | SEA | CAR | MIA | WASH | GB | BUF | DEN | NE | KC | AZ | NYG | TEN | NO | DET | ATL | SD | BAL |
| Mark Wimer | 14-3 | KC | BAL | MIA | MIN | NE | PIT | CIN | NYJ | DAL | AZ | OAK | NYG | DEN | ATL | SEA | SD | BUF |
| Bear Heiser | 14-3 | GB | CAR | SEA | CIN | PIT | BUF | ATL | NYJ | DAL | AZ | KC | NYG | NE | DET | OAK | TEN | INDY |
| Aaron Rudnicki | 14-3 | HOU | CAR | MIA | AZ | GB | BUF | CIN | DEN | KC | AZ | DET | NO | NE | INDY | ATL | SEA | PIT |
| Jeff Pasquino | 14-3 | HOU | CAR | MIA | AZ | NE | BUF | CIN | MIN | KC | BAL | OAK | NYG | DEN | DET | ATL | SD | PIT |
| James Brimacombe | 14-3 | INDY | CAR | MIA | WASH | NE | BUF | CIN | MIN | DAL | AZ | PIT | NO | GB | ATL | SEA | SD | PHI |
| Chris Kuczynski | 14-3 | KC | BAL | MIA | DET | PHI | AZ | CIN | OAK | DAL | GB | PIT | NYG | DEN | MIN | ATL | NE | SEA |
| Justin Howe | 14-3 | BAL | DET | MIA | HOU | PHI | BUF | NE | MIN | KC | AZ | NYG | NO | DAL | CIN | SEA | GB | ATL |
| Alex Miglio | 13-4 | SEA | CAR | MIA | DET | GB | AZ | ATL | MIN | DAL | BAL | NE | BUF | DEN | CIN | HOU | TEN | INDY |
| Jeff Haseley | 13-4 | KC | SEA | DAL | CIN | MIN | AZ | DEN | NE | GB | BAL | NYG | BUF | NO | DET | ATL | SD | TB |
| Justin Bonnema | 13-4 | HOU | JAX | MIA | CIN | MIN | BUF | TB | DET | DAL | BAL | KC | NYG | ATL | INDY | SEA | NE | GB |
| Devin Knotts | 13-4 | HOU | DET | MIA | CAR | NE | GB | CIN | NYJ | ATL | BAL | PIT | NO | DEN | INDY | BUF | OAK | SEA |
| John Mamula | 12-5 | SEA | CAR | MIA | HOU | NE | PIT | CIN | MIN | GB | AZ | OAK | NYG | DEN | ATL | KC | SD | BAL |
| Ari Ingel | 12-5 | SEA | TEN | AZ | CIN | NE | DET | GB | MIN | SD | BAL | KC | NO | DEN | INDY | TB | MIA | PIT |
| Jason Wood | 11-6 | HOU | NYJ | TB | AZ | NE | CAR | OAK | MIN | NO | AZ | NYG | BUF | DEN | TEN | WASH | SD | AZ |
| Dave Larkin | 11-6 | HOU | CAR | SEA | NE | PIT | GB | BUF | MIN | NO | AZ | KC | DAL | OAK | DET | BAL | TEN | INDY |
| Chris Feery | 10-7 | SEA | OAK | CAR | AZ | NE | PIT | DEN | DAL | KC | NYG | DET | BUF | GB | INDY | BAL | TEN | WASH |
DISCUSSION
A solid finish for the staff with just five errors for the group in Week 17. That's really good considering that a lot of teams started their offseason about a week too early and mailed in the effort in their final game. Clayton Gray continued his strong finish to cap off a great season where he went 16-1, losing just once with Atlanta in Week 7 (not easy as the Falcons went 11-5 this season). Clayton's strong push to the finish tied him atop the standings with Andy Hicks, who had a tough call and loss with the Rams losing to the 49ers in Week 16. Two other staffers (Matt Bitonti and Andrew Garda) tied for third at 15-2 on the year. A large, eight-way tie that included yours truly suffered just three losses on the season, and the entire staff as a whole lost just 75 times in 17 weeks. That put the group at 261-75 on the season, or a 78% win rate. Not bad at all for picks due every Wednesday evening.
Congrats again to our staff winners, and I hope that you both enjoyed this season's Eliminator Pool and that it helped you towards success this year. Happy New Year and see you next season!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.
