Thanks to all those who gave me some great feedback on how to work the playoff Pick 'Em game. Some great ideas! But the one that most people seemed interested in is a weighted system. So we have some new rules.

First of all, the slate is now wiped clean. We will have a Regular Season Champion and a Playoff Champion. That way everybody who has been playing has a chance. The weighted system works as follows:

1. Pick the winning team for ALL FOUR of this weekend's games.

2. You will rank the teams 1-4 based on how confident you are in your prediction. 4 is the team you are MOST CONFIDENT WILL WIN. 1 is the team you are LEAST CONFIDENT WILL WIN.

3. Each correct pick you get that point value for a total possible score of 10 points for this weekend.

EXAMPLE: (Use this model when emailing your picks to me)

If my picks were:

4. Ravens (Most confident)
3. Eagles
2. Packers
1. Jets (Least confident)

Lets say the Ravens, Eagles and Jets won and the Packers lost, I would get 8 points. A wrong prediction is simply worth 0 points. Pretty simple, huh!

4. I need ALL PICKS by kickoff of the first game on Saturday. Please be sure to include your Outsports nickname, especially if you are a new player.

5. No tiebreak until the Super Bowl.

Any questions, email me.

Here are the games, listed in order of start time.

Buccaneers at Eagles

Jets at Raiders

49ers at Packers

Ravens at Dolphins

The regular season results are still be tabulated by my accounting firm and will be posted later.

[ January 08, 2002: Message edited by: George_vikingfan ]

It doesnt appear as the espn game includes the playoffs so the winner would be George_vikingfan!
Congratulations George!!!!
Other outsports in the final standings:
#1 George_vikingfan 168
#2 Joe in Philly 167
#3 Theo Mile-Hiers 160
#7 Ohio Stud (OSU fan)156
#8 bendt boyz (edgarfan) 155
#11 SC Gamecocks (Gamecock) 150
#13 Metsville 10 (tzielle29) 148
missed 1st week
#17 gp43's Alaska Foo Fighters 139
Pretty embarrassing

[quote]Originally posted by George_vikingfan:
rank the teams 1-4 based on how confident you are in your prediction.

---

OK, I think I got it figured out -- but haven't seen anything like this since I took the GRE! (the man in the red shirt sits behind the tall man in the 3rd seat of the canoe; Jack is right handed; the left handed woman can only sit in front of the Dutch boy ...!)

[ January 09, 2002: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

Well DC the more confusing I make the rules, the better chance I have to win!

I spoke too soon -- as you'll see from my 2 emails to you!!

btw -- the forecast high temp. in Philly on Sat. is 42 degrees -- undoubtedly will fall rapidly after the 4:30 kickoff -- will the Bucs break the 0-20 below 40 degree record??

Yeah, yeah about this 40 degree record. . . me and the rest of the Bucs fans/organization are so sick of hearing about this. I guess it's fun for the media to discuss this to no end, but it really isn't that significant. Think about this. . . . unforunately, for the Bucs entire 26 year history (which I've followed for 23), the Bucs have had one of the poorest overall win/loss records in all of professional sports. By far the majority of these losses under 40 degrees came in the 1980's and early 90's when we were lucky to win maybe 2 - 5 games an entire year, let alone a cold, away game in december when the season was all over but the shouting.
How cold it is will not be a determining factor this weekend. The best prepared team and most talent will prevail. Me thinks that be Tampa Bay! GO BUCS and Kick Eagle ass (and their overwhelming obnoxious fans) this Saturday! BigBucBoy

The temperature may or may not reach 40 at the airport (where the official measurement is taken) but at the Vet it will be colder, not to mention the wind chill factor....don't fool yourself into thinking Tampa Bay will have it easy by any means.

I have received picks from the following so far:

Meric
Jim@Outsports
Cyd@Outsports
Sportinlife
Theo
DCBucky
Leoman
UWFan
SpartyOn
JoeinPhilly
Seanboy
Pat125
Bill_sf
EdChow13
tzeile29

Deadline is fast approaching for those of you who haven't submitted picks yet.

Additional picks have been received from:

Brett4Fan
GoMonica
BigBucBoy
MSUBobcat
triguy262
amazin12
CowboysHskrFan
PCC

I'll post mine tomorrow!

[ January 12, 2002: Message edited by: George_vikingfan ]

Just under 4 hours to submit picks.

Other picks received from:

gp43
Seph
Zeno
Jqueer
IUFan
GoldenStateDude
Gamecock

And my picks:

4. Packers
3. Eagles
2. Dolphins
1. Jets

What can I say, I like green!

Good line there, George (picking all the teams wearing green) ....I think all this talk about Tony Dungy being fired if the Bucs lose today is actually working AGAINST the Eagles....from all indications, Dungy is very popular with his players and I believe it will serve as additional motivation for the Bucs to win and "save their coach's job"....not to mention the fact that these are two relatively evenly matched teams and the Eagles beat Tampa in last year's wild card game as well as last week on the road (with reserves playing most of the game for both teams) but I give the edge to the Bucs here....hope the Philly faithful don't get too unruly after the loss.

Most importantly, they just announced on ABC that the game time temp. in Philly is 46 degrees so the Bucs 0-20 record when playing in under 40 degree temps is safe....if it was in the 30's or below, the Bucs wouldn't have a prayer of winning.

[ January 12, 2002: Message edited by: gamecock ]

[quote]Originally posted by gamecock:
....I think all this talk about Tony Dungy being fired if the Bucs lose today is actually working AGAINST the Eagles....from all indications, Dungy is very popular with his players and I believe it will serve as additional motivation for the Bucs to win and "save their coach's job".

[ January 12, 2002: Message edited by: gamecock ]

---

Well I like Tony Dungy. He seems like a nice guy. But if things hold up (its 24-9 going into the 4th quarter), I think he should be done. It just boggles my mind that they don't even try to throw to Keyshawn Johnson in the end zone and ultimately, the blame for that must land on Dungy. He's got more offensive "weapons" (Keyshawn Johnson, Mike Alstott, Brad Johnson, Warrick Dunn) than alot of teams out there, yet they just seem to sputter. They've also got a couple of former Pro Bowlers on the offensive line. And yet they still can't score. They can't count on their defense to score for them every week.

ESPN's Sal Paolantonio was on the local sports talk radio station this week and he said the writer who put out the story that Parcells has already been chosen to take over after the Bucs' loss is highly respected and has good sources, so he feels the story is true. And contrary to the theory that the team was rallying around Dungy, he said the team was in turmoil. There are players (in particular, the cancer named Keyshawn Johnson) who want Parcells.

Bucs have always seemed plodding and conservative and Dungy does seem to personify that. Dependable, solid, conservative playmaking may not be enough for today's NFL, at least not in TB. I don't know if Parcells would make a difference. Now Andy Reid...oh he's spoken for.