I'm thinking of hosting a "PITmanStats.com WCAL, PAC-7, OCC Combined Pick'em" for this football season. I'd have a requirement to post your picks on my web site www.PITmanStats.com (either as comments on an article or maybe I could develop a form you could fill out). The reason for this requirement is threefold: 1) I wouldn't have to sift through all 3 online forums to gather picks, 2) It would be good publicity for my web site, and 3) I could promote the pick'em through Twitter and Facebook instead of limiting to just the 3 sites.

Is this something anyone would be interested in? I'm trying to think of free incentives to get more people to join, or would just having the combined pick'em (for fun) be incentive enough? I'm still not sure of the details and how it would work (1 master blog article that I update each week, or different blog article each week, a dedicated pick'em form, or something else). Suggestions are welcome. This might take some development on my end, so I'm gauging interest before I even think any more about it. Thanks!

Brainstorming ways I could make this pick'em different than other contests... maybe have a pre-season prediction where each participant posts their top-to-bottom final standing predictions for each league, which factors into the pick'em final standings? I obviously don't want to get it too complicated, but I think that'd be pretty neat. Only those who completed a preseason prediction would be eligible for the season-long contest.

I think Red Rum was going to run one with a point spread this year. Check with him, he had like 3 options that he was thinking about. Maybe you guys could colaborate.

I'm in either way, my pick um picks usually have a solid grip on last place.

I was going to run a pick'em contest this year just so we had one. I have no issues with stepping aside for Pitman to run one on his website. As long as it gets no bigger than OCC, WCAL,
PAC & an occasional BIG game (Mass-McKinley, St.Iggy-St.X, Ursuline-Mooney, etc)

my idea for a twist is handicap a few games starting week 3.
By handicapping I mean select the teams that are utterly non competitive and give them enough points to entice someone to actually take them....
example: Chippewa+50 at Norwayne

I regularly did this w/Northwestern & Hillsdale in the 90's and often had people go for the points.....and lose.

one time I gave the Huskies 65 pts against Smithville and the Smithies covered (something like 80-12) burning all but one contestant with a loss.

There's my contribution to your brainstorming Pit. If you like it, use it. If not, no big deal. I'm in either way.

I was unaware you wanted to do a pick'em, Red Rum. I don't want to step on anyone's toes. If you want, you can do it. Or if you want me to run mine, I can do that, too. I like your ideas. I can tell you it won't get any bigger than the WCAL, PAC, and OCC (and maybe 1 "big" game per week outside the conference).

What are your guys' thoughts on the preseason predictions idea? Good idea, or should I just keep it to the games?

Red Rum;1226958 wrote:I was going to run a pick'em contest this year just so we had one. I have no issues with stepping aside for Pitman to run one on his website. As long as it gets no bigger than OCC, WCAL,
PAC & an occasional BIG game (Mass-McKinley, St.Iggy-St.X, Ursuline-Mooney, etc)

my idea for a twist is handicap a few games starting week 3.
By handicapping I mean select the teams that are utterly non competitive and give them enough points to entice someone to actually take them....
example: Chippewa+50 at Norwayne

I regularly did this w/Northwestern & Hillsdale in the 90's and often had people go for the points.....and lose.

one time I gave the Huskies 65 pts against Smithville and the Smithies covered (something like 80-12) burning all but one contestant with a loss.

There's my contribution to your brainstorming Pit. If you like it, use it. If not, no big deal. I'm in either way.

I like this idea....maybe in preseason when teams are playing out of conference we keep the pick ems to 12-15 games instead of 25-30 so it doesn't become too big & people don't participate.

I like picking one big game in the area too.

I like the preseason league ranking idea as a tie breaker if necessary.

THE4RINGZ;1226982 wrote:I like the preseason league ranking idea as a tie breaker if necessary.

I like that, too, as a tiebreaker.

RedRider1;1226978 wrote:I like this idea....maybe in preseason when teams are playing out of conference we keep the pick ems to 12-15 games instead of 25-30 so it doesn't become too big & people don't participate.

I like picking one big game in the area too.

I don't want to eliminate any games from teams in the WCAL, PAC, or OCC. So in the first 3 weeks, we would have 24 games (25 if I have 1 "big" game of the week). Then once we get into the league games, it goes down to 12, so maybe I have 2 "big" games from that point? But I really don't want to snub any league teams in those first 3 games. Especially early in the season when we're not exactly sure how teams are going to be, that is a time when some pick'em contestants can separate themselves.

What if you did a pickem and had confidence points in which you would rank each game? I know Yahoo! Fantasy Sports does something like this when doing NFL or college pickems. I.e. If there are 10 games one night, you would make your picks and then rank each game with a point value from 1-10, using each value exactly 1 time. This would provide a potential 55 points for "this" week. It may make it a little more work, but I believe it would prevent ties from occurring.

When I took over, back in the day, the tiebreaker was picking the spread of the most competitive game.

Just bacause I'm lazy, I'd rather just post the picks in a thread here like we've done here in the past....nothing against your site Pit, but we're all already members here...asking members to click a link and enter them as comments at your site is an extra step. Then if someone leaves a comment under a name that is different than their OC username (and you know it will happen) you have to chase down who did it.

Kind of a hassle really.

You could still promote the pick em on twitter/facebook once the thread is created. Could generate some interest for this site as well. Or, you could start the thread here, with a link to your site giving quick info on each game (records, etc.) so people could read your thoughts before making their picks. That way, you could promote your site and the OC as well.

Thanks for all the input. In the past I've done 3 PAC pick'ems, 1 on each site. I'd like not to alienate 2 of the 3 sites by only having it on The OC. I'm beginning to think there's no perfect solution, but I'm going to try to find the best way. I don't HAVE to use my site - I just thought it'd be a central point for everyone so I wasn't tied down to the threads. In regards to learning who was who, I would keep track of standings by email address (which is required when you post on an article), and then email each person to see if he/she was a poster, Twitterer, etc. That was my thought, at least. Nothing really thought out in depth, and that's why I'm asking. Keep the ideas coming.

I will not be doing my pick'em. Sorry. :thumbdown: