Friends in football,

Just like that, we're down to 36 perfect records in our main Playoffs Pick'em. Aaron Jones would like to thank you for forgetting he owns JerryWorld.

That means it's HIGHLY likely our champ will be no better than 12-1. And it puts 11-2 firmly in play.
For those of you with 3 or 4 losses? You definitely still have a shot at cashing. Trust Commish's wisdom!

RESULTS SUMMARY

Main Playoffs Pick'em results

• Weekly performance: 51.6% win rate (3-3 average). Our 2nd (DAL), 4th (CLE), and 5th (PHI) picks all went down
• Leaders: Just 36 people are 6-0. Another 480 are 5-1. The odds ANY of them run the table are slim
• Best Squad: Commish is HERE for these Squad names! "Wimpdogs" and "Holla Group" are tied at 160 points (meaning their top 3 performers bagged 16 out of 18 possible wins). The arguable MVP Squad of the regular season, "Stonemarkers" lurks one win back, in a pack of 9 Squads at 150 points

100 Tier Playoffs Pick'em results

• Weekly performance: 51.5% win rate (3-3 average). Our team-by-team pick %s differed slightly with the main pool, but the end result was almost identical
• Leaders: Just 1 PERSON is 6-0. All hail @KellMcK. 19 people are at 5-1, and 100 are at 4-2. That means it's unlikely our champ will be anything better than 11-2, and a 10-3 champ is possible. Cashing at 9-4 is in play
• We don't yet have Squad competitions for 100 Tier pools. Working on it!

WHAT'S THE OPTIMAL STRATEGY FROM HERE?

The first question to ask yourself, is whether you're going for ultimate glory (1st place) or simply trying to cash.

Both routes are entirely acceptable. Commish will always give ultimate glory attempts the ALL CAPS treatment (because they're fun to talk about), but we all want to take home money, and sometimes you have to play for 50th place.

Given all the chaos - we average just 3 wins so far - it's too early to pick teams you truly don't feel will win, just for the sake of "being different". If we averaged 5-1, it might be different.
That said, if you're sitting on 3 or 4 losses, you DO have to pick your spots. Going all chalk and thinking "some of the leaders will pick underdogs and lose" is not the correct strategy for you.

That's because the further into a Pick'em you get, the likelier the leaders are to pick all the Vegas favorites.

And if you're sitting at 6-0 or 5-1, you REALLY need to ask if you're in it for ultimate glory or a solid cash. Because if you want the ultimate glory, history and simple statistics says it's unlikely that all four favorites will win this weekend.

Does that make "all 4 favorites" a bad pickline? COMMISH DIDN'T SAY THAT. I'm just here to plant very important thoughts in your head for you to stew on for hours at a time.

Yours in football,
The Commish