Patrons of the Most Yatesiful Game,
Pop quiz, question 1: What is Houston and Indy's combined record in the last nine games?
Pop quiz, question 2: What percentage of the 524 Americans actually watching today's Houston-Indy game will be involved with The SZN?
Answers: 2-16, and 99.8 percent (unless T.J. Yates' mom is still alive in BRANDO).
Commish has juicy numbers for you, so let's get to it. ONWARD.
OUR SIX BFIG SURVIVORS' PICKS, ALONG WITH PROBABILITIES OF A PERFECT SEASON
Commish used FiveThirtyEight's elo model, plus the Sunday morning Vegas line, plus Pro Football Reference's P-F-R model to set the win probability for each team.
As anticipated, @footballnovice's Moxie-soaked decision to hold New England until the final week has paid off handsomely. For the other five, in the NFL, the difference between 29 and 38 percent is in a single final possession.
WEEK 17 PICKS AND FAST FACTS
Your group pages show you picks for just that group
Your friends' BFIG picks >>
Your friends' Second Chance picks >>
Your friends' BRANDO!!! picks >>
FAST FACTS:
- In BFIG, everyone had Indy and everyone had SF. So their real pick rates were 67 and 50 percent.
- Only two had Buffalo (50% real pick rate) and only one had Washington (100%) and New England (100%).
- No one picked the Browns in ANY of our three competitions. This made Commish very sad.
- Kudos to @tlhd54 and @shermoso27 in Second Chance for having the Patriots and Seahawks left. And BLL kudos to @greatwhitebuffalo for having the Pats and Steelers left.
WEEK 17 AWARDS
"You've Got Moxie, Kid" Award
Commish is switching this one up a bit BECAUSE I CAN, and because I'm feeling the holiday / New Year's spirit. These Moxies are going out to the brave souls who said, "I'm gonna plan on this thing going all 17 weeks because BLAMMOBOOM." The brave souls who said, time and again, "NO, I'm not gonna pick the Pats. I'm gonna save them longer than everyone else." The brave souls who vied all season long for Commish's eternal admiration.
And so, Moxies to the savviest savers in each of our competitions:
- @footballnovice, BFIG - Pats, Colts
- @greatwhitebuffalo, Second Chance - Pats, Steelers
- @Tbos22, BRANDO - Pats, Steelers, Vikings, Seahawks, Colts (and could have taken the Rams were they not resting starters)
Commish Communication Award
@dgsaites (Colts, Bills, Redskins, 49ers, Seahawks): "Brando haiku pt 4, by Brandon Wheedon: 'My wife is so hot No twenty yard completions Balance bad with hot'"
Commish says: A lesson all of us can take to heart. The BRANDO Life: It's all about balance.
"I Could Sell You Bengals Tickets" Award
@Kavman15 (Falcons, Redskins, Chiefs, 49ers, Seahawks): "I spent 8 hours at work today creating an excel sheet to tell me what teams everyone else had left. Needless to say, I have no idea how I should use this information. I ended up just rolling with my gut.."
Commish says: I've spent... let's call it 300 hours?... building endless spreadsheets for The SZN. None of them told me to name this competition BRANDO, and none of them told me to drink 16.5 BLLs that one time. Gut always wins. (Very few pick comments this week - nerves must have won out. Good luck, everyone!)