What can you accomplish in five years? If you are a Cleveland professional sports team the answer is not much. But, if you are in an against the spread pick'em league, the answer is a bit more plentiful.
We started with eight members in 2007 and haven't stopped growing since, adding more members each and every year. As of right now we are sitting with 45 official members for 2011. It's incredible how fast this league has grown.
Since we have so many new people this year I thought it would be appropriate to talk about how our league will run this year. Every Tuesday I will post the spreads we will be using for the upcoming week. If you see a line like the following: Cincinnati @ Cleveland (-6.5), that means the Browns are the favorite and need to win BY AT LEAST SEVEN points to be the correct pick. If you see a line like the following: Atlanta @ Chicago (2.5), that means the Falcons are the favorite and need to win BY AT LEAST THREE points to be the winning selection.
The deadline for getting picks in is ONE HOUR BEFORE KICKOFF. If you miss a Thursday night game you will still be able to pick all of Sunday's games, but if you miss the Sunday deadline you won't be able to pick any of the remaining games that week including Monday night. So in essence, get your picks in early and then feel free to change them as the week rolls on. But you don't want to miss a week because you will be eliminated from any season-ending cash.
Speaking of cash we will be paying the top six this year. Final payouts won't be decided until Thursday when we have our roster finalized but we can still discuss our weekly prize.
For the first time in our short league's history we have upped our dues from $20 to $30. The extra $10 will be used to facilitate a weekly competition. Each week there will be $25 up for grabs. The person with the best weekly record will go home with the $25. Hypothetically, if you were to put up the best record each week you would walk away from here with $425.
The catch is that you HAVE TO WIN THE WEEK OUTRIGHT. If two tie for the best weekly record, then the entire league ties for best weekly record. The money would then carry-over to the following week. Let's say myself and Barnes both go 14-2 in week one. In week two, the entire league would be playing for $40. This carry-over would continue for four weeks BEFORE tiebreakers become involved. The tiebreaker will be total points scored in the Monday Night game on that fourth week. This may be a bit confusing, but the idea is simple enough in nature. Just win the week outright and we won't have any issues. If there is money remaining after the regular season is over, then we will carry that over to the playoffs via sudden-death picks. But we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
To sum up the weekly pot: 1) if you win outright, you win ... period. 2) the pot will never get higher than $100. 3) once the pot gets up to $100, the tiebreaker will be total points scored in MNF (if there's still a tie after that, we have a contingency plan in place).
Staying with cash, everyone can send their $30 to our league treasurer, Kevin Hunt. Here is his address. If your dues aren't in by Halloween, then you will be without a league. Here is his address.
Kevin Hunt
4753 Middletowne St. Unit C
Columbus, OH 43214
If you don't make this an issue, either will we. The sooner the better. Thank you.
One of the many special characteristics of this league is the ability to win awards. I will be sending out invites in a couple of days to everyone so they can post directly on this blog. Once you have accepted the invite you can write your own columns/comments which will help you take home one of the following prestigious awards.
1) Gus Johnson Award - goes to the person with the best overall comments.
2) Bill Walton Award - goes to the person with the best quotes for the year. We have a ranking system in place. Stay tuned for more details.
4) Quote of The Year - person with the best quote from the season.
5) Casey Blake Award - person who finishes in dead last in the ATS league.
6) Mel Kiper Award - person who finishes first in the ATS league.
7) Swami Award - person who finishes with the best record in their designated special pick (aka. Maxine Hunt Pick of The Week, Brian Boesch's F'd Up Pick of The Week, etc).
8) Katy Perry's Hot 'N Cold Award - person who was too up and down over the course of the year.
9) Mr. Normand Award - person who shows the most consistency during the season.
10) Brady Quinn Award - once called the wait till next year award, it goes to the person who really didn't get an opportunity to shine and is hoping for better things next season.
11) Newcomer of The Year Award - similar to the Rookie of The Year.
12) Jake Delhomme Award - anti-MVP.
So as you can see, there are at least a dozen reasons to participate besides just picking games this season. The more you put into this league, the more you will get out of it.
We do have an actual league website this year thanks to one of our members (nflats.com), but I want to slowly integrate that site as the season goes along because I'm not 100% sure how everything will work, but I'll keep everyone updated. I will send invites to both on Friday night so you can post your columns. Do work boys.
The next post will have our league payouts and our league intros. Stay tuned as the 2011 NFL ATS Pick 'Em League is about to get underway. Giddy up.
Until next time, "read it, roll it, hole it."
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