I have two questions about this year's scoring formula for the prediction contest. These should be clarified before controversy erupts about the all-important quest for HornFans swag, not to mention everlasting fame.
Picking the Game Winner
Clearly, picking the correct winner should have significant weight. If Texas wins by 1, an entrant who picked Texas by 4 should rank ahead of an entrant who picked a 1-point Texas loss, even though the former was off by 3 points and the latter was off by only 2.
On the other hand, I don't think picking the correct winner should be an absolute requirement. Suppose the following scenario:
- Texas is playing against a weak team. All entrants but one predict Texas by 20 points or more.
- One entrant picks Texas to lose, by a score of 29-28.
- Texas wins, 29-28.
In this scenario, I would argue that the only entrant who picked the wrong winner actually made the best prediction.
In prior years, there was a penalty (10 points iirc) for picking the wrong winner. So in the above scenario, the 29-28 pick was two points off, plus a penalty of 10 for getting the wrong winner, yielding a total score of 12. That would rank ahead of the posters who correctly picked Texas to win, but with point differentials larger than 12.
This issue would only matter in close games, which presumably will happen at some point.
Postseason games
Is the prediction contest for the regular season only, or do CCG, bowl, and/or playoff games count? And if they do count, are they equally weighted or do they count extra?
Click to expand...