Scoring & Rules

  1. The prediction contest is broken into two sub-contests, one encompassing the full season and one that includes only the Big East (including the Big East Tournament).
  2. Each player's score is simply the total of the individual game scores. For the Big East contest, each player's worst score will be thrown out; for the Full Season, the worst two scores. The winner is the player with the lowest score. At some point (when I get around to writing that code), bonuses will be awarded for the top three picks in each game, but not this year.
  3. Make your pick for each game by replying to a post on the NDNation Pit by either El Kabong or IrishMace (will likely read "Everybody on the record..." or "Official Prediction Thread..."). The thread closes at the scheduled tip-off time for the game. The scores are read from the thread by a script, so please observe the following guidelines when posting:
    1. Post your pick in the subject line of the message. The body of the post is great for insightful or witty comments, but scores in the body will not be read.
    2. List ND's score first even if you are picking ND to lose.
    3. Humorous nicknames for the teams are encouraged, but please refrain from using digits in your chosen nicknames as that confuses the script (which simply grabs the first two numbers it finds).
    4. If you change your mind, please utilize the Edit Post function instead of re-posting or replying to your post.
    5. Obvious Ditka-esque picks (ND, a hunnert an' fitty, WVU, tree) will be ignored so as to not screw up missing-a-game penalties.
    6. Posts will be sanity checked before being processed by the script to correct those that didn't follow these guidelines, but the less time I spend on that, the better.
  4. Your score for each game is the sum of the following components:
    1. Margin of Victory: 1 point for each point your pick is off from the actual margin.
      • Example: ND wins by 5. You pick ND to win by 7 = 2 points; you pick ND to lose by 3 = 8 points.
    2. Absolute Score: 1/5 of a point for each point your picks are off from the actual score. The total is rounded down.
      • Example: ND wins 88-76, you picked 81-60.
        (88 - 81) + (76 - 60) = 7 + 16 = 23. 23 / 5 = 4.6 = 4 points.
    3. Picking a Loser: If you pick the wrong team to win, 10 points.
    4. Bonuses: For picking (nearly) exact scores, take some points off your score:
      • -1 point (each) for picking a team's score within 1 point of actual.
      • -2 points for picking one team's score exactly.
      • -5 points (total) for picking both scores exactly.
  5. If you miss a game, your score will be equal to the worst score for that week plus 50% or 10 points, whichever is less. If you miss eight games, you're disqualified from the Full Season contest (but not necessarily from the Big East contest). If you miss four Big East games, you're out of that contest.

If you have any questions, or if your scores appear incorrect, email IrishMace.

Good luck, and GO IRISH!