questions about nfl "survivor" contests.....

[gman2]

im trying to get some of my friends together to do a weekly nfl "survivor" contest

my question -- what are the general rules most people use? is it pretty much cut and dry --- pick one team a week and if they win SU you advance, and then the only restriction is that you can only use each team once? is that all there is to it?

anybody else have any unique or interesting weekly nfl contests that they care to share the rules for? trying to make it fun and enticing

thanks boys

 

[Davoso]

Some don't even have the restriction of using only team once. I'm in one that allows you to use a team as many times as you want and also if you are eliminated in the first four weeks you can buy back in by submitting the entry fee again (in this case $100). This one also allows you to buy a second choice each week for $25. This really helps jack up the pot throughout the year as most players buy a second pick. These are pretty fun and nerve racking pools.

 

[gman2]

davoso:

good stuff. thanks for the reply. the "buy-back-in" for the entry fee is a good twist.

i suppose my next question would be- what happens in the event that there are a few "survivors" left at the end of the regular season. split up the money evenly? or is there a way most people use to find a lone survivor?

 

[GM]

If you don't allow buy-backs and don't allow people to take a team more than once, I could practically guarantee you you don't make it to the end of the year. Even when there are 50 or 60 people involved I've rarely seen it go beyond about Week 13. I've yet to see one with under 500 people go the full season. You'll probably find half of the people are gone by the end of Week 4. Seriously.

The other variant I have seen is a Loser's Eliminator. Just the reverse of regular...pick one team each week to lose, you can't use any team twice. These pools seem to end even sooner, for some reason.

 

[Captain Crunch]

The one I get in every year has a rule you can't use the same team on back to back weekends. Using only one team once will make for a short contest.

Remember last year when Houston went to Miami and won on the opening weekend???? That game eliminated 80% of the players in our contest. These are definetely more difficult than you might think.

Good Luck

 

[gman2]

you guys are probably right. with all the parity in the nfl, it probably wont matter how many times you use a team. even if a team gets out of the gate 8-0 or 9-0, its unlikely that anyone is going to ride them every week, since they will probably won some games along the way that they were dogs.

personally, i think that "loser's" variation is pretty sweet. not sure if my friends will go for it, but definitely something to throw at em.

 

[Pujo21]

I'm thinking on running one..

1) Buy back policy... but double the entry fee if knocked out 1st week.. triple if knocked out again before week 4 or knocked out 1st time between week 2 and four. NO BUYBACK IN after week 4.
Can't make it too easy to win a big prize.

2) No using same teams back to back.

3) No using a team more that 3 times for the duration of the contest. This gives some flexibility but a little strategy needed, if there is such a thing in The NFL....LOL

Even with the parity in The NFL, I think The Patriots rattled off 15 straight wins . So still gotta limit usage of any one team.

Have fun and good luck Gman2.

 

[GM]

I still think the best route is to not allow repeat use of a team at all. I mean, you have to plan things out. If you box yourself in, it's your fault. You should have to be skilled to win, not just pick the same 4-5 teams over and over again.

There are two schools of thought for these things... one group that just wants to survive and will try not to make any risky picks, and one that wants to "save all the good teams for later". I always used a bit of a hybrid approach.

At the beginning of the year we really don't know who will be better than expected, or worse. Play it safe for 3-4 weeks and pick relatively safe teams (though I'd avoid taking anyone that 75% of the players picked...there's always a huge upset or two early). I usually avoid taking the biggest fav on the board. So you burn a couple teams early, but all those guys saving "the good teams for later" have usually taken too big a risk and gotten knocked out (and there is no "later" for them).

THEN around week 5 or so you get out the schedule and plot your future for the next 8 to 10 weeks. If you do this you'll find things like, New England has 4 soft opponents in those weeks, so you've got a lot of flexibility with them...but the Rams have only one really sure looking win, and it's during one of the weeks when New England plays someone weak. So you pencil in the Rams there, save New England for one of the other weeks.

If you do this you should almost never have to use a weak team, and you aren't painted in to a corner when everyone else is. I also will almost never take a road team. There are no sure things, but this has worked for me in the past.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I have run one of these for about 12 years and we origianlly had no restriction on how often or how many times you used one team. I usually had ust over 100 people in it, and nobdy ever went all of the way throughout the season. We then changed the format a few years back to make it that you couldn't use the same team twice and the pool went much longer than the other way. We went back to picking whomever, however often you wnanted to. This also helps when somebody, and it usually happens about twice a week, forgets to get their oick in on time, or at all, they automatically get the team that they had the week previous. We have NO buyback policy, I feel it cheapens it, and it F++KS the guy who has made great picks for most of teh season and hten he gets nabbed near the end when if there weren't any buybacks he would have won it by then. If you wnat to add money to the pot, let people buy as many slots as they want at the beginning. There are upsets every week, and when you use the "no team twice rule", it actually works against eliminating folks. They plan it all out and only use that one team let's say in the 11th week, but if they were allowed to, they would have used them in the 2nd or 3rd and been gone via an upset. I have benn doing this a long time, there are always upsets.