In the AFC, we had Vlad M, Mike C, Brenda's Bulldogs and Lacie Belles lock up playoff spots, but we won't know until later which two will earn first-round byes and which will play as Wild Cards. We also had Yellow Jackets and Big Blue lock up their spots as the #3 and #4 seeds in the AFC (well, probably...see the breakdown below for more on that).
We have all the AFC spots wrapped up, but there's still a lot left to be settled in the NFC where Secretly Victorious and Rabid Ferrets have wrapped up their respective division titles. All the other spots are still open, and no first-round byes have been wrapped up. Here's how it would look if the season ended a week early:
Ok, here's a breakdown of what we have in store this week. First up, the AFC side:
--Vlad M will win the AFC East title with a win over Ethan C OR a loss by Mike C. He may also be the #1 seed in the AFC with a win over Ethan C OR losses by Mike C, Brenda's Bulldogs and Lacie Belles. If none of these happen, then he'll be in the playoffs as a Wild Card.
--Mike C will win the AFC East title with a win over Deesato AND a loss by Vlad M. He may also be the #1 seed in the AFC with a win over Deesato AND losses by Vlad M, Brenda's Bulldogs and Lacie Belles. If none of these happen, then he'll be in the playoffs as a Wild Card.
--Brenda's Bulldogs will win the AFC North title with a win over Waterboys OR a loss by Lacie Belles. She may also be the #1 seed in the AFC with a win over Waterboys OR losses by Mike C, Vlad M and Lacie Belles. If none of these happen, then she'll be in the playoffs as a Wild Card.
--Lacie Belles will win the AFC North title with a win over StuB AND a loss by Brenda's Bulldogs. She may also be the #1 seed in the AFC with a win over StuB AND losses by Brenda's Bulldogs, Mike C and Vlad M. If none of these happen, then she'll be in the playoffs as a Wild Card.
--Yellow Jackets is likely going to be the #3 AFC seed, but can possibly move up to the #2 seed (and a first-round bye) with a win over Mother Cluckers AND losses by Brenda's Bulldogs and Lacie Belles.
--Big Blue will be the #4 seed in the AFC and cannot move up nor down (leaving the possibility open where a 7-9 player could seeded higher than a 12-4 one!).
Now let's take a look at the NFC side, which has a lot more left wide open:
--Bad Mice will win the NFC East with a win over Hyena. A loss will likely eliminate him from the playoffs.
--Ragesters will win the NFC East with a win over Turf Toe AND a loss by Bad Mice. If Ragesters and Bad Mice both win, then Ragesters would still make the playoffs as a Wild Card.
--Hyena will win the NFC East with a win over Bad Mice AND a loss by Ragesters.
--Rabid Ferrets has won the NFC North and may win a first-round bye with a win over Bassturds.
--Pigskin Palookas might be able to secure a Wild Card spot with a win over Ignats and losses by several other players.
--Monster Rain will win the NFC South and a first-round bye with a win over Schleps. If he loses, then he would still win the division with a loss by Mike W.
--Mike W would win the NFC South and possibly a first-round bye with a win over Schwantoes and a loss by Monster Rain. If both Mike W and Monster Rain win, then Mike W would still make the playoffs as a Wild Card.
--Secretly Victorious has won the NFC West. She will be the #1 seed in the NFC with a win over Evil Squad Of Evil OR losses by Rabid Ferrets and Monster Rain. If one of those two loses, then Secretly Victorious will still likely have a first-round bye.
--Evil Squad Of Evil might win a Wild Card with a win over Secretly Victorious AND losses by either Mike W or Ragesters.
And that should be it for those who still have the playoffs in their sights. As always, we reserve the right to be ridiculously wrong about any of the above -- you never know when some unexpected combination of wins and losses is going to toss in some unforeseen playoff contender into the mix. Bottom line, no matter if your name appears up above or not, it's very important that you get your picks in. You may not need a win, but someone else may be counting on you to play spoiler.
Ok, we have one other thing to look at here, and that's the extremely tight race for Player of the Year honors. That's the title (and $25 bonus) we bestow each year on the player who gets the most picks correct for the entire season. In preparation for this, we did our annual accounting of the pick totals, just to make sure that everything was correct. As always, it turned up a few errors, but nothing drastic. A few players were off by one or two picks (some high, some low), but everything is now as it should be on the Standings pages. So with that, here are the players most likely to walk away as Player of the Year:
Monster Rain - 161
Ragesters - 161
Brenda's Bulldogs - 160
Lacie Belles - 160
Vlad M - 160
Big Blue - 158
Ignats - 158
Bad Mice - 157
Schwantoes - 157
Yellow Jackets - 157
Mike C - 156
Mike W - 156
Pigskin Palookas - 156
And while it's possible that someone with a lower pick total might try for all longshots and get them right, thereby shooting them ahead of the pack, that's not something we would count on happening. This year's Player of the Year will likely come from the above group.
All right, that's it for this part of the preview. Please have your picks submitted by 8:00 Friday night, and keep in mind that there is no Monday night game this week -- the tiebreaker pick will be the Sunday night game in which the Giants win the NFC East over the Cowboys.
And that'll do it for our final preview of the regular season. Check the pick chart to see how your match looks, and check back on Sunday for all the latest. Good luck everyone, and Happy New Year!
Before the 4:00 games end, we'll be heading out to watch the Giants win the division, so there won't be another update until the season is over -- you'll be on your own to keep an eye on the pick chart if you want to see what's happening ahead of time.
Picking up wins here were Monster Rain, Hyena, Schwantoes, Horns, Ignats, Rabid Ferrets, Ragesters, Ethan C, Brenda's Bulldogs, Big Blue, Fighting Sporks and Lyle Alzado. Also, we saw Secretly Victorious and Evil Squad Of Evil battle their way to a tie.
We'll get to all of the season-ending business in a moment, but first, congratulations to Brenda's Bulldogs -- her 14-of-16 performance garnered her her third Player of the Week title for the year -- nicely done! Ok, on to the wrap-up:
That puts Vlad M toward the top of the playoff positioning, but he doesn't get the #1 seed. That honor goes to Brenda's Bulldogs who posted a 9-3 conference record, one win better than Vlad M's 8-4. So with the #1 and #2 seeds, respectively, Brenda's Bulldogs and Vlad M will each get a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Yellow Jackets and Big Blue each won their division, giving them the #3 and #4 seeds, while Mike C and Lacie Belles posted the best records among non-division winners thereby giving them the two AFC Wild Card spots.
On the NFC Side, we had Monster Rain and Secretly Victorious each win their division with a 10-5-1 record and a 7-4-1 conference record, thereby sending it to pick total to determine who gets the top seed. In the end it was Monster Rain's 172 picks over Secretly Victorious' 167 that made the difference. No matter, though -- they've both earned byes for next week.
That puts Rabid Ferrets in the #3 spot and gives Ragesters and his late-season winning streak the #4 seed. The comeback of the year would have to go to Mike W, who shook off a 1-4 start to post a late-season six-match winning streak, earning him the #5 seed; while Evil Squad Of Evil hung on to pick up the #6 seed.
So with that, here's our final playoff picture:
And that's it for the playoff positioning -- congratulations to all of this year's postseason-bound players! Just one more thing left to take care of, and that's our Player of the Year honors. This season we have a tie -- Brenda's Bulldogs and Ragesters each posted 174 correct picks -- meaning they each pick up a fat $12.50 bonus!
That's it for the regular season. As always, thank you all for making this pool what it is. For those of you seeing postseason action, check back later this week for the playoff site. For everyone else, feel free to follow along -- otherwise, we'll talk to you again in August. Enjoy, all!
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