This contest was played under CBS Sports Football Pick'em under the pool called Rochester Challenge. Our contest winner this year was very good in the NFL picks and excellent in the college picks. Congratulations, Chris Sturgill. As is the case virtually every year, our NFL contest winner beat most experts who do this for a living. The CBS Sports experts seem to do better as a team than others I can find, so I included them. The USA Today experts used to be near the top of picking groups, but they gave it up last year and let different media folks who cover the different games for their teams make the picks. Maybe the USA Today folks heard that they were being destroyed by a group of guys mostly from South Carolina! Everyone can check out their NFL picks against the big boys’ experts below. The Bowl Game contest was won by Anthony Cancer. He got 24 correct out of 35 bowl games played. Most of the numbers just below involve NFL picks, but our contest winner is based on all picks in both NFL and college games. Those numbers, as usual, are at the very bottom. So, here are the numbers. Here are the final NFL standings for this year including playoffs. (Tie games count as incorrect picks.) Normally, you have to pick every regular season week except for one or two to be included. Not everyone picked all of the games. Unpicked games count as a loss. Michael O 187-98 65.6%
Jacob J 181-104 63.5%
Rick 180-105 63.2%
Chris S 180-105 63.2% Billy 176-109 61.8% John 176-109 61.8% Derrick 175-110 61.4% Karl 168-117 58.9% Anthony 159-126 55.8% Greg 152-133 53.3% Here is the all-time NFL record for one season. Draftman Rick in 2005 was 196-71 73.4% Here are the NFL standings for all previous years for the three guys who I kept stats for over the years. (No stats for 2011) Rick 3520-1832 (20 years) 65.8% Chris S 2319-1292 (approx. 14 years) 64.2% (Chris stopped playing after week 12 of 2005 and resumed in week 4 of 2013.) Billy 3390-1962 (20 years) 63.3% Here is how people who do this for a living did. (No stats for 2011) This list comes from Inside The NFL (Now on Paramount+) or CBS’s The NFL Today. Cris Collinsworth Retired Last 10 years 1722-923 65.1% Warren Sapp Retired Last 3 years 503-273 64.8% Ray Lewis No straight up picks this year (61.8% against the spread)
Julian Edelman No straight up picks this year (54.1% against the spread) Brandon Marshall No straight up picks this year (47.3% against the spread) Michael Irvin No straight up picks this year (46.7% against the spread) Dan Marino Retired Regular seasons only for 2012 and 2013. 7 years total 1181-666 63.9% Cris Carter Retired Last 5 years 853-482 63.9% Bill Cowher Unable to get 2018 through 2021. Might not pick full seasons now. Previous 6 years 980-556 63.8% Phil Simms No straight up picks this year (50.0%) Last 7 years 1345-766 63.7% Could not get 2014, 2015, 2018 or 2021. Boomer Esiason Unable to get 2018 through 2021. Might not pick full seasons now. Previous 6 years 981-577 63.0% Shannon Sharpe Retired Regular seasons only. Last 2 years 320-192 62.5% Bob Costas Retired Last 5 years 830-505 62.2% CBS Sports Expert Picks Team Dave Richard 184-101 64.6%
John Breech 183-102 64.2%
Jamey Eisenberg 182-103 63.9% Jared Dubin 180-105 63.2% Will Brinson 176-109 61.8% Ryan Wilson 176-109 61.8%
Pete Prisco 175-110 61.4%
Jason La Confora 171-114 60.0% Pro Football Weekly usually had 9 guys who pick all the games for the whole year plus a "Consensus" of the 9 guys' picks, but the magazine went bankrupt after 2012 after about 40 years. Some of them were very good, but our winner beat all of them most of the time. USA Today had no staff picks this year. Here are the past standings. Lorenzo Reyes Last 6 years 1031-571 64.4% Nate Davis Last 7 years 1200-669 64.2%
Mike Jones Last 2 years 338-196 63.3%
Jarrett Bell Last 8 years 1346-790 63.0% Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz 5 years 837-498 62.7% Tom Schad Last year 166-101 62.2% Jori Epstein Last year 156-111 58.4% The Spartanburg Herald-Journal often carried the NFL picks for this person from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch but didn’t carry anyone since 2012... Dan Caesar - St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has not picked since 2013. Last 5 years 861-474 64.5% Here are totals from our College picks this year. This includes the 180 games on the website, 35 bowl games and 1 NCAA Championship game. Not everyone picked all of the games. Unpicked games count as a loss. John 140-76 64.8% Chris S 139-77 64.4% Anthony 137-79 63.4% Karl 136-80 63.0% Billy 133-83 61.6% Greg 133-83 61.6%
Jacob J 133-83 61.6% Rick 131-85 60.6% Derrick 128-88 59.3% Michael O 128-88 59.3% Total NFL plus College for this year. (Contest Winner) Note: Number correct wins, not percentage. So, if you miss a week, it hurts you. Chris S 319-182 63.7% John 316-185 63.1%
Michael O 315-186 62.9%
Jacob J 314-187 62.7% Rick 311-190 62.1% Billy 309-192 61.7% Karl 304-197 60.7% Derrick 303-198 60.5% Anthony 296-205 59.1% Greg 285-216 56.9% Contest Winners by Year (2001 through 2004 was NFL only. 2005 to the present is NFL and College.) 2001 - Chris Sturgill 2002 - Chris Sturgill 2003 - Josh Page 2004 - Rick Anderson 2005 - Rick Anderson 2006 - Josh Page 2007 - Rick Anderson 2008 - Rick Anderson 2009 - Rick Anderson 2010 - Josh Page 2011 - Josh Page 2012 - Rick Anderson 2013 - Rick Anderson 2014 - Billy Rochester 2015 - Anthony Cancer 2016 - Rick Anderson 2017 - Rick Anderson 2018 - Rick Anderson 2019 - Billy Rochester 2020 - Greg Kallner
2021 - Chris Sturgill
May God always be your number 1 draft pick!
Draftman Rick