General Discussion

This contest was played under CBS Sports Football Pick'em under the pool called Rochester Challenge. We add to that the bowl games results/NCAA playoff game results in website www.rtsports.com. If you do not play the bowl contest, you don't get any points at all for those games. Our winner this year is Billy Rochester. As is the case virtually every year, our "NFL picks only" winner beats most, if not all, experts who do this for a living with only two experts being better this year The CBS Sports experts seem to do better as a team than others I can find, so I included them. Everyone can check out their NFL picks against the big boy experts below. The Bowl Game/NCAA Playoff Game part of our contest was also won by Billy Rochester. He got 32 correct out of 46 games played. Bowl games have gotten really hard to pick. 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. If you didn’t pick a week, you received a point total for the week that was one less than the lowest point total for that week.

Michael O  205-80 71.9%

Billy  203-82 71.2%

Chris S  203-82 71.2%

Rick  198-87 69.5%

Greg  194-91 68.1%

Karl  180-105 63.2%

Here is the all-time NFL record for one season in our contest.

Draftman Rick in 2005 was 196-71 73.4% (Best media expert ever - Matt Bowen in 2024 was 210-75 73.7%)

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  4089-2117 (23 years) 65.9%

Chris S  2887-1578 (approx. 17 years) 64.7%  (Chris stopped playing after week 12 of 2005 and resumed in week 4 of 2013.)

Billy  3956-2250 (23 years) 63.7%

Here is how people who do this for a living did. (No stats for 2011)

This list mostly comes from Inside The NFL (Now on CW) 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  46.1% against the spread in 2022

Julian Edelman  49.1% against the spread in 2022

Brandon Marshall  46.8% against the spread in 2022

Dan Marino  Retired  Regular seasons only for 2012 and 2013. 7 year total 1181-666 63.9%

Cris Carter  Retired  Last 5 years 853-482 63.9%

Bill Cowher  Unable to get after 2017. Might not pick full seasons now. Previous 6 years 980-556 63.8%

Phil Simms  No straight up picks this year (49.1% against the spread in 2022) Last 7 years 1345-766 63.7% Could not get 2014, 2015, 2018 or after 2020.

Boomer Esiason  Unable to get after 2017. 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

Ryan Wilson  194-91 68.1%

Jamey Eisenberg  193-92 67.7%

John Breech  188-97 66.0%

Jared Dubin  188-97 66.0%

Dave Richard  188-97 66.0%

Tyler Sullivan  185-100 64.9%

Pete Prisco  184-101 64.6%

Will Brinson  164-121 57.5%

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 staff made picks online this year. No picks for 2021.

Tyler Dragon  206-79 72.3% Last 3 years 560-278 66.8%

Nate Davis  196-89 68.8% Last 10 years 1745-962 64.5%

Mike Middlehurst-Schwartz  193-92 67.7% Last 2 years 352-202 63.5%

Lorenzo Reyes  190-95 66.7% Last 9 years 1566-874 64.2%

Jarrett Bell  188-97 66.0% Last 11 years 1887-1087 63.5%

Chris Bumbaca  175-110 61.4% Last 3 years 513-293 63.7%

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%

ESPN had 11 NFL “experts” who picked the games. Many of them were not good at all. However, Matt Bowen just had the best season I have ever seen by any NFL media person ever! He was 210-75 which is 73.7%. Here are three ESPN experts of note.

Matt Bowen  210-75 73.7%

Mike Clay  197-88 69.1%

Dan Graziano  188-97 66.0%

Here are totals from our College picks this year. This includes the 219 games on the website, and 46 bowl games/NCAA playoff games. Not everyone picked the bowl games. Unpicked bowl games count as a loss.

Billy  189-76 71.3%

Rick  187-78 70.6%

Chris S  184-81 69.4%

Michael O  180-85 67.9%

Karl  168-97 63.4%

Greg  148-117 55.9% No bowl picks-accidentally did not get an invite. Not counting bowl games, Greg was 148-71 67.6%

Total NFL plus College for this year. (Contest Winner) Note: Number correct wins the contest, not percentage. So, if you miss picks, it hurts you.

Billy  392-158 71.3%

Chris S  387-163 70.4%

Rick  385-165 70.0%

Michael O  385-165 70.0%

Karl  348-202 63.3%

Greg  342-208 62.2% (Not counting bowl games, Greg was 342-162 67.9%)

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

2022 - Billy Rochester

2023 - Rick Anderson

2024 - Billy Rochester

May God always be your number 1 draft pick!

Draftman Rick