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 Anthony Cancer. Anthony was in the middle of the pack for about the first half of the contest, but he caught fire unlike almost anything I’ve seen. He led the contest for most of the weeks the rest of the year. As is the case virtually every year, our "NFL picks only" winner beats most, if not all, experts who do this for a living. This year, Anthony, Rick and Chris S. either tied or beat them all! 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 Anthony. He got 31 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.

Anthony 187-98 65.6%

Rick 185-100 64.9%

Chris S 185-100 64.9%

Michael O 181-104 63.5%

Billy 180-105 63.2%

Greg 180-105 63.2%

Jacob 179-106 62.8%

Karl 176-109 61.8%

Chris W 165-120 57.9%

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 4274-2217 (24 years) 65.9%

Chris S 3072-1678 (approx. 18 years) 64.7%  (Chris stopped playing after week 12 of 2005 and resumed in week 4 of 2013.)

Billy 4136-2355 (24 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 Twitter) 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

Dave Richard 184-101 64.6%

Pete Prisco 183-102 64.2%

Jamey Eisenberg 182-103 63.9%

Ryan Wilson 181-104 63.5%

Tyler Sullivan 178-107 62.5%

Jared Dubin 173-112 60.7%

John Breech 172-113 60.4%

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.

Mike Middlehurst-Schwartz 185-100 64.9% Last 3 years 537-302 64.0%

Nate Davis 183-102 64.2% Last 11 years 1928-1064 64.4%

Chris Bumbaca 177-108 62.1% Last 4 years 690-401 63.2%

Tyler Dragon 174-111 61.1% Last 4 years 734-389 65.4%

Jarrett Bell 170-115 59.7% Last 12 years 2057-1202 63.1%

Nick Brinkerhoff 166-119 58.3% First year

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, in 2024, Matt Bowen had the best season I have ever seen by any NFL media person ever! He was 210-75 which is 73.7%. Here are four ESPN experts of note.

Jordan Reid 184-101 64.6%

Mike Clay 180-105 63.2%

Matt Bowen 178-107 62.5%

Dan Graziano 170-115 59.7%

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.

Anthony 197-68 74.3%

Rick 189-76 71.3%

Billy 184-81 69.4%

Jacob 184-81 69.4%

Michael O 183-82 69.1%

Chris S 181-84 68.3%

Karl 176-89 66.4%

Chris W 156-109 58.9% No bowl picks

Greg 150-115 56.6% No bowl picks

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.

Anthony 384-166 69.8%

Rick 374-176 68.0%

Chris S 366-184 66.6%

Billy 364-186 66.2%

Michael O 364-186 66.2%

Jacob 363-187 66.0%

Karl 352-198 64.0%

Greg 330-220 60.0%

Chris W 321-229 58.4%

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

2025 – Anthony Cancer

May God always be your number 1 draft pick!

Draftman Rick