Week 17 NFL Survivor Strategy: Use It Or Lose It
- 69 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on December 28, 2012
Welcome to the Week 17 installment of our NFL Survivor contest advice column. We apply a data-driven strategy to get an edge in Survivor pools, using analysis based on NFL predictions from our algorithmic Team Rankings models, public picking trends, future team schedules, and other data.
As the season progresses, Survivor pool elimination rates usually increase. People use up all the good teams at the beginning of the year, and their choices over the last few weeks become more difficult.
Week 16 bucked that trend, as over 98% of Yahoo! contestants survived. It was the second safest week of the season, behind Week 11. Our pick, the Denver Broncos, breezed past the Cleveland Browns by a 34-12 score.
We’re now entering the final week of the season. The decision-making process becomes much simpler this week, as there is no future value to consider. If you’ve got a big favorite available, it’s now or never.
Week 16 NFL Survivor Friday Update: Much Ado About Nothing
- 26 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on December 21, 2012
Well, it’s December 21st, and there have been no signs of an alpacalypse (though it may feel differently if your $200K Survivor prize pool was just seized by the feds). That means you still need to make a Survivor pick this week.
There have been quite a few shifts in the money lines and win odds since Wednesday. If, like us, you’ve still got one last trump card that you’re using this week, then those changes probably won’t make a big difference to you.
On the other hand, if you’re dipping into the Tier 2 pot, you’ll probably want to pay close attention.
Week 16 NFL Survivor Strategy: Back In The Saddle
- 45 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on December 19, 2012
Welcome to the Week 16 installment of our NFL Survivor contest advice column. We apply a data-driven strategy to get an edge in Survivor pools, using analysis based on NFL predictions from our algorithmic Team Rankings models, public picking trends, future team schedules, and other data. This article presents our preliminary Survivor pick of the week; we publish our final, official pick on Fridays.
While the Miami Dolphins’ victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 15 advanced over half of Survivor contests on to Week 16, the next most popular team, the Detroit Lions, couldn’t manage a win in Arizona. Their loss knocked out around one fifth of the public.
Our pick, the New Orleans Saints, laid a 41-0 whipping on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That ends our two-week losing streak and gets us back in black for the close of the regular season.
This week’s choice is probably obvious to those of you who have been following the blog all season, but let’s review the data before we make it official.
Week 15 NFL Survivor Friday Update: Still Marchin’ With The Saints
- 8 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on December 14, 2012
One of our Tier 1 picks, the Cincinnati Bengals, took care of business on Thursday against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Bengals were picked by only about 4% of Survivor contestants, so the end result probably had little impact on your pool, unless you had Cincy available and are now through to Week 16.
As far as the rest of the Survivor landscape, a couple line shifts have led to a slight re-ordering of our top Tier 2 teams, but there have been no high impact movements. Let’s review.
Week 15 NFL Survivor Strategy: There Are Other Fish In The Sea
- 79 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on December 12, 2012
Welcome to the Week 15 installment of our NFL Survivor contest advice column. We apply a data-driven strategy to get an edge in Survivor pools, using analysis based on NFL predictions from our algorithmic Team Rankings models, public picking trends, future team schedules, and other data. This article presents our preliminary Survivor pick of the week; we publish our final, official pick on Fridays.
When it rains, it pours.
After our 29-game regular season winning streak came to a close last week, we’re now on a 2-game losing streak. Hopefully we’re getting all the bad mojo out of our system now, in one big burst.
Do we regret switching off our Wednesday pick of Cleveland? Well, based on the results, sure, a little. But given the closing lines (-350 for the Steelers, -305 for the Browns), Pittsburgh still seems like the smarter choice. Sometimes you make the right choice and get the wrong result.
And there is one silver lining here. Given that we were going to lose in Week 14 anyway, we can stop kicking ourselves over flipping the Week 13 pick from Denver to Detroit.
For those of you who survived, Week 14 was a fairly uneventful week. There were several minor upsets, but none knocked out more than a few percent of the public. Overall 13% of your opponents likely bit the dust, slightly boosting your chunk of the pie.
Week 14 NFL Survivor Friday Update: Fear The Compression Pad, Bolts
- 35 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on December 7, 2012
As expected, the Broncos took care of business on Thursday against the Raiders, advancing about 7% of the public on to Week 15. Though it would have been nice to be in that group, or for Denver to have taken a surprise loss, at least their win means another 7% of our opponents won’t be able to take them in Week 16.
As for our official pick, it looks like we’re going to be flipping it for the second week in a row, and the third time this year. The first time we flipped, our original pick lost while our new pick won. The second time, our original pick won while our new pick lost. Let’s hope this time we get a repeat of the former … or even a “both win” scenario.
Week 14 NFL Survivor Strategy: 29 In A Row Ain’t Bad
- 127 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on December 5, 2012
Welcome to the Week 14 installment of our NFL Survivor contest advice column. We apply a data-driven strategy to get an edge in Survivor pools, using analysis based on NFL predictions from our algorithmic Team Rankings models, public picking trends, future team schedules, and other data. This article presents our preliminary Survivor pick of the week; we publish our final, official pick on Fridays.
Well, it had to end sometime.
Since the start of the 2011 season, we made it through a run of 29 straight regular season weeks without a Survivor loss. Even taking solid favorites each week, the odds of that are pretty slim.
Taking a quick glance back at the last five weeks, the average TR win odds for our Survivor picks has been 73%. If we pretend that was our chance of being right in each of the previous 29 weeks, then our chance of actually making it through unscathed was 0.01% … that’s 1 in 10,000. We’ll take it.
Unfortunately, our Luck finally ran out (sorry, couldn’t resist), as Andrew tossed a game-winning TD with no time left on the clock to complete a 12-point 4th-quarter comeback by the Colts, handing both the Lions and our Survivor column a loss. If you watched the Lions’ strategy in the fourth quarter, you probably have some serious questions for Coach Schwartz, but alas, that’s just how it goes sometimes. I’m sure we’ve been on the other side of this coin as well at some point during The Streak, so there’s no point in moaning about it.
At least we can take solace in the fact that we weren’t alone. Week 13′s most popular pick, the San Francisco 49ers, fell to the Rams, knocking out roughly a quarter of Yahoo! contestants. The Ravens and Bears also were upset, knocking out another 12% between the two of them. Altogether, over 40% of the public was eliminated.
We know not all of you have followed our official picks each week, particularly last week when we faced such a close call. So we’ll continue to make Survivor picks for the rest of the year, even though our chance at a second straight perfect season is busted.
Let’s get to it.
Week 13 NFL Survivor Friday Update: Maybe We’ll Keep That Last Ace…
- 144 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on November 30, 2012
Wow, it’s been a while, but we’ve finally got an interesting Friday update on our hands … or at least, one that can’t just be handled by a robot bartender.
There hasn’t been any earth shaking line movement over the past couple days, but there have been a couple shifts in our decision-making process:
- First, it has come to our attention that the Yahoo! public pick data may be contaminated. Apparently Yahoo! lets you start Survivor pools at any point in the season, and allows you to restart after everyone is eliminated. This means that their published pick rates are probably not a good proxy for those in a normal pool. As a result, we’re switching to using only data from OfficeFootballPool.
- Second, some great discussion in the comment section of Wednesday’s post convinced us that when we plan out our future path, we need to be giving more weight to how popular a team will be. This changes the value of the possible future picks we laid out Wednesday, and makes us lean more towards saving some teams with high future value.
Our Wednesday decision was a very close call, so these changes, along with line movement in the Detroit game, have led us to reconsider our official pick.
Week 13 NFL Survivor Strategy: Should We Get Risky Now Or Later?
- 173 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by David Hess on November 28, 2012
Welcome to the Week 13 installment of our NFL Survivor contest advice column. We apply a data-driven strategy to get an edge in Survivor pools, using analysis based on NFL predictions from our algorithmic Team Rankings models, public picking trends, future team schedules, and other data. This article presents our preliminary Survivor pick of the week; we publish our final, official pick on Fridays.
For the fifth time this season, and the fourth time in the last six weeks, over 94% of Yahoo Survivor contestants managed to avoid elimination. The last time a team picked by at least 15% of the public lost was way back in Week 6.
There are no hugely popular teams this week, so a mass knockout seems unlikely, but with picks spread fairly evenly among a handful of top options, hopefully we’ll see at least one or two upsets thin the ranks.
Week 12 NFL Survivor Friday Update: Pats Roll, But Who’s Left?
- 64 comments - NFL, NFL Survivor Pools - posted by Tom Federico on November 23, 2012
Because of the Thanksgiving holiday and the fact that our official weekly Survivor pick already played on Turkey Day, this Friday update is going to be short and sweet.
Here’s what’s new since Wednesday’s original Week 12 Survivor advice post:
- As our official pick of Week 12, the New England Patriots cruised to a 49-19 victory over the New York Jets, thanks to a turnover-fueled 35-point second quarter. So we get the benefit of watching Sunday’s games with no pressure. And with almost 80% surviving entries on either Cincinnati or Denver this week, if you took the Pats, you know who to root for: the mighty Raiders and the dominating Chiefs.
- Ranking as probably our fourth best pick of the week as of Wednesday, the Cowboys were upset by the Redskins.
- However, as of Friday, the Titans’ money line has now improved from -158 to -195, meaning that Tennessee is now the clear best of Wednesday’s listed Tier 2 pick options.
- Pittsburgh’s money line has gotten substantially worse, and is now only -121 (from -154) on Pinnacle Sports. As a result, the Steelers are now a Tier 3 / AVOID.
- Indianapolis’ odds have also gotten slightly worse. They’re not quite an AVOID yet, but Tennessee is clearly a better pick than the Colts now, as are probably several other of the Tier 2′s from Wednesday (besides Pittsburgh).
- Several major sports books still have not posted betting odds for the Chicago vs. Minnesota game, and Chicago ranked as a likely Tier 1 pick as of Wednesday. According to SBRodds as of 5pm ET on Friday, Bears/Vikings is currently listed at only two sports books; Chicago is a 6.5 point favorite at BetOnline and a 5 point favorite at bwin. With only that information to go on, it’s risky to trust too much in it. If you’re still considering Chicago, your best option is to keep waiting and see where the lines end up once many sports books release. If you need to pick before then, and have the Bengals available, we’d go with Cincy due to the uncertainty.
