Welcome to NFL Prophet 2015
Whether your arrival here is the result of human error, morbid curiosity, a momentary lapse in judgement or simply the cruel workings of fate, please allow me to explain to you the nature of this website and the purpose for which it exists. What follows is a transcript of a contrived, hypothetical Q&A session which took place several hours prior to the moment when you begin reading it.
What is NFL Prophet?
NFL Prophet is a sports tipping competition with a twist. In ordinary tipping competitions, you simply pick which team you think is most likely to win each game in the coming week and earn one point for each correct selection. In NFL Prophet, not only do you pick the winner of each game – you also sort the games in order of the confidence you have in each of your picks. Why? Because beginning at the top of your list and working towards the bottom, you earn one point for each correct selection until your first incorrect selection is reached. At that point your score is recorded, and you earn no further points for that week.
So if I correctly pick the winner of every single game for the entire week except for the first game on my list, I get zero points for that week?
Zero points.
That sounds pretty unfair. And also pretty low scoring...
I'm not gonna lie to you – points are hard to come by. The current record for the highest single-season score is 76 points. If you score more than 50 points over the course of the entire season, you will have earned the respect of your peers and the right to gloat.
So couldn't half a dozen people finish the season with the same points total?
It's certainly possible. And that's when percentage becomes important. Your percentage is the number of correct selections you've made relative to the total number of games played throughout the season. In the event of a tie on points, percentage is used as a tiebreaker.
What if the percentages are tied?
If both scores and percentages are tied, a second tiebreaker is used. It employs a complex equation that measures the accuracy of the selections that appear nearer to the top of your list, considering them to be a stronger indicator of your performance than those selections that appear further down.
Speaking of ties, what about tied games?
In the unlikely event that a game ends in a tie, the game is ignored for the purpose of calculating both score and percentage. It would be as if the game never took place.
Ok, I'll give it a shot. What do I get if I win?
The NFL Prophet 2015 champion will receive ten tax-free Australian dollars from my wallet, but only if they come to my house and pick it up. The sending of currency via regular post is prohibited by our national postal service, and I'm not shelling out for registered post.
Is NFL Prophet in any way affiliated with or endorsed by the National Football League or any of its member clubs?
No. But thanks for asking. What are you, a lawyer?