Welcome to the 2011 NFL Ladder Contest! In this wonderful contest created by BBallman7, every week during the regular season you have a challenge. If you get it correct, you move onto the next level; if you get it wrong, you stay at that level to try again the next week. Each level gets tougher as you progress. There will also be a bonus question every week; getting the bonus correct adds to your tiebreaker score which in the end would be used to decide a winner if there are multiple people on the highest-reached level. There are no limits to sign-ups, and you can join at any time during the season.
A few ground rules: -Please say which level you are on when you post your pick. In most cases it will probably be obvious, but this makes it easier for me to record the picks. -The deadline to make a pick is at the start of the second set of games on Sunday afternoon (4:15 PM ET). That means no SNF/MNF picks after most all the games have started or finished. Obviously you cannot pick a game that has already started. -The deadline to answer the bonus question is at the start of games on Sunday (1 PM ET). -I get my spreads from an online site providing lines from several sources, both in Vegas and out. Although these sources may continue to change their lines throughout the week, the ones I post in the topic are frozen and final for our purposes.
Explanation of Levels:
Level 1: Pick a winner. Simply pick one team to win their game. If they win, you go on to level 2.
Level 2: Pick an Underdog to win. You must pick a team that is an underdog to win their game. Underdogs will always be the team listed second.
Level 3: 2 Games with Spread. Using the spreads I provide, pick 2 games. You must get both correct to move on. Spreads work by giving (-) or getting (+) points. The team that is the favorite to win “gives” points to the underdog. If you choose the favorite to win, they must still win after “giving” those points to the underdog. If you choose the underdog, you would be correct if they win the game after “getting” those points. For example, if a game says “Giants (-2.5) vs. Cowboys,” if you pick the Giants, they must actually win the game by at least three points; if you pick the Cowboys, you would win if they actually won the game or lost by two points or less.
Level 4: 35+ or 7-: Pick one team to score 35 or more points, OR pick one team to score 7 or less points. You must clearly choose either 35+ or 7-. If you pick a team to score 35+, but they score 7-, you do not advance.
Level 5: 2 Game Pleaser: Pick two games using the spread, but with the pleaser, you lose 6 points on each spread. In other words, add six points in whichever direction makes it harder to win. For example, a (-2.5) spread becomes (-8.5), a (+3.5) becomes a (-2.5) spread, etc. You must win both games to advance.
Schedule: (Home team in CAPS; favorites to the left, underdogs to the right) Sunday, October 16th GREEN BAY (-14.5) vs. St. Louis PITTSBURGH (-12.5) vs. Jacksonville Philadelphia (-1.5) at WASHINGTON DETROIT (-4.5) vs. San Francisco ATLANTA (-4.5) vs. Carolina CINCINNATI (-7.5) vs. Indianapolis NY GIANTS (-3.5) vs. Buffalo BALTIMORE (-7.5) vs. Houston OAKLAND (-6.5) vs. Cleveland NEW ENGLAND (-7.5) vs. Dallas New Orleans (-4.5) at TAMPA BAY CHICAGO (-2.5) vs. Minnesota
Monday, October 17th NY JETS (-7.5) vs. Miami
Bonus Question: How many home teams will win this week?
It was the first week of byes, yet we had more 100 yard rushers than any other week so far. 11 in total, which only MMXcalibur got correct. 13 advanced out of Level 3 as most of the top picks except the Bucs worked out. The big surprise was Level 4 in which only crazyisgood advanced by picking the 49ers to score 35+.