[Goob]

How Spreads Work, AKA Goob's Guide To Gambling

NFL Pickem - http://football.fant...ister/joingroup
Group ID# 63704
Password: freebies
Once you've joined, here's a link to the NFL Group Homepage.

NCAA Pickem - http://football.fant...ister/joingroup
Group ID# 31153
Password: freebies
Once you've joined, here's a link to the NCAA Group Homepage.

Rules are quite simple. Each week you pick which teams you think will win with the spread. Don't know that that means? Check out the longer post I made below!

Knowledge of football is not required, as even a monkey can pick "Team A or Team B?" :) At the end of the season, whoever picked the most correct games wins.

As for prizes, there will be the usual 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and random prize winner. In order to qualify for prizes, you must make picks in at least 15 of the 17 weeks. The NFL league will drop each player's lowest week total and the NCAA will drop each player's two lowest week totals (since we all missed the very first week!).

Each winner will receive a yet undetermined cash prize, but I promise it'll be good ;)

Any questions?

[Goob]

updated.

[shaynon]

yea!! im so excited!

[Goob]

Glad to see that you were able to sign up, I can post this on the main page now :)

[Goob]

A few more people have signed up for both, which is good.

I'm glad the college one doesn't use the ESPN rankings, because they had South Carolina at #24 and I so would have picked them to win last night :)

[shaynon]

i signed up for both, prepare to go down!!

(if u don't go down, no need to remind me of this k lol)

[Goob]

If I win, can I keep the prize money for myself? :P

[cara1127]

I've got my picks made in both. Married to a husband that eats, breathes, and sleeps college football, just know you are all going down! :D

[Goob]

Bring it on, Cara! :P

[shaynon]

yes bring it on cara!! lol..and gooby!! and the rest of ya all

[Goob]

I've gotten a few e-mails and IMs asking about Spreads and how they work, so here are three examples from today that cover each scenario.

http://www.heyitsfree.net/forums/uploads/spread-uncovered-ohio.png

Now let's look at scenario #1. Ohio State vs. Ohio with a final point spread of 34. The favored team always comes first, so Ohio State is favored (which means they're supposedly the better team.) The bold team is the home team, which again is Ohio St. The tiny dot next to Ohio means I picked them to win with the spread.

Now the final score was Ohio St. 26 - Ohio 14. Obviously you're thinking, "But Goob, why does it say Correct if you picked Ohio and they lost?" Well, look at the spread. Think of the spread as pity points. People (namely gamblers) thought Ohio St. was 34 points better than Ohio, so what the system does is take the final score and "give" 34 points to the unfavored team. So the adjusted score is now Ohio St. 26 - Ohio 48 (14 real points + 34 spread points). Hey, now Ohio wins and thus I get a point!

This situation is known as "not covering the spread." Even thought Ohio St. won, they didn't win by enough!

http://www.heyitsfree.net/forums/uploads/spread-uncovered-alabama.png

Here's the same scenario as above, just reversed. Alabama is first, so they're giving away 30 free points in the spread. Since the dot is next to them, that means I picked Alabama to cover. The final score was Alabama 20 - Tulane 6, but once adjusted became Alabama 20 - Tulane 36. So even though Alabama won in real life, I get an "Incorrect" since Alabama wasn't able to win by more than 30 points. Doh!

http://www.heyitsfree.net/forums/uploads/spread-covered-georgia.png

Now here's scenario #2. We've got Georgia vs. Cent. Michigan with Georgia listed first, meaning they're the favorite. And the final line is 23.5, which means they're giving away 23.5 points to Cent. Michigan. As you can see, I picked Georgia to cover the spread since the little dot is by their name. Now the final score in real life was Georgia 56 - Cent. Michigan 17. Once the spread is added, the adjusted score is now Georgia 56 - Cent. Michigan 40.5 (17 real points + 23.5 spread) Hey, look at that, Georgia is still the winner!

This situation is known as "covering the spread." Georgia was good enough to win by more than 23.5 points!

http://www.heyitsfree.net/forums/uploads/spread-upset.png

Scenario #3 is the rarest, yet most fun to try and predict :) West Virginia is first, so they are favored against East Carolina. Despite being the 8th ranked team in the nation, West Virginia was only giving away 8 points in the spread and since East Carolina is the home team (remember, they're bolded!) AND they beat another ranked team last week, I picked them. So what happened? East Carolina 24 - West Virginia 3 and with the spread factored in, it became East Carolina 32 - West Virginia 3. They didn't even need the spread points!

This situation is known as an upset. The "worse" team not only beat the spread, but they beat the better team in real life!

So, I hope that helps. The spread is almost like starting the game with the crappier team winning by that many points. It's a way to even the playing field, because otherwise we'd all just pick the best teams each week and be right 95% of the time. :P

[shaynon]

ah thank you! i know i was totally confused! i had to go to the puppet master and ask what the heck was going on and how it works!

[Goob]

Make sure you get your NCAA picks in since there's a game tonight!

[shaynon]

thanks for reminding us! :) hope ur feeling better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pbchicknz]

On the NFL pro list, I'm seeing some of Team Pink near the top :D Congratulations Shaynon.

I like how you can set the NFL list several weeks in advance. I keep forgetting to go put in the ones for the NCAA each week.

[shaynon]

aww thanks!! lol. its only luck though...give it time..i will suck!

[Goob]

Both of my teams are already experience their annual collapse from the top :)

[shaynon]

ha ha ha :laughup:

[fanniefarkle]

Goob, on Oct 6 2008, 11:53 PM, said:

Both of my teams are already experience their annual collapse from the top :)

Who are your teams?

[shaynon]

wow we haven't talked about this since October....College ends this week...good luck everyone...only 7 games..

[Froggie]

Only 2 more weeks of NFL. I am so surprised at myself. I actually understand what is going on now!

Now what am I going to do with my time...... :unsure:

[shaynon]

woo hoo! footaball is over for the year...well the fantasy part for us is..now i am waiting to see my PENN ST in the rose bowl!!!

Hey Goob, when are you going to update/announce how well we all did?

[LuLu]

Will there be 2009 contests?

[Goob]

Yep, there will be a 2009 contest. I know I'll do a March Madness contest in March, not sure if I'll do one in February though.

Fanniefarkle and Shaynon, do y'all have Paypal accounts? :D

[Goob]

Also, who had the team name RowdyJake? Their username is MJ.

Doesn't really help me much...