Playoff Prediction Contests, Rules & Guidelines

We're bringing back the prediction contest from a couple years ago for the 2021-2022 Playoffs. See rules below for the 2021 season Playoffs. Please read over that so we can have consistency in the posting.

Anyone with a DawgsbyNature.com account is invited play and can join at any time. There are no prizes to the winner/s except for bragging rights.

Open Contest (Open to ALL players at any time): The Open Contest will tally the cumulative total points during the Playoffs. The player with the most cumulative points during the Playoffs will be crowned the Open Contest Champion at the conclusion of the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Tiebreaker

The goal is to crown individual winners of the Open and Top 16 tournaments. To avoid possible player points ties after the final Super Bowl prediction game, contestants in the Open contest will be asked to provide an extra Super Bowl game prediction in the case we end up with multiple players with the most cumulative total points, which has happened before. The tiebreaker will be a prediction of the combined total offensive yards by both teams. In case of a cumulative total points tie, the closest prediction to the combined teams' total offensive yards will determine the winner. The total offensive yards will be as listed in the official ESPN Box Score.

General Rules

1. Each week's NFL playoff games are selected for the prediction contest. Six playoff games for the Wild Card round, four playoff games for the Divisional Round, two playoff games for the Conference Championship round, and the final Super Bowl game.

2. Prediction Scores must be submitted before game kickoff time or they will not be counted. The time-stamp of your comment counts as your prediction entry time. You may stagger your predictions throughout the week or change your original prediction but please do so using the reply button to your original comment.

3. Post your picks using the Prediction Game format as it may disqualify you from scoring if not followed, and cuts down on scoring errors.

4. Scoring Results will typically be posted following the final game of that week in a separate Scoring Results FanPost thread. We'll try to post results by the Monday after the last game each week.

5. If you believe an error occurred in the scoring of your prediction, please post a comment describing the discrepancy in the Scoring Results thread.

6. You may not submit the same prediction score more than twice in one week. This rule is specially designed to curtail 24-17, 23-17, 20-17 block prediction scores. We are also leaving this up to our judgment in case anyone wants to submit 24-17 for two scores than 23-17 for another two scores, etc. Predict to the best of your ability and don't try to game the game.

Example of Prediction Format

IMPORTANT RULE

The format for posting score predictions is "Team A @ Team B: A score - B score." That is, "visitor @ home: visitor score - home score." Here's an example of how to do it:

Using the Pittsburgh @ Kansas City game as an example, if you think the Steelers will win 24-14, here's how it needs to appear:

Pittsburgh @ Kansas City: 24 - 14, or

Pittsburgh @ Kansas City: 24 - 14

If you think the Chiefs will win 24-14, it needs to appear as this:

Pittsburgh @ Kansas City: 14 - 24, or

Pittsburgh @ Kansas City: 14 - 24

A bold highlight of the intended winning team is not necessary but helps clarify the winning team in case of an error in the score format (see rules and guidelines). If provided, a bold highlight of the winning team will override a conflicting score format. A bold highlight of the team's individual score is not needed (and could complicate things anyway) and won't be considered in the scoring.

If you do make a mistake in the formatting and there is still time before the scheduled kickoff time, simply reply to your original post and repost your picks in the correct format. Do not post your scores again at the bottom of the thread.

BONUS RULE: For the Wild Card Round, standard bonus points will be awarded for 4, 5 or 6 wins. For the Divisional Round games, only 1 additional point will be given for 4 correct prediction winners in a week. No Bonus points will be awarded for Conference Championship and Super Bowl rounds.

Scoring Explained - to qualify for scoring points, you first must predict the correct winner of the game. If the correct game winner is predicted, then your Subscore, based on your predicted score compared to the actual score, will be calculated and compared with other contestant subscores and ranked in ascending order for points as defined below. If you predict the incorrect winner for an individual game, your subscore will not be scored.

Subscore (x) - the subscore involves 4 parts to the scoring calculation:

pPD = Predicted Point Differential

aPD = Actual Point Differential

pPT = Predicted Point Total

aPT = Actual Point Total

pPD = Predicted Point Differential - if the predicted score is 30-21, then the pPD = 30 - 21= 9

aPD = Actual Point Differential - if the actual score is 24-17, then the aPD = 24 - 17= 7

PD = |pPD - aPD| = |9| - |7| = 9 - 7 = 2

pPT = Predicted Point Total - if you predict a score of 30-21, the pPT = 51

aPT = Actual Point Total - if the actual game score is 24-17, then the aPT = 41

PT = |pPT - aPT| = |51 - 41| = 10

Subscore (x) = PD + PT = |pPD - aPD| + |pPT - aPT| - You add the PD and PT differences together = 2 + 10 = 12, x = 12

The subscores are ranked in ascending order to determine the awarding of points. Basically, the closer your subscore is to zero, the better chance of getting points.

Perfect Score - for correctly picking the winning team and the exact actual score (subscore = 0), 10 points are awarded followed by 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0. There can be any number of perfect scores, each awarded 10 points. Subscores, including all ties, will be each awarded points (i.e. there are possible multiple contestant points awarded for 10 points, 4 points, 3 points, 2 points and 1 point awarded).

No Perfect Score - if for no perfect score (subscore = 0), 5 points are awarded followed by 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0. Subscores, including all ties, will be each awarded points (i.e. there are possible multiple contestant points awarded for 5 points, 4 points, 3 points, 2 points and 1 point awarded).

Bonus Points - bonus points for wins during the Wild Card and Divisional rounds are awarded as follows:

4 wins out of 6 games = 1 bonus point awarded and added to your points total.

5 wins out of 6 games = 2 bonus points awarded and added to your points total.

6 wins out of 6 games = 3 bonus points awarded and added to your points total.