The Statistical Awards
Very often the most interesting awards on the SJS Picks Contest are those based on sound statistical evidence. Whereas the Expert To Watch, Pulitzer, and other prizes are somewhat subjective and are also somewhat unpredictable, those gleaned from the weekly stats report are objective and can be actively competed for during the season.
This year's Renegade Award was a surprise first-time recipient, dan. Although never conservative, dan's 0.212 upset index was considerably higher than 2002's 0.132. With the new h man picking somewhat more conservatively this season (but let's get some perspective: he still had an index of 0.210), dan was able to bring home his first Renegade certificate.
The flip side to the Renegade is the Freddie Favorite Certificate for the expert who most mirrors Consensus Curtis. This year's "consensus" choice was page champion Kelly. Her upset index was a paltry 0.124. While such a party-line number deserves scorn, it was, at least, the highest upset index to ever win the Freddie Favorite. Furthermore, Kelly's season upset IQ of 61.22% is the best single-season upset picking in history (besting Oz's 2000 mark of 59.09%).
More hardware for Kelly. Here's an expert who usually picked the favorite, but when she picked an upset, she had unparalleled accuracy, and to top it all off, she usually had the score pretty close. That's the Picks Page trifecta! Yes, this year's Send Me To Vegas Award goes (for the first time) to Kelly. Her 43 close scores was 3 better than Kevin and was 1 better than Master O's previous record. (O still deserves recognition; we picked 396 games in 2003 and Master O set his record in just 331 picks.)
The Limb Walker designation goes to the expert who picks the most out on a limb games correctly. An out on a limb pick is one in which no other human expert agrees. This year, no one was close to schmookie, who not only had the most correct OOL picks (5), but also the best OOL percentage (5/7).
The last of these more concrete, statistics-based awards is the POW Award, for the expert who was most competitive throughout the season for the weekly Pick Of The Week. Schmookie and Kelly tied for the award. With just one exact score, schmookie would have one the award outright when added to his 5 OOL picks. But Kelly had 5 combined exact scores and OOL picks to share the award with her arch-rival.
The Other Awards
There remains some more hardware to hand out. First, the coveted Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Kevin for his game-day report from Nittany Mountain. Although a couple of Webmaestro's commentaries received strong consideration (most enthusiastically, "Welcome To The Matrix: Where Computers Run The World"), the Hall Of Fame Committee elected to reward the guest commentary. Kevin's piece was well-written and insightful, and represents the kinds of message board contributions that are highly valued by the committee. Interestingly, the St. John's have a stranglehold on the page's literary award; Kevin's 2 Pulitzers go with 2 for BioLeftHip and Webmaestro's 4.
This season's Loyalty Award goes to Kevin, rather weakly. The Committee honestly couldn't remember if Kevin picked UW too often, but did remember his early season message board post on the Badgers' chances which proved to be too optimistic.
The Misplaced Priorities Award was quite deservingly awarded to boat. Boat joined the expert panel in late 1996 and prior to this season had racked up 1757 career picks, third all time. Missing weeks allowed Kevin to narrow the gap and Kelly to pass boat in career total picks, which was, frankly, surprising to the Hall Of Fame Committee. Pick up your chin!
The Properly Placed Priorities Commendation was again granted to heater14 who always makes a point to get picks in even when he will be out of town. The Hall Of Fame Committee, however, elected to make a sweeping commendation to those experts who stuck with us this season when geocities and later teamwild gave us some problems with receiving picks.
Kelly was awarded her second consecutive Steady Freddie Certificate for showing unfailing good picking performance over more than one season.
The Rookie Of The Year, after some debate, went to Virgin Picker, another midwesterner (future easterner). Virgin neglected to pick the tough games late in the season, but his early season commitment to the expert panel (while other newbies TruBluMich and Vode dropped out), coupled with a not-unimpressive 65.1 percentage, earned him the prize. Virgin: Kelly finished last in her first year. Stick with us!
The Hall Of Fame Committee awarded the Browbeater Of The Year to boat this season. His barbs this year were far more subtle, but important nonetheless. The Committee "got the joke" - his barbs at the message board community ("I'm the top poster right now") and his digs at Kelly (changing his style and name - b. vegas - as part of a collosally subtle browbeat) earned him his first Browbeater since 2001.
Finally, the Hall Of Fame Committee announced a special Meritorious Contributions award to Oz, who offered web space and programming help when the limitations of the geocities form server compromised the integrity of the SJS College Football Extravaganza's Picks Contest. Although the first few weeks on the new server were likewise rocky, Oz hounded his web hosts until the problems were satisfactorily resolved. This sort of "behind the scenes" help is something we rarely call on our experts to provide, and Oz certainly stepped up to the plate. The Committee thanks you.
Next Year
As of this writing, the Hall Of Fame Committee and Webmaestro have agreed to another one-year commitment to the SJS Picks Contest. When asked for comment, Webmaestro merely said "It's all about the picking."
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