The moment of truth is here! The long season of prediction battles has forged our list of steely eyed playoff contenders. Those who made the cut will go onto battle for the championship during the NFL playoffs concluding with the Super Bowl. The rest of us don't get to battle for the championship but redemption in the Bignerd Invitational Tournament.

Before we get to the winners, let us at least acknowledge the heavy competition for top loser this season. There were a couple strong candidates, or does that make them weak candidates ... well it doesn't matter. Its a judgment call on my end because people always miss a week or try to hide the last week. This years Suck 4 Luck Award (Backing Into Blackmon?) goes to mcwagner for a season's worth of bad, pathetic, please bet against these predictions. Congrats mcwagner, spending the entire offseason overseeing irrelevant, off topic community threads really paid off. You'll be receiving a mod warning for sure.

Now to the official results plus playoff instructions. I'll tearfully try to get through these.

Playoff Rules

1. The top sixteen finishers in the regular season prediction contest move onto the playoffs. Everyone tied for 16th place is included in the playoffs, meaning if 5 people are tied at 16th place than the playoffs will start out with 20 contestants.

2. The scoring system will remain the same as the regular season. Predict the game winner and score closest to the actual score to accumulate points. Still 10 points for predicting a perfect score, if not 5 points for 1st place, 4 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th and 1 point for 5th place.

3. Each week will have eliminations. The bottom tier predictors will be eliminated with the rest moving on to play another week til the SB where a winner will be crowned. Each week is scored individually, meaning everyone starts back at zero points. Ideally the bottom four people will be eliminated each week.

4. All 16 contestants play the Wild Card round. Top 12 advance onto the Divisional Round. Top 8 advance onto the Championship Games. Top 4 advance onto the Super Bowl.

5. Like entering the playoffs, being tied for the last advancement spot will move a contestant onto the next round. For example if two people tie for 12th place on Wild Card weekend than both will advance to the next round. If your score is zero after any round than you are eliminated. Sorry even if tied for the final advancement spot a zero gets you eliminated. Why I say ideally the contest will try to eliminate the bottom 4 players each round, possibly more than four get eliminated, possibly less than four get eliminated.

If you don't understand, ask questions, keep playing and follow along. Continue to make good picks and you'll keep playing.

Bignerd Invitation Tournament

Those who do not qualify for the playoff tournament receive an invitation to the Bignerd Invitational Tournament (BIT). What's an invitation? Well, if you see the prediction contest and want to play than you are invited. Like the regular season the scoring format will remain same. Points will accumulate each week with the top scorer after the SB is crowned the winner. All Playoff Contestants are also automatically dual entered into the BIT.

Week 17 Scoring Recap

San Francisco 49ers @ St. Louis Rams

1. manraj7, Mo9er, wjackalope (20)
2. Pat Willie, J2daZ, illini49er, Ten-Man, HardCorvallis, AKinferno (28)
3. Stupifyed, Nationwide, benna11, SportsChicken, itsAteamGAME, Ni9er, howtheyscored, beecharmer, Str8Balr (34)
4. Haggardninja, Frisco_Kid, LASVEGASNINER, 49erLou, bonbrillio (36)
5. mpotter14, bakoninerfan (40)

Dallas Cowboys @ New York Giants

1. bignerd (4)
2. MATTCW (6)
3. Edggy, mikeinsp, libra45, bonbrillio (8)
4. Ten-Man, Haggardninja, howtheyscored, Beamer1960, David Fucillo, Str8Balr (12)
5. PHUT!, ZeroIndulgence, neder, Nationwide, illini49er, 49erLou, wjackalope, teekay, urnext (14)

Carolina Panthers @ New Orleans Saints

1. PHUT!, MATTCW, urnext (14)
2. manraj7, libra45, McTee, LASVEGASNINER, teekay (20)
3. bakoninerfan, ZeroIndulgence, groug, renke81, howtheyscored, David Fucillo, liberty_JAC (22)
4. Ten-Man, Mo9er, bonbrillio (24)
5. nostocksjustbonds, Pat Willie, illini49er, reedkrase, Haggardninja, itsAteamGAME, bayboy, Takeo33, Beamer1960, beecharmer (28)

New York Jets @ Miami Dolphins

1. ZeroIndulgence, benna11, McTee, SpurredOn, howtheyscored, beecharmer, bonbrillio, Str8Balr (2)
2. mpotter14, DAD OF VLAD, grantmp (4)
3. mcwagner (6)
4. nostocksjustbonds, jbrown63, wjackalope, urnext (8)
5. Stupifyed, Edggy, neder, Pat Willie, manraj7, mikeinsp, groug, reedkrase, itsAteamGAME, Frisco_Kid, Beamer1960, bignerd, David Fucillo, liberty_JAC (10)

Baltimore Ravens @ Cincinnati Bengals

1. Ten-Man, McTee, LASVEGASNINER, bayboy, grantmp, teekay, Beamer1960, liberty_JAC (2)
2. Stupifyed, illini49er, Haggardninja, AKinferno (6)
3. these3words, jbrown63, Rabbit T, mikeinsp, SpurredOn, renke81, HardCorvallis, leaping_larry, bonbrillio, David Fucillo, Str8Balr (8)
4. mpotter14, benna11 (10)
5. groug, Ni9er (12)

San Diego Chargers @ Oakland Raiders

1. Frisco_Kid (8)
2. ZeroIndulgence, DAD OF VLAD (12)
3. Rabbit T (16)
4. Edggy (18)
5. PHUT!, mpotter14, libra45 (20)

The Big Five Finishers

	Rank	Screen Name	Points	Comments
	1st	bonbrillio	15	Valiant final effort! Is it enough to squeek you in?
	2nd	McTee	14	"Mortimer," McTee says, "We're back in business!"
	3rd	Str8Balr	13	See you in the playoffs. Oh wait, I wont.
	3rd	ZeroIndulgence	13	Andy Reid keeps his job. BTW man, eat a burger and indulge yourself.
	3rd	Ten-Man	13	Dude, get over yourself. You're at best a 5.
	3rd	howtheyscored	13	Come on and cry, cry baby, cry baby, cry baby, yeah, Oh, like you always seem to do.

2011 Playoff Contestants

	Rank	Screen Name	Points	Comments
	1.	manraj7	117	There are a lot of people on NN who pat themselves on the back over their educational background, statistical acumen and mathematical mastery. How does it taste knowing UCLA freshman with a cartoon fetish was the one who figured out how to game the Prediction Contest?
	1.	teekay	117	Dual 1st place winners? teekay will also have a chance to win the Prediction Contest Triple Crown: Regular Season, BIT and Champion Playoff Pool, no pressure.
	3.	Stupifyed	112	Worthy 3rd place finish, lots of Top 5 finishes. He still remains a minor mystery.
	4.	Rossalex	111	Did you enjoy your bye? It's a 17 week season here. FYI, no byes in the playoffs either.
	5.	McTee	110	Made the playoff leap. It is a tough, competive bracket too. Good luck in the playoffs McTee.
	5.	Ten-Man	110	Already got my dig in with The Big Five Finishers.
	5.	mikeinsp	110	Mr. Finish The Week 5th finishes overall 5th. Don't sleep on him, 2nd consecutive playoff trip.
	8.	benna11	109	Labeling you our Bengals entry, congrats for making it.
	8.	AKinferno	109	Huge leap in production this season, prediction biceps much bigger ... I'm not saying, just say'in.
	10.	renke81	107	107 points isn't a renke dinke total. Did I mention 100 points won 1st place last season?
	10.	howtheyscored	107	Cry-y-y ... ha ha ha ha ... baby, cry baby, cry baby, Welcome back home.
	10.	Ni9er	107	[glares]
	13.	Str8Balr	104	Prediction Don't Lie.
	13.	bayboy	104	Good thing he made playoffs. Prediction Contest is the only thing he's interested in commenting on.
	15.	Haggardninja	101	That's playing Haggardninja football. Haggardninja is going to the win championship, mark it down. That's how Haggardninja feels and that is what Haggardninja believes.
	16.	bakoninerfan	97	Backs into a playoff spot. Word around the league is he peaked in Week 1.
	16.	David Fucillo	97	This is the anarchy the Mayan Calendar predicted. Fooch, in the playoffs? Detroit doesn't even believe it.
	16.	Beamer1960	97	Barely makes the cut. No need to apologize for a playoff spot, ask Jim Harbaugh. The rest of you ... you are the rest.

Week 17 Leader Board

Week 17 Big Board Predictions (check your scores)

Scoring Explained

Your prediction has these same three components as the actual game score.

1) If you predict the correct winner for an individual game, we will score your prediction against the actual game. If you predict the incorrect winner for an individual game, your prediction will not be scored.

2) Ideally, you will predict the exact point differential of the actual game. Say, for example, this is 45. If you predict a score with a PD of 45, the difference between your predicted PD and the actual PD is 0 (45 - 45 = 0). The worse your prediction, the greater that difference becomes. Therefore, the closer the difference is to zero, the better.

3) Ideally, you will predict the exact point total of the actual game. Say, for example, this is 65. If you predict a score with a PT of 65, the difference between your predicted PT and the actual PT is 0 (65 - 65 = 0). The worse your prediction, the greater that difference becomes. Therefore, the closer the difference is to zero, the better.

So, assuming that you predict the correct winner of the individual game, we simply add the difference between your predicted and the actual PD to the difference between your predicted and the actual PT. The closer this total is to zero, the better your prediction is. A zero exactly will always be a perfect prediction.

pPD = Predicted Point Differential
aPD = Actual Point Differential
pPT = Predicted Point Total
aPT = Actual Point Total
x = Subscore

|pPD - aPD| + |pPT - aPT| = x

That total becomes your subscore for each individual game. These subscores are then ranked, and the five best (including ALL ties) are awarded points. Perfect predictions are awarded 10 points. If the highest subscore for a particular game is not a perfect prediction, it is awarded 5 points. Points then follow in descending order, so that all of the second best predictions get 4 points, the third best all get 3 points, and so on.

This is a FanPost, it does reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers and editors. It does not reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is more important than the views of Niners Nation's writers and editors. Any contradictory disclaimers below this one are bold face lies and should be ignored.