FanPost

NN Playoff Prediction Contest - Wild Card Round

Playoff time is here, and we got Fooch’s OK to bring back our NN prediction contest for the year end playoff action.

See this link for the rules and regulations for this year's contest used in prior year regular season contests, slightly modified for the 2017 Playoffs. I've posted the formatting rules required for posting your results. Please read over that (it's fairly short) so we can have consistency in the posting. All times are pacific and you are not required to predict every game, but obviously it helps your chances of winning to predict all the games.

Wild Card Weekend Games

For this week’s Wild Card round, the following games will be scored:

Oakland @ Houston - 1:35 p.m. – Saturday, 1/7

Detroit @ Seattle - 5:15 p.m. – Saturday, 1/7

Miami @ Pittsburgh - 10:05 a.m. – Sunday, 1/8

NY Giants @ Green Bay - 1:40 p.m. – Sunday, 1/8

Example of Prediction Format

IMPORTANT RULE

If you fail to follow this format, any incorrectly formatted scores for the week will be disqualified. The format is "Team A @ Team B: A score - B score." That basically is visitor @ home: visitor score - home score." Here's an example of how to do it:

Using the Oakland @ Houston game above as an example, if you think Houston will win 24-14, here's how it needs to appear: Oakland @ Houston: 14 - 24, or Oakland @ Houston: 14 - 24

If you think Oakland will win 24-14, it needs to appear as this: Oakland @ Houston: 24 - 14, or Oakland @ Houston: 24 - 14

If you'd like you can bold the winner (Oakland @ Houston: 14 - 24), but that is not required (although probably a good backup in case you reversed the score by accident). Unless corrected before game time, if a bold highlighted team is provided, then it will be assumed that team is the predicted winner, for example: (Oakland @ Houston: 14 – 24) will be scored as Oakland winning 24 – 14 even if the scores are reversed, and will be assumed the poster intended to highlight the winning team and mistakenly listed the score incorrectly.

If you do make a mistake in the formatting and there is still time before the scheduled kickoff time, I'll reply to your score reminding you to correct it. To correct it, 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. I'll make sure and include these directions each week so people do not forget and lose out on points.

If anybody has any questions at all about this, or anything related to the contest, post questions in the weekly Contest thread and we’ll answer them. Once again, please review the formatting rules before posting your results.

Prediction Contest Rules & Guidelines

1. Each week’s NFL playoff games are selected for the prediction contest. Four playoff games each for the Wild Card and Divisional Round games, Two playoff games each for the Conference Championship games, 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 disqualifies 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. Any score changes resulting from a scoring error will be posted the following week.

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.

7. Unlike prior year eliminations each week, there will be no eliminations and the overall scoring will be cumulative from the Wild Card round through the final Super Bowl game. The person/s with the most cumulative points will be the Winner/s. Other mentions are up for award including best prediction percentage and most wins, but the Winner/s will be based on the points scored per the Scoring Rules below.

8. Anyone with a NinersNation.com account is invited play and can join at anytime.

9. There are no prizes to the winner/s except for bragging rights.

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, the actual PD is 14. If you predict a score with a PD of 14, the difference between your predicted PD and the actual PD is 0 (14 - 14 = 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, the actual PT 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. 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. Perfect predictions are all awarded 10 points followed by descending order for second best predictions all getting 4 points, third best all getting 3 points, and so on.

BONUS RULE: For the Wild Card and Divisional Round games only, 1 additional point will be given for 4 correct prediction winners in a week.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.