Hi all,

Well, here are the final results.  Hope everyone has had a good New Year.

Two years in a row and I am sad about the Badgers in the Rose Bowl.  Still it was a pretty great year, so I can't really complain.

Happy New Year!

Rich

On to the results:

Week 17

Player             Points
--------------------------------------
ajpetrosino        131
seanse             130
wlistvan           123
tararichte         120
paul               119
prophet            115
jeff.horvath       114
jim_pruyne         114
matty              114
faber              112
olson.brad         112
rmaclin            112
jesse.davis        110
allenj1            106
bruce.irvin        105
lewandow           102
otero              95
rjolsonjr          95
bpodemski          90
jluttine           73

Which gives us final totals of  ...

Totals

Player             Points
---------------------------------------
jesse.davis        1703
tararichte         1689
seanse             1683
bruce.irvin        1677
matty              1673
rmaclin            1671
paul               1662
bpodemski          1648
wlistvan           1637
otero              1630
rjolsonjr          1603
ajpetrosino        1598
jim_pruyne         1586
jeff.horvath       1578
prophet            1573
olson.brad         1572
faber              1569
allenj1            1554
lewandow           1548
jluttine           1481


Congratulations to Jesse "Bachelor Party 3D: Nerds in the Netherlands" Davis who won the pool while participating from Europe and after getting engaged.  People seem to do well when they are distracted.  Not sure what that says about us all.


Now on to the rest of our awards show:

Despite an impressive overall total, Jesse only finished third to Sean "Big Daddy" Selitrenikoff in picking the most games correctly, so Sean wins our first honorable mention.  Results were pretty much better across the board this year (last year was a bear for picking).

Player             #Games Correct (out of 256)
----------------------------------------------
seanse             179
matty              176
jesse.davis        175
rjolsonjr          173
bruce.irvin        172
faber              171
rmaclin            171
otero              170
paul               170
tararichte         170
bpodemski          169
ajpetrosino        165
wlistvan           165
jim_pruyne         164
prophet            164
jeff.horvath       163
allenj1            162
olson.brad         159
jluttine           157
lewandow           157


A second honorable mention goes to Tony Petrosino "A New Yorker in Texas, Really?" for getting the highest score in the final week, normally a very tough week.  Congratulations Tony.

Player             Points (week)
--------------------------------
ajpetrosino        131 (17)
jim_pruyne         130 (12)
seanse             130 (17)
prophet            129 (12)
rmaclin            126 (2)
.
.
bruce.irvin        55 (10)
jim_pruyne         55 (15)
jeff.horvath       51 (10)
olson.brad         45 (10)
jluttine           32 (10)


Our third and fourth honorable mentions go to Dan "The Other Man" Otero and Jim "I'd Rather be Curling" Luttinen for being the most consistent and least consistent at their picks based on the standard deviation of each person's picks.  It is especially interesting to me, as Dan won the least consistent award last year and now wins the most consistent award.  What changed??

Player                 Standard Deviation
------------------------------------------
otero                   13.28
lewandow                13.30
tararichte              14.75
allenj1                 15.95
rjolsonjr               16.36
jesse.davis             16.37
paul                    16.53
wlistvan                16.55
bpodemski               16.87
faber                   16.90
rmaclin                 17.00
bruce.irvin             17.70
seanse                  17.92
jeff.horvath            19.23
prophet                 19.51
matty                   19.66
olson.brad              20.30
jim_pruyne              20.61
ajpetrosino             20.71
jluttine                22.25


Our fifth and sixth honorable mention goes to Wendy "World Traveler" Istvanick and Jim "Not me Again" Luttinen as the most average and least average pickers (measured by measuring the standard deviation of the other pickers based on using each person in turn as the "mean").  

Player      Standard Deviation
-------------------------------------
wlistvan	10.61
paul    	11.13
rmaclin 	11.66
matty   	11.76
otero   	11.91
tararichte	11.93
bruce.irvin	11.98
bpodemski	12.57
seanse  	12.68
jim_pruyne	12.72
jesse.davis	12.84
allenj1 	12.88
ajpetrosino	13.05
jeff.horvath	13.38
faber   	13.93
prophet 	14.58
rjolsonjr	15.00
olson.brad	15.18
lewandow	15.42
jluttine	17.84



Our seventh honorable mention goes to my lovely wife Tara "2nd Overall Two Years, Running, Really?" Richter for being the most effective at weighting her picks (measured as the marginal gain in points compared to simply randomly weighting picks).  

Player                    Marginal Gain (pts per pick)
------------------------------------------------------
tararichte                1.021
wlistvan                  1.007
olson.brad                0.973
lewandow                  0.946
paul                      0.862
rmaclin                   0.858
bpodemski                 0.837
bruce.irvin               0.836
jesse.davis               0.817
ajpetrosino               0.771
jeff.horvath              0.767
jim_pruyne                0.757
allenj1                   0.679
prophet                   0.677
otero                     0.674
matty                     0.592
jluttine                  0.519
seanse                    0.488
rjolsonjr                 0.352
faber                     0.261





Our last honorable mention awards go to Ron "Packers!!" Olson for the biggest gain  over last year's score (these totals are measured only for those who participated in every week last year and every week this year).  Last year, everyone did worse from the year before, this year, almost everyone did better than the year before.


Player             2011 2010   Gain/Loss
-----------------------------------------
rjolsonjr          1603 1344   259
seanse             1683 1460   223
bruce.irvin        1677 1462   215
matty              1673 1490   183
jesse.davis        1703 1566   137
wlistvan           1637 1506   131
tararichte         1689 1575   114
otero              1630 1518   112
prophet            1573 1471   102
rmaclin            1671 1572   99
lewandow           1548 1450   98
paul               1662 1572   90
jim_pruyne         1586 1512   74
bpodemski          1648 1583   65
faber              1569 1516   53
allenj1            1554 1503   51
olson.brad         1572 1525   47
ajpetrosino        1598 1554   44
jeff.horvath       1578 1548   30
jluttine           1481 1482   -1



Congratulations again to our big winner Jesse Davis as well as our honorable mention winners (Sean Selitrenikoff, Tony Petrosino, Dan Otero, Jim Luttinen, Wendy Istvanick, Jim L again, Tara Richter and Ron Olson).  I would also like to (yet) again (grudgingly) congratulate my wife Tara who again beat me in the overall score again this year, so she remains champion of our house.



You can all collect your rewards next time you see me.  ;-) Look for the return of the pool later in August next year.

Happy New Year!


Rich