Thursday Afternoon Updates: Part One, Explanation!
Thursday Afternoon Updates: Part One, Explanation!
Rhett,
Since I am out already (unless you want to let ties go the first week.........) I will ask the burning question. Unless you are looking for a way to (artificially) knock players out of the contest, why the "before the first puck drop" rule? Having fewer games to pick in no way makes it easier to get the game right.
Sure, but CARDS_rule_the_Burgh largely nailed it. There's a lot of reasons why there's a cut-off.
1) Most importantly, it is administratively way easier. If there wasn't a standardized and relatively early cut-off for picks to lock, we would likely have picks coming in throughout the weekend. This would require the time-stamp of each post, and in some cases the last edit of each post, to be cross-referenced with the start time of each game. Some weeks this would be easy; some weeks, it would be more difficult. I rely heavily on USCHO's listings, but, as I think we all understand in Division III, changes can be made with little fanfare. Websites between schools, leagues, and USCHO have disagreed on these times in the past, and "what time the game was originally scheduled for" is not a heavily tracked statistic. By tightening the selection windows, we have eliminated the significance of 99% of these discrepancies.
2) It is sort of the way these types of contests are typically run. Inspiration for this contest was, little doubt, taken from NFL pools. Historically, these contests have 1PM Sunday kickoffs. While Thursday games have thrown a wrench into some pools, and some allow rolling picks to come in late, 1PM Sunday is still the standard.
3) "That's the way it has always been." It is totally lazy, but that was simply already the rule when I took over in December 2002. Cards4Life actually started this contest and stopped tracking it after he was eliminated. After a couple weeks, I jumped in and took over for the season. Then, when no one started the contest in the lead up to the 2003-2004 season, I started it again using Cards4Life's rule-set. Few changes have been made since, and my role has largely been to rule on exceptions (cancelled/rescheduled games, ambiguous or invalid picks, etc.).
4) Ties have always meant the end.
Hope this helps!
. I beg forbearance.
