Young RAMC goes out with a bang to seal the 2007 championship

Week 14: Final Results -- Wow. Talk about clutching up...Hitting the game-winning homerun...Completing a Hail Mary...Delivering the knock-out punch. That's what Young RAMC did in Week 14, the final week of the Rams Bookstore Pigskin Pick'Em Contest. Deadlocked in a three-way tie heading into the final week, Young RAMC seized the contest by winning the individual week with a week-high of 12 correct picks and blew past HawkRamfan and Ramsrus to claim the championship. HawkRamfan and Ramsrus who entered the week tied with Young RAMC at 99 Contest Picks (factoring in omitting each contestant's worst two weeks) but HawkRamfan could only pull off 8 correct picks this week, which was better than Ramsrus' 5, and thus the final standings went: 1st Young RAMC (111), 2nd HawkRamfan (107), and 3rd Ramsrus (105). Ramsrus nearly dropped out of the top three, with CSUCUDAD02 creeping just behind at 104. YoungRAMC and HawkRamfan both finished with a field-high 119 correct picks (57.2%) in the Season Total category, but despite registering a pair of low-score 4s during the year Young RAMC had several more weeks that surpassed HawkRamfan's high weeks to take top honors.

For their efforts, Young RAMC will earn a $100 store credit to Rams Bookstore, while HawkRamfan will receive $50 credit and Ramsrus will receive $25.

Our final top 10 looks as follows:

1. Young RAMC (Contest Picks: 111, Season Picks: 119, Win Percentage: 52.7%)
2. HawkRamfan (107, 119, 52.7%)
3. Ramsrus (105, 116, 55.8%)
4. CSUCUDAD2 (104, 116, 55.8%)
5. crafdog (102, 112, 53.8%)
6. Steph-Ram (102, 112, 53.8%)
7. ROBORAM (102, 107, 54.9%)
8. Q.Ram (101, 113, 54.3%)
9. Dubya Why Oh (101, 112, 53.8%)
t10. 1Rams (101, 108, 56.0%)
t10. FormerRam (105, 116, 51.9%)
t10. colorscolor (105, 116, 56.1%)

Young RAMC's 52.7% win percentage was by far the lowest total among champions in the seven-year history of the contest. The next-lowest percentage of those champions who played every week of the contest in their particular season was tRAMpledunderfoot's 54.8% in 2002. The highest was Ramble On's scorching 59.1% in 2005. By comparison, Young RAMC's 52.7% would have qualified for just seventh place that year and would have qualified for just 13th place in 2004. No matter, it was a clutch performance by Young RAMC, who becomes the first contestant to clinch the championship by winning the final week of the season. Rams H-86 won the final week in 2004 to take second place, but no other contestant has done the same to take first. Congrats to Young RAMC and our other two winners. (Winners should please email us to arrange using your store credit.)

In what concluded a very strange year, the field stayed hot by finishing above .500 for the final six weeks of the season. It sure was an odd run. After correctly picking 55.7% of the games correctly in Week 1, the field then proceeded to go a record seven straight weeks of sub-.500 prognosticating, including an embarrassing 39.5% in Week 3. But, after records were set to fall, the field closed out the season on a host streak. Lastly, the field stayed hot with a 53.7% clip to record it's fifth straight plus-.500 week after a horrendous run of seven-straight sub-.500 weeks to avoid breaking futility records. The field's final season percentage climbed to 49.2%, which puts this year's field at second all time. The best percentage came last year when the field went 51%.

Thank you all for competing in this year's Rams Bookstore Pigskin Pick'Em Contest! Stay tuned over the next few day for the annual Bowl Contest, which works the same way, except you pick the point-spread winner in each bowl game. More prizes will be on the line...and you get to start from scratch!

Thanks again for playing, for spending your days on RamNation, and for supporting our sponsors. Please remember to give your business to Rams Bookstore, who has been a long-time sponsor of this site and a great supporter of this contest!

--Joel Cantalamessa
(Good SHEPHERD)

STAY TUNED FOR THE BOWL CONTEST ENTRY FORM

Contest details/rules

Prizes:

Each weekly winner will receive their choice of CSU T-shirt or hat, compliments of Rams Bookstore. The contestant with the most correct picks at the end of the season will receive a grand prize courtesy of Rams Bookstore. The second, third, and fourth-place finishers will also receive prizes.

Rules:

• Each week contestant's will pick a winner in 15 games.
• Contestant's should make their picks "against the spread". For instance, if Oregon State is favored by 7.5 vs. Utah, and Oregon State wins by more than 7.5 points, they win "against the spread." If Oregon State does not win by more than 7.5 points, then Utah wins "against the spread," even though they might lose the game.
• The weekly winner will be the contestant with the most correct picks.
• In the event of a tie between contestants at the end of a week, the first tiebreaker is the total points scored in the "tiebreaker" game (usually CSU). The contestant that picks closest to the total points scored wins the tiebreaker. If total points does not break the tie, then total yards will be used. Again, closest guess to the total yards gained from scrimmage by both teams during that game will win the tiebreaker.
• Please have picks in each Friday by 4 p.m. MST, with the exception of Thanksgiving week, when picks will be due by Wednesday afternoon. We will send out a reminder that week.
• Please submit only one entry form per contestant.
• The system is set up so that if you want to change your picks, you simply have to to resumbit your entry, and it will overwrite the exisiting entry.

Season Contest:

• In addition to each weekly contest, there is a contest for the entire 14-week season.
• The season winners will be the contestant's with the most correct picks throughout the season, while dropping your worst two weekly win totals. If you miss a week or have a bad week with four or five wins, you can drop that week against your season total. This allows for contestants who may miss the first week, or who may miss a week during the season for whatever reason, or for contestant's like me who have a couple of weeks with five wins.
• If there is a tie for the season, the highest win percentage for all weeks will be the first tiebreaker. (A contestant must have participated in 11 or more weeks to be eligible.) If the tie is not broken by win percentage, then there will be a final playoff during the Conference Championship weekend, between contestants who are tied.

Guidelines and other notes:

The contest administrator (Q.Ram) will determine the weekly games on the following basis:

1. All games involving MWC teams.
2. All games involving two teams rated in the Top 25 AP Poll or receiving votes.
3. At least one game involving each of the eight biggest conferences.
4. Any other games of note (rivalry games or games involving Top 10 teams).

Please note that CSU games will not be included because the contest administrator (Q.Ram) is highly superstitious and doesn’t believe in betting on games in which he is emotionally involved. (Most of us are CSU fans, and we would all pick CSU to win every week anyway, so that game would be a wash.)

CSU games will, however, be used for the Tiebreaker game, unless they are on a Thursday night.

Results will be posted the following Monday. Please track your picks and make sure you are credited with the right amount of wins. Q.Ram has been known on a very, very rare occurrence to make a mistake.

Q.Ram will make his picks known on the message board prior to deadline, so that everyone will know the contest administrator is not rigging the game to win all of the prizes.

When in Fort Collins, please pay a visit to our gracious sponsor, Rams Bookstore, for furnishing the prizes. Their sponsorship is what helps make RamNation go.

All registered posters are welcome to join the contest, but remember all you Ram foes out there...the prizes are limited to what Rams Bookstore has in stock, which is primarily CSU-related gear! Thanks and best of luck to everyone (except Buffaloes, Cowboys, and Falcons).

--Q.Ram, Good SHEP, and CSURamFan