Only four teams were selected by our players in the final round of our contest. West Noble was picked by four contestants, for whom the Chargers racked up a 38-point win over the Prairie Heights Panthers. 5A #6 Harrison (West Lafayette) was also picked by four players, and the Raiders responded with a 42-8 result over the Richmond Red Devils. 1A #3 North Decatur had this week's largest margin of victory as they completed an undefeated regular season (the only one of our teams to do so) with a 51-0 blanking of the Wes-Del Warriors, the Chargers' sixth shutout of the year. 2A #11 Eastbrook was the only one of our teams to suffer defeat in Week 9, as the Panthers fell to the unranked Mississinewa Indians.
It is time to crown our champion! Congratulations to Raiderfan32, the winner of the 2022 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em! He took sole possession of first place in Week 6 and never looked back, finishing with 397 points to earn his first championship in this contest. Ed Stachulak is in second with 358 points, followed by defending champion ysuindy in third with 350. Our top five is completed by Ranger20 in fourth place with 336 points and EHS_HOOPS in fifth with 331.
Though it was not a factor in determining our final standings, the correct score for our tiebreaker this year was 211, the combined scores of defending 3A state champion Gibson Southern and their opponents in the Titans' last four games:
Gibson Southern 32, Heritage Hills 14 (46 points)
Gibson Southern 35, Mount Vernon (Posey) 7 (42 points)
Gibson Southern 63, Princeton 0 (63 points)
Gibson Southern 39, Boonville 21 (60 points)
Raiderfan32 was the closest on the tiebreaker with his prediction of 215 points.
Here are the games for Week 9 with scores, point margins, and the number of players who picked each one:
North Decatur 51, Wes-Del 0 (51 points, 2 players)
West Noble 51, Prairie Heights 13 (38 points, 4 players)
Harrison (West Lafayette) 42, Richmond 8 (34 points, 4 players)
Perry Central 42, Mitchell 8 (34 points, no players)
New Prairie 35, Elkhart 7 (28 points, no players)
Lawrence North 65, Pike 42 (23 points, no players)
Evansville Memorial 28, Castle 19 (9 points, no players)
Bloomington North 35, Southport 27 (8 points, 3 players)
Mississinewa 28, Eastbrook 6 (-22 points, no players)
Here are the final standings:
Raiderfan32 - 397
Ed Stachulak - 358
ysuindy - 350
Ranger20 - 336
EHS_HOOPS - 331
hhsdawg - 328
TheGorilla23 - 318
Nick Jenkinson - 303
Quad Runner - 297
Bearmo17 - 277
HickoryHusker - 248
Rob Deweese - 237
Mr. B.A. - 117
Seven of the teams on this year's list were ranked in the AP and IFCA preseason polls for their class. Here is how our teams were ranked in the preseason, their records at the end of the season, and their rankings after Week 8:
Bloomington North: Preseason 5A AP #13, IFCA #13; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP unranked, IFCA unranked
Eastbrook: Preseason 2A AP #3, IFCA #3; Record 6-3; Week 8 AP #11, IFCA #9
Evansville Memorial: Preseason 4A AP #7, IFCA #6; Record 6-3; Week 8 AP #14, IFCA unranked
Harrison (West Lafayette): Preseason 5A AP #9, IFCA #9; Record 8-1; Week 8 AP #6, IFCA #6
Lawrence North: Preseason 6A AP #9, IFCA #9; Record 4-5; Week 8 AP unranked, IFCA unranked
New Prairie: Preseason 4A AP #11, IFCA #17; Record 8-1; Week 8 AP #8, IFCA #8
North Decatur: Preseason 1A AP #9, IFCA #8; Record 9-0; Week 8 AP #3, IFCA #3
Perry Central: Preseason 2A AP unranked, IFCA unranked; Record 8-1; Week 8 AP #13, IFCA unranked
West Noble: Preseason 3A AP unranked, IFCA unranked; Record 7-2; Week 8 AP unranked, IFCA unranked
North Decatur was the only one of our teams to finish the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record. Harrison (West Lafayette), New Prairie, and Perry Central each suffered only one loss. Lawrence North probably has the most deceptive record, as their five losses came at the hands of teams which are all ranked in their respective classes (three of them in the top ten of class 6A). Eastbrook recorded the largest margin of victory with an 83-point win, and Bloomington North suffered the worst defeat in a 38-point loss.
Your humble contest administrator is a software developer in real life, so I wrote a computer program to determine what the best possible score would be with this year's combination of teams. It also provides a ranking among all possible outcomes for each contestant who submitted a pick in every week of the contest. With a contest like this, the number of possible combinations of picks is n!, where n is the number of teams. For nine teams, that comes to 362,880. The worst possible score is -114 (none of our players were anywhere near that bad!). The best possible score is 413, with these picks:
Week 1 - New Prairie (35)
Week 2 - Bloomington North (21)
Week 3 - Perry Central (62)
Week 4 - Lawrence North (38)
Week 5 - Harrison (West Lafayette) (40)
Week 6 - Evansville Memorial (40)
Week 7 - Eastbrook (83)
Week 8 - North Decatur (56)
Week 9 - West Noble (38)
Here are the rankings for our players. Rank = numeric rank out of 362,880. Percentage Rank = Percentage of possible scores that are worse.
Raiderfan32: Score = 397, Rank = 3, Percentage Rank = 100.00
Ed Stachulak: Score = 358, Rank = 127, Percentage Rank = 99.97
ysuindy: Score = 350, Rank = 212, Percentage Rank = 99.94
Ranger20: Score = 336, Rank = 454, Percentage Rank = 99.87
EHS_HOOPS: Score = 331, Rank = 608, Percentage Rank = 99.83
hhsdawg: Score = 328, Rank = 709, Percentage Rank = 99.80
TheGorilla23: Score = 318, Rank = 1140, Percentage Rank = 99.69
Nick Jenkinson: Score = 303, Rank = 2284, Percentage Rank = 99.37
Quad Runner: Score = 297, Rank = 2936, Percentage Rank = 99.19
Bearmo17: Score = 277, Rank = 6544, Percentage Rank = 98.20
HickoryHusker: Score = 248, Rank = 17738, Percentage Rank = 95.11
Rob Deweese: Score = 237, Rank = 24851, Percentage Rank = 93.15
Mr. B.A.: Score = 117, Rank = 231993, Percentage Rank = 36.07
Raiderfan32's Rank of 3 means there were only two other possible combinations of picks (out of 362,880) which would have yielded a higher total score for the season. Very impressive!
After a year (2021) in which COVID-19 caused a fair amount of uncertainty with scheduling, it was nice to have a "normal" season in which games were played on time. This year's contest ran very smoothly from my perspective as the administrator, as all the players had their picks in on time every week. Thanks to everyone who participated this season! We hope all of you will return to compete in the 2023 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em!
