Five teams were selected by our contestants in Week 9, with Ben Davis being the most popular pick. The Giants responded with a 30-point victory over the North Central (Indianapolis) Panthers. The largest margin of victory in this round belonged to 1A #1 North Judson in the Bluejays' 42-point win over the 1A #11 Pioneer Panthers. After eight consecutive blowout wins, 3A #4 Mississinewa had a close game in their 26-22 win over the Madison-Grant Argylls. Southmont was the only one of our teams which suffered a loss as they fell to Tri-West, 42-7.
It is time to crown our champion! Congratulations to hhsdawg, the winner of the 2024 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em! He became a two-time winner this year after having won the contest in 2016. After being in a logjam tie for second place in Week 1, he fell to near the bottom of our leaderboard for six consecutive weeks. But in the shake-up that happened in Week 8, he climbed all the way to the top spot and held on to win with 328 points. Defending champion Nick Jenkinson finished second with 315 points, narrowly edging out CoachC in third with 314. ysuindy claimed fourth with 307 points, and Mr. B.A. placed fifth with 287.
Though it was not a factor in determining our final standings, the correct score for our tiebreaker this year was 150, the combined scores of 2023 5A state champion Fort Wayne Snider and their opponents in the Panthers' last four games:
Fort Wayne Snider 35, Homestead 0 (35 points)
Fort Wayne Snider 49, Fort Wayne Northrup 14 (63 points)
Fort Wayne Snider 17, Fort Wayne Dwenger 6 (23 points)
Fort Wayne Snider 21, Fort Wayne Wayne 8 (29 points)
Mr. B.A. was the closest on the tiebreaker with his prediction of 172 points.
Here are the games for Week 9 with scores, point margins, and the number of players who picked each one:
North Judson 60, Pioneer 18 (42 points, no players)
Leo 48, DeKalb 7 (41 points, 1 player)
Batesville 41, Connersville 0 (41 points, no players)
Bloomington South 42, Seymour 6 (36 points, 2 players)
Ben Davis 44, North Central (Indianapolis) 14 (30 points, 6 players)
Evansville North 35, Evansville Central 7 (28 points, 2 players)
Penn 27, South Bend St. Joseph 0 (27 points, 1 player)
Mississinewa 26, Madison-Grant 22 (4 points, no players)
Tri-West 42, Southmont 7 (-35 points, no players)
Here are the final standings:
hhsdawg - 328
Nick Jenkinson - 315
CoachC - 314
ysuindy - 307
Mr. B.A. - 287
Ed Stachulak - 276
Rob Deweese - 271
kyleajolly - 267
TheGorilla23 - 265
Quad Runner - 236
HickoryHusker - 208
Ranger20 - 149
Five of the teams on this year's list were ranked in the top ten in the IFCA preseason polls for their class, and three were receiving votes. Here is how our teams were ranked in the preseason, their records at the end of the season, and their rankings after Week 8:
Batesville: Preseason 3A #5; Record 6-3; Week 8 #9
Ben Davis: Preseason 6A #1; Record 4-5; Week 8 unranked
Bloomington South: Preseason 5A RV; Record 5-4; Week 8 RV
Evansville North: Preseason 5A RV; Record 4-5; Week 8 unranked
Leo: Preseason 4A #10; Record 7-2; Week 8 #5
Mississinewa: Preseason 3A unranked; Record 9-0; Week 8 #4
North Judson: Preseason 1A #2; Record 9-0; Week 8 #1
Penn: Preseason 6A RV; Record 7-2; Week 8 RV
Southmont: Preseason 2A #8; Record 3-6; Week 8 unranked
Ben Davis is of special note here, as it is rare to see a team that was ranked #1 in the preseason poll finish the season unranked.
Two of our teams - Mississinewa and North Judson - completed the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record. Leo's two losses were to teams currently ranked #4 and #5 in the IFCA Class 4A poll. Penn's two losses were to teams currently ranked #6 in the IFCA Class 4A poll and #7 in the IFCA Class 6A poll. North Judson recorded the largest margin of victory with a 70-point win over Culver in Week 5, and Southmont suffered the worst defeats in 35-point losses to Danville in Week 6, Lebanon in Week 8, and Tri-West in Week 9.
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 -95 (none of our players were anywhere near that bad!). The best possible score is 355, with these picks:
Week 1 - Southmont (28)
Week 2 - Mississinewa (35)
Week 3 - Leo (42)
Week 4 - Penn (38)
Week 5 - Evansville North (26)
Week 6 - Bloomington South (41)
Week 7 - Batesville (49)
Week 8 - North Judson (66)
Week 9 - Ben Davis (30)
Here are the rankings for our players. Rank = numeric rank out of 362,880. Percentage Rank = Percentage of possible scores that are worse.
hhsdawg: Score = 328; Rank = 59; Percentage Rank = 99.98
Nick Jenkinson: Score = 315; Rank = 238; Percentage Rank = 99.93
CoachC: Score = 314; Rank = 264; Percentage Rank = 99.93
ysuindy: Score = 307; Rank = 499; Percentage Rank = 99.86
Mr. B.A.: Score = 287; Rank = 2075; Percentage Rank = 99.43
Ed Stachulak: Score = 276; Rank = 3840; Percentage Rank = 98.94
Rob Deweese: Score = 271; Rank = 4919; Percentage Rank = 98.64
kyleajolly: Score = 267; Rank = 5962; Percentage Rank = 98.36
TheGorilla23: Score = 265; Rank = 6543; Percentage Rank = 98.20
Quad Runner: Score = 236; Rank = 20564; Percentage Rank = 94.33
HickoryHusker: Score = 208; Rank = 47808; Percentage Rank = 86.83
Ranger20: Score = 149; Rank = 154629; Percentage Rank = 57.39
I want to thank all of our players for getting their picks in on time every week, which made my job as the contest administrator much easier. Thanks to everyone who participated this season! We hope all of you will return to compete in the 2025 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em!
It is time to crown our champion! Congratulations to hhsdawg, the winner of the 2024 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em! He became a two-time winner this year after having won the contest in 2016. After being in a logjam tie for second place in Week 1, he fell to near the bottom of our leaderboard for six consecutive weeks. But in the shake-up that happened in Week 8, he climbed all the way to the top spot and held on to win with 328 points. Defending champion Nick Jenkinson finished second with 315 points, narrowly edging out CoachC in third with 314. ysuindy claimed fourth with 307 points, and Mr. B.A. placed fifth with 287.
Though it was not a factor in determining our final standings, the correct score for our tiebreaker this year was 150, the combined scores of 2023 5A state champion Fort Wayne Snider and their opponents in the Panthers' last four games:
Fort Wayne Snider 35, Homestead 0 (35 points)
Fort Wayne Snider 49, Fort Wayne Northrup 14 (63 points)
Fort Wayne Snider 17, Fort Wayne Dwenger 6 (23 points)
Fort Wayne Snider 21, Fort Wayne Wayne 8 (29 points)
Mr. B.A. was the closest on the tiebreaker with his prediction of 172 points.
Here are the games for Week 9 with scores, point margins, and the number of players who picked each one:
North Judson 60, Pioneer 18 (42 points, no players)
Leo 48, DeKalb 7 (41 points, 1 player)
Batesville 41, Connersville 0 (41 points, no players)
Bloomington South 42, Seymour 6 (36 points, 2 players)
Ben Davis 44, North Central (Indianapolis) 14 (30 points, 6 players)
Evansville North 35, Evansville Central 7 (28 points, 2 players)
Penn 27, South Bend St. Joseph 0 (27 points, 1 player)
Mississinewa 26, Madison-Grant 22 (4 points, no players)
Tri-West 42, Southmont 7 (-35 points, no players)
Here are the final standings:
hhsdawg - 328
Nick Jenkinson - 315
CoachC - 314
ysuindy - 307
Mr. B.A. - 287
Ed Stachulak - 276
Rob Deweese - 271
kyleajolly - 267
TheGorilla23 - 265
Quad Runner - 236
HickoryHusker - 208
Ranger20 - 149
Five of the teams on this year's list were ranked in the top ten in the IFCA preseason polls for their class, and three were receiving votes. Here is how our teams were ranked in the preseason, their records at the end of the season, and their rankings after Week 8:
Batesville: Preseason 3A #5; Record 6-3; Week 8 #9
Ben Davis: Preseason 6A #1; Record 4-5; Week 8 unranked
Bloomington South: Preseason 5A RV; Record 5-4; Week 8 RV
Evansville North: Preseason 5A RV; Record 4-5; Week 8 unranked
Leo: Preseason 4A #10; Record 7-2; Week 8 #5
Mississinewa: Preseason 3A unranked; Record 9-0; Week 8 #4
North Judson: Preseason 1A #2; Record 9-0; Week 8 #1
Penn: Preseason 6A RV; Record 7-2; Week 8 RV
Southmont: Preseason 2A #8; Record 3-6; Week 8 unranked
Ben Davis is of special note here, as it is rare to see a team that was ranked #1 in the preseason poll finish the season unranked.
Two of our teams - Mississinewa and North Judson - completed the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record. Leo's two losses were to teams currently ranked #4 and #5 in the IFCA Class 4A poll. Penn's two losses were to teams currently ranked #6 in the IFCA Class 4A poll and #7 in the IFCA Class 6A poll. North Judson recorded the largest margin of victory with a 70-point win over Culver in Week 5, and Southmont suffered the worst defeats in 35-point losses to Danville in Week 6, Lebanon in Week 8, and Tri-West in Week 9.
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 -95 (none of our players were anywhere near that bad!). The best possible score is 355, with these picks:
Week 1 - Southmont (28)
Week 2 - Mississinewa (35)
Week 3 - Leo (42)
Week 4 - Penn (38)
Week 5 - Evansville North (26)
Week 6 - Bloomington South (41)
Week 7 - Batesville (49)
Week 8 - North Judson (66)
Week 9 - Ben Davis (30)
Here are the rankings for our players. Rank = numeric rank out of 362,880. Percentage Rank = Percentage of possible scores that are worse.
hhsdawg: Score = 328; Rank = 59; Percentage Rank = 99.98
Nick Jenkinson: Score = 315; Rank = 238; Percentage Rank = 99.93
CoachC: Score = 314; Rank = 264; Percentage Rank = 99.93
ysuindy: Score = 307; Rank = 499; Percentage Rank = 99.86
Mr. B.A.: Score = 287; Rank = 2075; Percentage Rank = 99.43
Ed Stachulak: Score = 276; Rank = 3840; Percentage Rank = 98.94
Rob Deweese: Score = 271; Rank = 4919; Percentage Rank = 98.64
kyleajolly: Score = 267; Rank = 5962; Percentage Rank = 98.36
TheGorilla23: Score = 265; Rank = 6543; Percentage Rank = 98.20
Quad Runner: Score = 236; Rank = 20564; Percentage Rank = 94.33
HickoryHusker: Score = 208; Rank = 47808; Percentage Rank = 86.83
Ranger20: Score = 149; Rank = 154629; Percentage Rank = 57.39
I want to thank all of our players for getting their picks in on time every week, which made my job as the contest administrator much easier. Thanks to everyone who participated this season! We hope all of you will return to compete in the 2025 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em!
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