Only four teams were chosen by our contestants in Week 9, with 6A #2 Westfield being the clear favorite. The Shamrocks turned in a 14 point win over the Franklin Central Flashes in the last game of the regular season. 1A #8 Parke Heritage was the big winner in this round with a 36 point decision over the Fountain Central Mustangs. Three of our teams had victories of over 30 points, and two - Martinsville and Eastern Hancock - went down in defeat.
It is time to crown our champion! The tiebreaker became a factor in a big way in this year's contest, as we had ties for both first and third. Congratulations to ysuindy, the winner of the 2021 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em! His tiebreaker prediction of 203 points gave him the advantage over Nick Jenkinson, who predicted 140. Both of them finished with 284 points. hhsdawg and Ranger 20 both finished with 278 points, with hhsdawg getting the nod for third by virtue of his tiebreaker prediction (Ranger 20 did not submit a tiebreaker prediction). HickoryHusker's pick of Parke Heritage in the final round moved him into fifth place with 270 points.
The correct score for our tiebreaker this year was 212, the combined scores of these eight teams which played at Ball State's Scheumann Stadium on September 11:
Alexandria 31, Blackford 28 (59 points)
Frankton 37, Elwood 0 (37 points)
Mississinewa 47, Madison-Grant 6 (53 points)
Eastbrook 50, Oak Hill 13 (63 points)
Quad Runner was the closest on the tiebreaker with his prediction of 208 points.
Here are the games for Week 9 with scores, point margins, and the number of players who picked each one:
Parke Heritage 54, Fountain Central 18 (36 points, 1 player)
Indianapolis Chatard 42, Bloomington South 7 (35 points, no players)
Merrillville 40, Chesterton 6 (34 points, no players)
Southridge 26, Forest Park 6 (20 points, 1 player)
Westfield 42, Franklin Central 28 (14 points, 6 players)
Castle 21, Evansville Memorial 7 (14 point, no players)
Fort Wayne Snider 27, Fort Wayne Luers 15 (12 points, no players)
Plainfield 28, Martinsville 27 (-1 points, 2 players)
Lapel 42, Eastern Hancock 21 (-21 points, no players)
Here are the final standings:
ysuindy - 284 (tiebreaker advantage)
Nick Jenkinson - 284
hhsdawg - 278 (tiebreaker advantage)
Ranger 20 - 278
HickoryHusker - 270
Rob Deweese - 254
thegorilla23 - 233
Ed Stachulak - 173
Quad Runner - 163
Bearmo17 - 91
Six of the teams on this year's list were ranked in the preseason top ten for their class in the 2021 Indiana Football Digest. Here is how our teams were ranked in the preseason, their records at the end of the season, and their rankings after Week 8:
Castle: Preseason 5A unranked; Record 7-2; Week 8 AP #14, IFCA #12
Eastern Hancock: Preseason 2A unranked; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP unranked, IFCA unranked
Fort Wayne Snider: Preseason 5A #7; Record 7-1; Week 8 AP #4, IFCA #4
Indianapolis Chatard: Preseason 4A #2; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP #8, IFCA #8
Martinsville: Preseason 4A unranked; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP #12, IFCA #13
Merrillville: Preseason 6A #5; Record 9-0; Week 8 AP #3, IFCA #4
Parke Heritage: Preseason 1A #4; Record 7-2; Week 8 AP #8, IFCA #8
Southridge: Preseason 3A #7; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP unranked, IFCA unranked
Westfield: Preseason 6A #2; Record 8-1; Week 8 AP #2, IFCA #2
Merrillville was the only one of our teams to finish the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record. Fort Wayne Snider and Westfield both suffered only one loss, though Snider's record was only 7-1 because their Week 4 game was cancelled. Indianapolis Chatard probably has the most deceptive record, as their four losses came at the hands of teams which have a combined record of 29-6 and are all ranked in the top ten of their respective classes. Southridge recorded the largest margin of victory with a 58 point win, and also suffered the worst defeat in a 54 point loss - in back-to-back weeks!
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 -168 (none of our players were anywhere near that bad!). The best possible score is 335, with these picks:
Week 1 - Martinsville (31)
Week 2 - Westfield (22)
Week 3 - Eastern Hancock (40)
Week 4 - Southridge (58)
Week 5 - Indianapolis Chatard (45)
Week 6 - Fort Wayne Snider (36)
Week 7 - Merrillville (35)
Week 8 - Castle (32)
Week 9 - Parke Heritage (36)
Here are the rankings for our players. Rank = numeric rank out of 362,880. Percentage Rank = Percentage of possible scores that are worse.
ysuindy: Score = 284, Rank = 558, Percentage Rank = 99.85
Nick Jenkinson: Score = 284, Rank = 558, Percentage Rank = 99.85
hhsdawg: Score = 278, Rank = 876, Percentage Rank = 99.76
Ranger 20: Score = 278, Rank = 876, Percentage Rank = 99.76
HickoryHusker: Score = 270, Rank = 1535, Percentage Rank = 99.58
Rob Deweese: Score = 254, Rank = 4070, Percentage Rank = 98.88
thegorilla23: Score = 233, Rank = 11208, Percentage Rank = 96.91
Quad Runner: Score = 163, Rank = 87912, Percentage Rank = 75.77
Though we had a couple of close calls, we were able to get through the season without cancellations causing problems for the contest. We're very glad that we were able to have it this year after taking a hiatus last season due to the uncertainty of scheduling during the pandemic. Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's contest! We hope all of you will return to compete in the 2022 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em!
It is time to crown our champion! The tiebreaker became a factor in a big way in this year's contest, as we had ties for both first and third. Congratulations to ysuindy, the winner of the 2021 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em! His tiebreaker prediction of 203 points gave him the advantage over Nick Jenkinson, who predicted 140. Both of them finished with 284 points. hhsdawg and Ranger 20 both finished with 278 points, with hhsdawg getting the nod for third by virtue of his tiebreaker prediction (Ranger 20 did not submit a tiebreaker prediction). HickoryHusker's pick of Parke Heritage in the final round moved him into fifth place with 270 points.
The correct score for our tiebreaker this year was 212, the combined scores of these eight teams which played at Ball State's Scheumann Stadium on September 11:
Alexandria 31, Blackford 28 (59 points)
Frankton 37, Elwood 0 (37 points)
Mississinewa 47, Madison-Grant 6 (53 points)
Eastbrook 50, Oak Hill 13 (63 points)
Quad Runner was the closest on the tiebreaker with his prediction of 208 points.
Here are the games for Week 9 with scores, point margins, and the number of players who picked each one:
Parke Heritage 54, Fountain Central 18 (36 points, 1 player)
Indianapolis Chatard 42, Bloomington South 7 (35 points, no players)
Merrillville 40, Chesterton 6 (34 points, no players)
Southridge 26, Forest Park 6 (20 points, 1 player)
Westfield 42, Franklin Central 28 (14 points, 6 players)
Castle 21, Evansville Memorial 7 (14 point, no players)
Fort Wayne Snider 27, Fort Wayne Luers 15 (12 points, no players)
Plainfield 28, Martinsville 27 (-1 points, 2 players)
Lapel 42, Eastern Hancock 21 (-21 points, no players)
Here are the final standings:
ysuindy - 284 (tiebreaker advantage)
Nick Jenkinson - 284
hhsdawg - 278 (tiebreaker advantage)
Ranger 20 - 278
HickoryHusker - 270
Rob Deweese - 254
thegorilla23 - 233
Ed Stachulak - 173
Quad Runner - 163
Bearmo17 - 91
Six of the teams on this year's list were ranked in the preseason top ten for their class in the 2021 Indiana Football Digest. Here is how our teams were ranked in the preseason, their records at the end of the season, and their rankings after Week 8:
Castle: Preseason 5A unranked; Record 7-2; Week 8 AP #14, IFCA #12
Eastern Hancock: Preseason 2A unranked; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP unranked, IFCA unranked
Fort Wayne Snider: Preseason 5A #7; Record 7-1; Week 8 AP #4, IFCA #4
Indianapolis Chatard: Preseason 4A #2; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP #8, IFCA #8
Martinsville: Preseason 4A unranked; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP #12, IFCA #13
Merrillville: Preseason 6A #5; Record 9-0; Week 8 AP #3, IFCA #4
Parke Heritage: Preseason 1A #4; Record 7-2; Week 8 AP #8, IFCA #8
Southridge: Preseason 3A #7; Record 5-4; Week 8 AP unranked, IFCA unranked
Westfield: Preseason 6A #2; Record 8-1; Week 8 AP #2, IFCA #2
Merrillville was the only one of our teams to finish the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record. Fort Wayne Snider and Westfield both suffered only one loss, though Snider's record was only 7-1 because their Week 4 game was cancelled. Indianapolis Chatard probably has the most deceptive record, as their four losses came at the hands of teams which have a combined record of 29-6 and are all ranked in the top ten of their respective classes. Southridge recorded the largest margin of victory with a 58 point win, and also suffered the worst defeat in a 54 point loss - in back-to-back weeks!
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 -168 (none of our players were anywhere near that bad!). The best possible score is 335, with these picks:
Week 1 - Martinsville (31)
Week 2 - Westfield (22)
Week 3 - Eastern Hancock (40)
Week 4 - Southridge (58)
Week 5 - Indianapolis Chatard (45)
Week 6 - Fort Wayne Snider (36)
Week 7 - Merrillville (35)
Week 8 - Castle (32)
Week 9 - Parke Heritage (36)
Here are the rankings for our players. Rank = numeric rank out of 362,880. Percentage Rank = Percentage of possible scores that are worse.
ysuindy: Score = 284, Rank = 558, Percentage Rank = 99.85
Nick Jenkinson: Score = 284, Rank = 558, Percentage Rank = 99.85
hhsdawg: Score = 278, Rank = 876, Percentage Rank = 99.76
Ranger 20: Score = 278, Rank = 876, Percentage Rank = 99.76
HickoryHusker: Score = 270, Rank = 1535, Percentage Rank = 99.58
Rob Deweese: Score = 254, Rank = 4070, Percentage Rank = 98.88
thegorilla23: Score = 233, Rank = 11208, Percentage Rank = 96.91
Quad Runner: Score = 163, Rank = 87912, Percentage Rank = 75.77
Though we had a couple of close calls, we were able to get through the season without cancellations causing problems for the contest. We're very glad that we were able to have it this year after taking a hiatus last season due to the uncertainty of scheduling during the pandemic. Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's contest! We hope all of you will return to compete in the 2022 Hickory Husker Pigskin Pick'em!
