The Official George Carter Super Bowl XLVI Challenge - Paragraph of Adulation & Final Wrapup

Another George Carter Super Bowl Challenge has come and gone, and once again no one guessed the exact final score. That's 8 years, 429 different participants, and 1,060 total guesses with no one getting it exactly right.

In case you didn't see the final results, scroll down to the next post and you will see the list.

Here are some stats from this year's Challenge:

Total participants: 108
Number of participants who picked the Giants: 65
Number of participants who picked the Patriots: 43
Average score: Giants 26.08, Patriots 25.44
Participant who picked the biggest blowout in favor of the Giants: J.T. Elliott (41-14)
Participant who picked the biggest blowout in favor of the Patriots: Lindsay Elliott (41-7)
Participant who picked the closest game in favor of the Giants: Ellen Wade Morris (21-20)
Participant who picked the closest game in favor of the Patriots: Trent Ashcraft (30-28) & Erin Burnett (23-21)
Participant who picked the highest combined score for both teams: Leeza Jedrzejczyk (83 points, 45-38 Patriots)
Participant who picked the lowest combined score for both teams: Meagan Barkley Smith (24 points, 17-7 Patriots)

This year's winner was Melissa French, who picked the Giants to win 20-17; they won 21-17. Melissa's amazing achievement has earned her the following certificate:

Melissa also wins every prize from this year's contest, which includes a paragraph of adulation. Here we go...

Paragraph of Adulation

Melissa French is a football genius. It takes a special kind of person to stand alone atop a mountain that 108 people tried to climb. Melissa is that person. The game of football tests strength, endurance, and wit, but Melissa came into the Challenge undeterred. With nothing holding her back, she confidently submitted her pick and waited for the final horn to sound. And when it did, Melissa French was the lone victor. I can only hope to be so awesome myself someday. Congratulations.

Melissa provided the following answers to the questions I asked after her victory:

What was your initial reaction when you learned that you had won the contest?

Laughed out loud

What logic did you use in making your pick?

Absolutely none

How big of a football fan are you? Do you follow the NFL?

I'm more of a commercial fan. I follow the NFL when I'm bored and Adam is watching it.

Did you watch the game? If so, what was the setting?

I watched the game until after halftime - then I had to finish up some work. I did catch the last minute or two though.

How does it feel to beat 107 other people and take home the championship?

Ha...to be honest I'm kind of embarrassed that my "guess" was even remotely close! Wish I had played the lottery or checked all my jean pockets last night - it may have been my one and only "lucky" day.

What prize are you most excited about?

It's a toss up...DVD of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past or the Cap'n Crunch. Here's hoping to enjoy them simultaneously!

For those who will be reading this post, what should we know about you?

Hmmm...I'm procrastinating designing a new tub of dog food label packaging this evening in order to answer these questions.

Where you are from: Grew up in Flatwoods, KY
Where you live now: West Lawn, PA
Current occupation/school: Graphic Designer/Creative Consultant
Favorite NFL team: Ummm...don't really have a favorite. UK basketball? Is that an appropriate answer?

I would also like to take a moment to bestow upon Gabrielle Grider a Lifetime Achievement Acknowledgement. Although this is not an "official" award, Gabby certainly deserves this acknowledgement for an amazing run throughout the years of the Challenge. With her 2nd-place finish this year, Gabby - who has participated in all 8 Challenges - now has two 2nd-place finishes to go along with her 1st-place finish in Super Bowl XLIII. She also has a 17th-place finish and a 22nd-place finish. Gabby has finished among the top 24 percent of participants in 5 of the 8 years she has participated, and she has finished in the top 13 percent of participants in 4 of those 8 years. What an amazing run!

Some other notable participants who have played in all 8 Challenges and performed well are:

John Mulvaney

Now has 4 straight years finishing in the top 22 percent of participants, including a 1st-place finish in Super Bowl XLIII (Gabby and John split the championship that year with Candace Miller and Rodney Mora).

Jered Patrick

Has finished in the top 25 percent of participants in 4 of his 8 years, with a 2nd-place finish and a 4th-place finish to his credit. He also recently announced his retirement and subsequent un-retirement from the Challenge. He will be back for a 9th season.

Betsy Powell

Has finished in the top 19 percent of participants in 4 of her 8 years.

On the other hand, we had a husband and wife duo who didn't do too hot this year. Out of 108 participants, J.T. Elliott finished in 105th place and his wife Lindsay Elliott finished in 108th place. But Lindsay does have 3 finishes in the top 19 percent of participants in her 6 years. J.T., however, has finished in the bottom 24 percent of participants in 5 of his 8 years. J.T. is holding out hope that one of these days his method will pay off. That would be a great day in the Elliott home.

I am happy to report that Paula Atkins finished among the top 39.2 percent of participants this year, her best finish ever in terms of percentile. Good job, Paula!

Mikey Blagg has participated in the Challenge each of the last 6 years but has never finished above 45th place.

Well, I don't feel like looking this stuff up anymore so I'm going to let that be the end of it. Peace out!

The Official George Carter Super Bowl XLVI Challenge - Results

Here are the official results of the Challenge. The Giants beat the Patriots 21-17.

The Official George Carter Super Bowl XLVI Challenge

Hey everybody! It's that time of year once again. Back for Year 8, it's the Official George Carter Super Bowl XLVI Challenge!

Just send me your final score prediction in a Facebook message and you could be the winner!

Of course, there will be awesome prizes again this year! Here is the list of prizes for the winner:

• $10
• a bag of candy
• a flexible ruler
• a Slinky
  
• a DVD of the movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner
  
• a spatula
• a Sonic the Hedgehog T-shirt (Size M)
  
• a pair of camouflage fleece sweatpants (Size M)
  
• a plastic figurine of a hippopotamus
  
• a can of sardines
  
• a container of Play-Doh
• a box of Cap'n Crunch
• a whoopee cushion
  
• a tube of ChapStick (cherry flavor)
• a yo-yo

In addition, the winner will also receive a certificate and a paragraph of adulation, in which he or she will be highly praised as a football genius.

The winner will also be able to live with the satisfaction of knowing that he or she defeated all the other people who entered the competition.

If I win, I'll make myself a certificate, give myself $10, and enjoy all those other things by myself.

The previous winners of my contest are:

Super Bowl XXXIX: Amanda Schulze (68 participants)

Super Bowl XL: Joy Rumley (127 participants)

Super Bowl XLI: Andy DeLong, Jessica VanHoose, Jonathan Hensley, Laura Hitt Shipp, and Lyndsey Stewart (166 participants)

Super Bowl XLII: Michele Barnett (175 participants)

Super Bowl XLIII: Candace Miller, Gabrielle Grider, John Mulvaney, and Rodney Mora (156 participants)

Super Bowl XLIV: Cheryl Turner, Hope Griffin, and Whitney Littleton (138 participants)

Super Bowl XLV: Chad McClurg, Jerrod Arms, and Jonathan Bailey (122 participants)

Now in its eighth year, my Challenge is the easiest contest you will ever enter. As always, there is no cost to participate and the winner will receive the wonderful prizes listed above. This year's game will be played on Sunday, February 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The AFC Champion New England Patriots will take on the NFC Champion New York Giants in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII, when the Giants upset the undefeated Patriots to end their quest for a perfect season.

Rules and eligibility

Everyone in the world is eligible (including me). Send me (via a Facebook message) your prediction for the final score of Super Bowl XLVI. All entries must be submitted before kickoff on the day of the game.

This contest takes into consideration the two main types of football game betting...point spread and over/under. In essence, these two factors will be combined since you will be guessing a final score for the game.

Each participant's final score prediction will be compared to the actual final score of the game. Points (which are bad) will be given to participants based on how their predictions compare to the game's actual final score. The only thing you need to send me is your prediction for the final score of the game. Armed with Microsoft Excel, I will take care of the rest. The participant with the lowest score wins! Here is the scoring procedure in simple terms:

• You must pick the winning team in order to win this competition.
• The margin by which each participant misses the final score of the Super Bowl (for each team) will be totaled.
• The difference in the point spread (margin of victory) chosen by each participant and the actual point spread (margin of victory) in the Super Bowl will be computed and added to each participant's score.

The participant who picks the winning team and has the lowest score after these calculations are made will be declared the winner!

In addition to announcing a winner, I will also list the order of finish for all participants so everyone can see where he or she ranked. This list will be made available shortly after the game. I'll make the post as soon as I can when the game ends. I don't know exactly how long it will take, but the results will be up before the night is over. I will contact the winner immediately and make an initial post with the results before making a more elaborate post later.

Examples of scoring

The winner of the competition must pick the winning team in order to win. However, when ranking the rest of the field, each participant's point total alone will determine where he or she ranks, with no regard to whether or not the winning team was picked. In the highly unlikely event that the lowest score for the entire competition is attained by someone who picked the losing team, he or she will be placed immediately below the winner in the standings. The rules are exactly the same as they were last year.

To help visualize how this works, I will give a few examples to show how the contest is scored, using the fictional team names of the Chickens and the Goats:

Example 1: John Doe picks the Chickens over the Goats 28-24. If the final score is 27-20 in favor of the Chickens, John first gets 5 points (remember, points are bad) because he missed the Chickens' final score by 1 and he missed the Goats' final score by 4. In addition to this, he gets 3 more points added to his score because he predicted a spread of the Chickens by 4 when the Chickens actually won by 7. Remember, the difference in these spreads also adds to your score. This is done to make the contest more fair, which the next example will illustrate further. In this particular example, however, John picked the winning team and his final score is 8.

Example 2: Gary picks the Goats over the Chickens  21-17.

Example 3: Bob picks the Chickens 20-14 but the Goats win 28-21. Remember, Bob cannot win the competition because he did not pick the winning team. But, for the sake of understanding the scoring system better, let's finish this out. Bob first gets 15 points because he missed the Chickens' point total by 1 and the Goats' point total by 14. He then gets an additional 13 points because his spread (CHICKENS +6) was off by 13 points from the actual spread (GOATS +7). Bob picked the losing team and his final point total is 28.

In the event of a tie, the winners will split the prizes. I will use my best judgment to determine who gets what. This has happened four times.

Resources

A resource for information to help you make your pick is SuperBowl.com. Or just come up with some random score off the top of your head. That's usually how people win.

The New England Patriots (15-3) won the AFC East and were the # 1 seed in the AFC Playoffs this season. They earned a first-round bye based on their record. In the divisional round, they defeated the Denver Broncos 45-10 in New England. In the AFC Championship, they defeated the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 in New England.

The New York Giants (12-7) won the NFC East and were the # 4 seed in the NFC Playoffs this season. In the wild card round, they defeated the Atlanta Falcons 24-2 in New York. In the divisional round, they defeated the Green Bay Packers 37-20 in Green Bay. In the NFC Championship, they defeated the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 (OT) in San Francisco.

The Giants and Patriots played against each other in Week 9 of this season, with the Giants winning 24-20 in New England.

The Patriots have 3 Super Bowl titles in 6 appearances. They won Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII, and XXXIX, and they lost in Super Bowls XX, XXXI, and XLII. The Giants have 3 Super Bowl titles in 4 appearances. They won Super Bowls XXI, XXV, and XLII, and they lost in Super Bowl XXXV. The Giants beat the Patriots 4 years ago 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII.

My pick

Not that it means anything, because I'm no better at this than anyone else, but I will, as usual, publicly offer my prediction for the game. My prediction for Super Bowl XLVI is New England 27, New York 24. And yes, I am eligible to win my own contest.

Send in your votes!

Go ahead and send me your pick whenever you are ready. Just give me your pick in a Facebook message.

Good luck!

The Official George Carter Super Bowl XLV Challenge - Paragraph of Adulation and Lifetime Results

Well, since the game was over a month ago, I guess it's about time to honor the winners of the Official George Carter Super Bowl XLV Challenge with a paragraph of adulation. Here it goes:

Chad McClurg, Jerrod Arms, and Jonathan Bailey are football geniuses. Only a true sage would be able to predict a score so well and outperform such a large number of pretenders. These brave men worked feverishly to come up with a winning pick, and their efforts have been rewarded. Maybe some day the rest of us can come close to being as awesome as these pioneers of pigskin prognostication. Congratulations, gentlemen, you are officially really awesome.

And now, I present everyone's lifetime rank for the entire 7-year history of the contest, sorted by number of years participated and then by first name.

*Note: The first row with the Roman numerals represents the different Super Bowls, and the number below that represents how many people participated in that year's Challenge. The column to the right of the names represents the number of years each person has participated, and the numbers to the right of that represent each person's rank for each year of the Challenge.

The Official George Carter Super Bowl XLV Challenge - Results

Here are the official results of the Challenge. The Packers beat the Steelers 31-25.