2023 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 17

The coalition is back for the penultimate week of the 2023 season, and for me, it's too little, too late.

Adam's regression to the mean hit far too late in the season for it to help me any, so despite my taking five of seven games from him, Joe winning by the same margin, and the two of us splitting our four disputed games last week, I'm still well out of contention while Joe would need to dominate this week as well as next if he wants a chance to win the whole shebang.

Group-wise, Adam picked up a game on our leader through 15 weeks in Geoffrey Clark, which moves him into a tie for first place overall with just 32 games to play. The two of them owe much of their success to their relative dominance, at least percentage-wise, in hero picks. You can view how we've all picked in relation to each other here.

As we prepare to close out 2023... you know what? Adam was in town this week, it's been a long time, we need to go audio version. Confessions of a Sportscaster: The Podcast proudly presents our Week 17 Pigskin Pick 'Em picks after the jump. Happy new year, y'all.

2022 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 16

The coalition returns for Week 16 of picking NFL games against the spread, and this week we have a special holiday treat for you.

Normally (and by that, I mean the last two years) we've done the Thanksgiving week of the NFL season in podcast form. That wasn't feasible this year with how the recording schedule of Then There Were Two: A History of the World Series has been going, combined with a basketball doubleheader in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. And so, we've been in column form since Week 1, including this past week. But stuff has been reasonable enough around the holidays that we were able to make it work this week.

And so for our Week 16 picks, Adam joined me on Confessions of a Sportscaster: The Podcast to go game by game. Joe couldn't join the session, but passed his picks along for the week.

You can view how we've picked in relation to each other here, and can view the running tally of how we've done with home/road favorites/dogs, as well as how we've picked in each timeslot.

Podcast can be listened to after the jump. From all of us at Confessions of a Sportscaster: have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2022 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 1

 Like a phoenix rising from the ashes... we return.

Work has been chaotic over the past several months, and it largely prevented me from posting a lot since a wonderful night at Merner Fieldhouse. But with the NFL season about to get underway and the coalition returning for another year... it's time to get back to it.

The Confessions of a Sportscaster Pigskin Pick 'Em contest returns for its 11th year. For the tenth time Adam Quinn is a member of the group, and for the ninth year he will join me for this weekly feature. Also joining us for his first full season is Joe Klecka.

The group is rounded out by old regulars Jim Haupert and friend of the program Geoffrey Clark, and this year as of posting time we are joined by Joe and Adam's friend Hunter as well as my friend Tom. Adding a sixth and seventh means I'll have to change my formula around on the sheet where we compare how we've fared against each other since we've only had five the past couple of years, but we can make this work.

And so let's kick off the fun for the 2022 campaign... this opening week in podcast form!

2021 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 16

The coalition is back at it as we have just three weeks left in the NFL season!

It was a great showing for Adam this past week as he took four of five disputed games from me, four of six from Joe, and Joe took three of five from me. You can view how we've all picked in relation to each other here.

Given that we're approaching Christmas, Adam happened to be in town. Since he's in town, and schedules happened to align where Joe was also free... our Week 16 picks were done in podcast form. You can find that after the jump.

From all of us here at Confessions of a Sportscaster, have a safe and Merry Christmas!

2021 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 12

The coalition returns... except to your ears this time.

It's tradition for the Week 12 Pigskin Pick 'Em feature to go up a day early given the holiday. The newer tradition is that, instead of going full column, Adam and I are doing a podcast episode with our picks. Joe unfortunately wasn't able to join our recording session on Tuesday, but he did send picks along, so his are all mentioned on here in addition to mine and Adam's for your listening pleasure.

Last week I took five of six disputed picks from Adam and three of four from Joe, while Joe had that same three of four margin over Adam. Adam remains in first place in the group, but his lead narrows. You can view how we've picked in relation to each other here.

Let's get to the table and feast! From all of us at Confessions of a Sportscaster, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 17

And so it all comes down to this. One week. 16 games. The coalition is back to round out the 2020 NFL season!

Fortune smiled upon me in Week 16, as I took four of six disputed games from Adam to give myself a two game lead going into the final week. However, I do not lead the group anymore; Geoffrey Clark has taken a three game lead going into the final sprint. Full standings on ESPN (bearing in mind that Adam and I each have one more point than we should) are here, while correct standings and a full breakdown of how we've picked in relation to each other can be found here.

Given that we are down to the final week, combined with the fact that Adam was in town for the holidays this week... it seemed only fitting that we close out the 2020 campaign in podcast form!

From all of us at Confessions of a Sportscaster, have a Happy New Year!

2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 12

We're approaching the Thanksgiving holiday, which in the advertising world that my day job revolves around means accelerated deadlines to get new commercials started on TV and radio. But in the NFL world, that means we get a full holiday of football to go with food and family. And as such, that means the coalition is back to work!

But also because it's a holiday, I teased last week that I had something special planned for the Thanksgiving week of football. Adam's and my schedules lined up on Tuesday, and so we present our special surprise to you: Week 12's picks are on an all new episode of Confessions of a Sportscaster: The Podcast!

As a point of reference for last week since it was touched on, but not gone over in full on the episode, Adam and I split our six disputed games last week, keeping him three games up with six weeks to go. You can view the ESPN standings here, bearing in mind that both Adam and I have one more point than we should. Correct standings, as well as how we've picked in relation to each other, can be found here.

And so, for your listening pleasure: our Week 12 picks!

90's Youth Life Podcast Special: 1990s NCAA Tournament

College basketball, at least at the highest levels, is on the horizon. Whether Division III will end up getting played, and thus my annual, gradual destruction of my vocal cords will commence, is still very much up in the air. And so, since this is normally the time of year I'd be getting started, I needed my college basketball fix. Thankfully, Geoffrey Clark had me covered.

You may remember him as an occasional contributor as part of the COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, but also as the host of 90's Youth Life, on which I have appeared twice before. I was on earlier this year to simulate a 1990's NBA playoff tournament, and two years prior when I ruined an average Major League shortstop for him forever. But recently, he had reached out about wanting to do a college basketball tournament in March Madness style, and I happily agreed.

We had this whole thing set up, where he had 79 teams that I was going to have to pare down to 64, then get into a good old fashioned March Madness bracket, and I had this whole big idea to make it a D-III style bracket... but unfortunately, my simulator only had 25 teams of the 79 available. So, we adjusted, and we made it work.

And this, dear readers, is the result of our work. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com; box scores are provided below.

Introducing Confessions of a Sportscaster: The Podcast

Confessions of a Sportscaster has been relatively quiet for much of 2020. What with the pandemic, adjusting to working from home while trying to keep two young kids entertained and content, and the lack of sports for several months, there wasn't a lot to write about or a lot of time to do said writing even when sports started to return.

But with things continuing to change and evolve in our world, I think it's time Confessions of a Sportscaster starts to evolve with it. And what better way than for someone who worked at a college radio station for four years, interned for a couple commercial stations in Chicago during that same time, and also spent some time as a part time producer at a commercial station once out of college, than for me to get back into the audio game?

Introducing Confessions of a Sportscaster: The Podcast.

Future episodes to come.

90's Youth Life Podcast Special: NBA 1990's Championship

With sports as we know them completely on pause, the state of Illinois under a shelter in place order, and my sanity starting to go, I need something to get me through The Quarantine of 2020. Fortunately, Geoffy is a lifesaver.

You may remember Geoffy from his occasional appearances on Confessions of a Sportscaster. You may remember him more as the host of 90's Youth Life, a podcast about all things 1990's. In particular, you may remember when these two worlds collided in the summer of 2018, when I ruined an average Major League shortstop for him forever as we simulated out the 1994 MLB postseason that never was.

So it was hard to say no when Geoffrey pitched another episode idea to me as we go back to our formative decade, this one arguably more up my alley, and definitely up his. We grew up in the era of the Jordan Bulls Dynasty, and Geoffrey had the idea of doing an all-90's postseason. I had originally wondered specifically about all the champions of that decade, but Geoffy thought bigger, and I ultimately have to say, better.

He pitched to me a standard playoff field of 16 teams (eight from each conference), limiting each conference to one representative from each franchise, which makes sense because otherwise the Bulls will cannibalize themselves. He constructed the bracket and went back to the old best-of-five first round model, with best-of-sevens the rest of the way, including the old 2-3-2 format of The Finals. And with his part done, I went into the lab, did the work, and found the All 90's Champion.

After the jump I will post all the box scores from every game along with some details. As always, all simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. And now, for your listening pleasure... my second 90's Youth Life appearance.

90's Youth Life Podcast Special: The 1994 MLB Playoffs Simulation

I was a radio guy in college. So it's kind of a surprise that, other than a random podcast with a Nintendo forum something like ten years ago that who knows if it even still exists anywhere or not, I am a novice at the podcast game. Fortunately, I know people.

I've talked up the immortal Geoffrey Clark on here before. He's a classmate and friend from my North Central days, a blogger for Chicago Bulls Confidential, and he is also the host of the 90s Youth Life podcast. He's talked up a number of topics from when we grew up, including topics like the McDonald's Beanie Baby craze and the career of Ken Griffey, Jr. with another WONC alum we overlapped with.

So a couple weeks ago, I got a text from Geoff regarding my favorite tool on this blog, WhatIfSports. He'd been introduced to the tool through Confessions of a Sportscaster and was talking about how addicting it was. It was through that discussion that he brought up the lost postseason of 1994 due to the strike. One thing led to another and, well... I was a guest on a podcast.

In it we run through how the 1994 Major League Baseball postseason could have played out had the playoffs been the leaders in the standings when play stopped. After the jump I will post links to the box scores of the games, but if you want to keep the element of surprise... take a listen.