2018 NFL Over/Under Contest
 

Okay, I am convinced this can make for a fun game. So, I will start it here as a trial, for free. If it works out, perhaps we will run it as a for-money game in the future.

THE GAME:

Bid, auction style, on an NFL team and its win total for the 2018 season. You may bid in half-game increments, and must be bidding at a level that beats any previous bid on that team.

For each team, we will honor one OVER and one UNDER bet. So, someone pessimistic about Arizona might end up winning with a bid of ARZ UNDER 6.0. Another player who is more optimistic might end up winning with a bid of ARX OVER 9.5. So, there are essentially 64 elements up for bid here.

To claim the lead, you must bid at least 0.5 wins higher than the current highest OVER bid for that team, or 0.5 wins lowers than the current UNDER bid for that team.

SCORING:

At the season's end, we will score each bid as worth $10 per win, net of the line where you bid on the team. Therefore, if you bid ARZ OVER 9.5 and they win 12 games, you would score +$25. If they only win 8 games, you would score -$15.

My request -- I know we are playing for free, but if you're going to participate, please treat your bids as if you were really putting up actual money on it. I am considering really seriously running this contest here for real money next year (logistics TBD), and I'd like to take this year's results as at least informative for that purpose.

KEEPING ORDER:

I don't like how auctions inevitably turn into a who's-online-at-the-last-minute ordeal, so I want to create a sphincter for this. Today will be no holds barred, bid all you want. Starting after midnight Tuesday, eastern time, a person must bid on one side of one team at a time, then that person must wait 10 minutes to make any additional bids on any team/side. If a person bids at 3:42pm tomorrow, and then that person will have to wait until time-stamped 3:52 to bid again on that or another team.

Bidding ends one hour before the kickoff for each game the team plays in for week one, rounded to the half hour. 12 noon for a 1pm ET game, etc. Time stamp on the forum will be the final determinant, order on the forum breaking ties for equivalent bids.


If this catches fire, I will also welcome thoughts on making this work as a real money game next year.

With that, have at it.

reserved for inevitable role clarifications, Q&A, etc.

Apparent ambiguity over singular/plural "you" resolved:

The 10-minute limit applies to any one participant. That participant may put in a single bid, and then must sit out at least 10 minutes until bidding on anything further.

Other participants may continue to outbid that bid on the same team/side without any time limit.

Please make your bids in bold, using this format:

BAL OVER 7.5

that's my legitimate bid to start things off

What about an NFL Calcutta pool or something?

Indianapolis over 6

Detroit over 4

Bidding one team at a time now, right?

Yes, one at a time, and ten minutes between posts. I will edit above.

10 minutes between posts or 10 minutes between post per a specific O/U for a team?

10 minutes between any two posts, designed to make the end-stage bidding more subtle