Borderline Fantastic Sports

Ice Cream Helmet started with the NCAA Basketball Tournament in 2007. For this season, I’ve added College Basketball Picks.

The season will start on Week 3 of the season, which is November 24th. I looked at the games for the first 2 weeks and saw that a total of 5 games qualified, based on my ratings, to be picked.

There are 2 problems with the first few weeks of the season. First, even more than college football, good basketball teams warm up with cupcakes. Second, most of the good games this early in the season come in early season tournaments. Those matchups are only known a day or 2 in advance. So there would be no way to pick those games. The easiest way to handle things was to just say that picks would begin in Week 3.

I mentioned that some early games didn’t qualify for my ratings. These are the ratings I use to determine which games will be picked each week. The ratings mostly use the rankings. I tried to find the best matchups with the better teams in Division 1. This comes out to about 10 games per week for Weeks 3-8 and about 20 games per week the rest of the season. These estimates came from the ratings at the end of last season, using this season’s schedule. The numbers for this year should wind up being just about the same.

You can choose to just make picks that will count toward your ICH Score or create your own group. Creating your own group will let you add things like wager points or drop lowest scoring weeks.

The first set of picks should be ready to go mid-next week. Get started creating your groups and getting your friends to sign up now!

College Basketball Picks

I’ve also created the following pages to help you follow college basketball. These pages include my favorite feature, the team info pop-ups. They will show the team’s record as well as recent and upcoming schedule.
Scores/Schedule
Standings
Teams
Rankings

Also, if you click on any of the schools, it will take you to the school’s page. These are still being worked on. Right now it will show you the basketball schedule and football schedule, if that school has a D1A team.

I’m not sure how much hockey coverage you’ll find on here this season. I love the Flyers but I don’t have a ton of time to keep on top of the entire NHL during the regular season. As a start, each week I’ll post the top 10 games according to Ice Cream Helmet. ICH picks are made on the top 10 games each week. You can join in and make picks, or create your own group and pick up to 25 games per week.

Make picks on Ice Cream Helmet

This year, for the first time, Ice Cream Helmet will feature Hockey Picks. The standard ICH game will feature 10 games per week to pick from. They are the top 10 rated games as rated by ICH. Each correct pick is worth 1 point. Your rank will go toward your Overall ICH Score.

You can choose to create your own group and have up to 25 games per week available to be picked. Custom groups also feature the option to use wager points as in most other Ice Cream Helmet games. Wager points allow you to get extra points if you are correct on your most confident selections but subtract from your total if you are incorrect.

You can get started now, games for Week 1 are all set to pick.

The first four games of the season take place on Oct. 4th and 5th in Europe. The rest of the league gets started on Oct. 9th. The deadline to make ICH picks is before each individual game, the first being the Flames/Canucks game on Oct. 9th. Custom gropus have the option of having a similar deadline of before each game or having a single weekly deadline before the first game of the week (weeks start on Monday).

Ice Cream Helmet Hockey Picks

When I created College Football Pickem last year I wanted something more than just one point per game. Confidence points were a little too much. I came up with the idea of Wager Points. Each person has the option each week to wager points on one game or split it up any way they wish. The risk being that if that pick is wrong, those points are subtracted from your total. For my group I went with 10 points.

I still think its a great idea, except for the fact that I’m terrible at it. For college football, through Week 4, which was this weekend, I have been wrong on every pick I’ve put wager points on. That’s -40 points. My total score for the season stands at -4. You might think I’m terrible at making picks in general, not so. My group has 9 members. The most correct picks in the group (just picks, not counting wagers) is 37. Two people have that total. Their scores counting wager points: 41 (1st Place) and 29 (5th Place). Me? I have 36 correct picks. I just have no idea which ones of them are going to be right beforehand. So while I’m only 1 pick behind the most in the group, I’m 45 points behind. If I would be even on my wager points so far, or just decided not to ever use them, I’d be in 2nd place.

I should either stay away from Vegas or go and bet every game. I think betting every game is the wiser idea. My win percentage is just over 50% and it would be more fun than not doing anything.

My method for using my wager points is to pick the two games I’m most confident in and then wager 5 points on each. I’d rather give myself a chance to come out even in the week than wind up losing 10 points off of one game. People in my groups seem to have come up with their own method. Some do the all in on one game, others wager 2-3 points at a time. I haven’t seen anyone go 1 point on 10 different games yet. Actually, that might not be a terrible idea for me.

For NFL Pickem I have the same setup. For some reason I’m a little better at that. Through Week 3, the games I put wager points on were both early games and I got those correct. That puts me at +10 for the season.

This week I launched College Football Picks for the 2008 season. It’s a College Football Pickem game that I started last season. Similar to last year you have the option of competing against all ICH members or in a group.

ICH picks includes games featuring Top 25 teams against the spread. Your score will rank you against the other people making ICH picks. It will also add to your Overall ICH Score where you can see where you rank against everyone in all sports.

Groups can be customized in a number of ways so that your group will only pick the games you want. You can select from Top 25, conferences, or individual teams. Any combination you wish. Groups can choose to pick against the spread or straight up. Wager Points allow your group members to place points on games they are confident in. The risk is that an incorrect pick will result in the amount wagered being subtracted from your total.

If you are ready, the rankings for Week 1 are up and you can start making your picks now!

Ice Cream Helmet College Football Picks

Don’t forget to make your picks for Ice Cream Helmet Horse Racing Picks. The Belmont is on Saturday. Pick the order you think the 10 horses will finish. You don’t have to had made picks in either of the other races to make picks for the Belmont.

Make your picks! (After you log in you will be able to make picks.)

Don’t forget to make your picks for Ice Cream Helmet Horse Racing Picks. The Preakness is on Saturday. Pick the order you think the 13 horses will finish.

Make your picks! (After you log in you will be able to make picks.)