Gator Pickers

Introduction

These pages provide background on the Gator Pickers system. Click here to send me comments or questions.

This About section has two modes, Information and Statistics. The Info mode (what you're looking at) provides information on the app itself, including controls and outputs. The Stats mode provides historical picker and team data and statistics, as well as hall of fame lists. Use the Info and Stats tabs to switch between the two modes.

The list below includes all topics in the Info pages. You select directly from the list, or use the Previous | Next controls to move between pages, or Top to return to this page.

• History
• Rules of the Game
• Logging On
• Banner Features
• Schedule Screen
• Results Screen
• Inputs Screen
• Stats Screen
• Admin controls or notes are shown in this color.

History

The Gator Pickers system originated unofficially around 1983 when a group of my friends and I, while getting ready to go to University of Florida Gator football games in the Fall, started trying to guess what the score might be for each game, just for fun. We recorded our guesses on JoeW's chalkboard, then checked them after the game to see who "did the best." This provided us a little extra interest and excitement during the football season.

This lasted through the 1985 season, but after that we all split up and went our separate ways. I moved out of town in 1986, but decided I wanted to keep the pick guessing game going, since we all enjoyed doing it, and it would be a good way to stay in contact with my friends. So I formalized the process in the fall of 1986 by putting together a spreadsheet to record picks and calculate the winner each week. Believe it or not, I actually gathered the picks from my friends via long-distance telephone calls, and sent the results out each week via snail-mail! We've come a long way since those early days.

Thus, 1986 was the first year of the Picks era, and we've now completed full years of picks as of , with the season being number . Over the years, we added a number of pickers, and lost a few as well, including our dear friend BobJ, who passed away in September 2010. We also evolved from that original phone and snail-mail system, first in the mid-'90s to one primarily based on e-mail, then in 2011 to a web-based system. I have continued to revise and tweak that system over the years, and as of 2021 implemented my own server running under Amazon Web Services (AWS).

If you're visiting this site for the first time, understand it is not about gambling. There is no monetary risk or reward, only the satisfaction of competition among friends, and having bragging rights as the "Big Kahuna" during the off-season. The winner gets a cheesy certificate that I make up, and I'm somewhat proud to say I've got mine in frames. It's all for the fun of it.

Rules of the Game

The Gator Pickers system is pretty simple in its most basic form.

Process

Before the Gators kick-off each week, all participants submit a guess for what they think the score of the game will be – this is their "pick". After the game is over, a mathematical formula is used to determine how well they did – this is their "rate" or "rating" for the week. Smaller numbers are better; if you nail the pick, your rating will be 0.

The rating calculation is based on the distance formula, which is the square root of sum-of-squares. Here's the formula:

rating = $\sqrt{\mathrm{(uf\_pick\; –\; uf\_actual)\; ²\; +\; (opp\_pick\; –\; opp\_actual)\; ²}}$

It doesn't matter who you pick to win, or whether you're right or wrong, only how close your pick is to the actual score. If you plot the picks on an XY graph, the formula gives you the distance from each pick to the actual score (see the example below). Whoever has the lowest rating is the winner for that week. Ratings accumulate over the course of the year, and after the final game is played, the picker with the lowest overall point total is the Big Kahuna!

You must enter a pick for every game to be eligible to win the Big Kahuna. If, for some reason, you miss a week, you'll be given a "skip" rating calculated by using the worst UF pick and worst opponent pick (furthest from actual). While this guarantees you a last place finish that week, it will maintain your Big Kahuna eligibility.

Example

The table and graph below illustrate the process with three sample picks (the blue points) and one skip pick (the gray point). In this example, the actual score of the game is (the green point). If Huey's pick was , his rating would be:

$\sqrt{\mathrm{(<span\; id="rules3"></span>)\; ²\; +\; (<span\; id="rules4"></span>)\; ²}}$ =

The skip pick rating is based on the worst UF pick being , and the worst opponent pick .

The Big Johnson

We instituted a secondary game beginning with the 2011 season, in honor of our friend BobJ. We call it the "Big Johnson", and the idea is to input picks for every game before the season, which are then locked in. The same process is used as described above, except that the Big Johnson competition applies only to the regular season, and you can't modify your inputs as the season goes along. Note that the Big Johnson inputs are separate from the regular picks, so you can still make new regular picks for games as the season progresses. But the Big Johnson winner each year is the one who can somehow prognosticate best how the Gators will do based only on preseason information.

Logging On

You must be logged on to access the Gator Pickers app features. It's simple.

Click Click to Logon in the header to start the process. You will then be presented the form below. Enter your credentials in the spaces provided. The password is case sensitive, so be sure to enter it exactly. Contact me here if you have issues.

• Logon — Submit your logon credentials once entered.
• × — Close the popup window without logging on.
• Click here to move
  — Drag from this area to move the dialog box around if desired. This feature is not available on mobile devices.

Upon successful logon, this form will be removed and the full range of app features, as described in the following topic pages, will be displayed.

Banner Features

The Gator Pickers banner spans the top of the screen for all pages of the app. The banner has three areas.

Title Area (center)

• Display a welcome message (hidden on mobile devices).

Tab Area (right side)

• Provide tab controls to allow switching between pages. The currently selected page will have a blue tab, while unselected pages will have white tabs.
• In the Picks section, the tabs allow switching between the Schedule, Results, and Input pages. These are described in more detail below.
• In the About section, the tabs allow switching between the Info and Stats pages.

Controls Area (left side)

• Provide access to common app controls from any page, as follows:
• Logoff — Log off the app.
• — If in the Picks section, switch to the About section.
• — If in the About section, return to the Picks section.
• — Enter your pick for the current (i.e. next upcoming) game. You will be presented with a popup form; enter your picks for UF and our opponent in the spaces provided. This is the simplest way to enter picks for one game at a time, though you still have the option to enter multiple picks from the Inputs page. Here are the contols available:
  • Save — Save your pick input.
  • × Close the popup window. You can also dismiss the popup window by clicking the Pick icon again.
  • User — [Admin] Select another picker to input or update their pick.
  • You — [Admin] Return to your own data.
  • Actual — [Admin] Enter the actual final score for the game and click this button to calculate the results.
• — Review or update your member profile information. You will be presented with a popup form; enter new or updated values in the spaces provided. Note that you can't change your logon id directly (it's a key field); contact me here if you wish to do so. Also, since I often use e-mail or text messaging to communicate with you (and vice versa), it's important that you keep these fields up to date. Here are the contols available:
  • Save — Save your profile information.
  • × Close the popup window. You can also dismiss the popup window by clicking the Profile icon again.
  • — Check this box in the right-most column of any row to erase that field if you don't intend to enter a new value.
  • User — [Admin] Select another picker to input or update their profile data.
  • You — [Admin] Return to your own data.
  • Active — Adjust your status as an active picker. [Admin] Set the status of another picker by first switching to that picker using the drop-down menu. Only active pickers are eligible to compete for the Big Kahuna trophy that year. However, inactive pickers can still enter guest picks.
  • Admin — [Admin] Set or remove admin privileges for yourself or another picker. Warning - If you remove your own admin privilege, you cannot change it back yourself. You will need another admin picker to do it for you.
• — View the most recent error message from the server. If an error occurs, a message will typically be displayed in the message area at the bottom of the header for about 5 seconds. You can click this button to redisplay the last message, or turn it off (it acts as a toggle). Please let me know of any errors that are not related to your own actions (perhaps bad inputs), so I can determine if there's a bug to fix.

Schedule Screen

The Schedule page is one of the three page areas of Picks section of the app (along with Results and Inputs), and it is what you initially see upon successfully logging on. You can return to this screen at any time by clicking the Sched tab. Aside from a nice picture of the Swamp, the primary feature of this screen is to display the UF schedule for a given year, and the related Admin Notes.

UF Schedule

The schedule table is displayed at the top of the screen, listing all games for the selected year, along with game information and results. By default, the table will load data for the current year (i.e. the one in progress or about to begin).

Controls

You can select any year from the Picks Era (1986 to present) using the controls above the table.

• 2022 — Select any year from a drop-down menu.
• Current — Return to the current year. This is merely a shortcut to using the drop-down menu or arrows.
• — Select the previous year. You can't go any earlier than 1986, which is the first year of the Picks Era.
• — Select the next year. You can't go any further than the last year data has been loaded into the app, typically either the current year or one beyond. I will load future game data as it is published.

Schedule Table

The game information provided is pretty self-explanatory, but here are a few notes.

• — Click this icon in the Wk column to open the Results screen for that game.
• Opponent — This space is also used to display game notes (such as homecoming, or bowl game), printed in orange below the opponent name.
• Loc — An icon indicating where the game will be played:
  • — Home games played in the Swamp.
  • — True road games played in the opponent's stadium.
  • — Neutral site games.
• SEC — An SEC icon to indicate if the game is a conference game.
  • — An SEC clash.
• Win — An icon representing the result of the game.
  • — The Gators won! 😀
  • — The Gators lost. 😢
  • — It was a tie (Yes, there was one during the Picks era, but I don't want to talk about it). 😐
• Score — Scores will always be listed with UF's points first, then the opponent's. So a win would look like "34-20", while a loss would look like "13-17". This also applies to pick inputs, so be careful how you enter your picks!
• In order to fit on the small screen, the TV, Ovr, and Conf columns are omitted on mobile devices.
• Finally, if the year being displayed is the current year, the current week will be outlined in blue. This is the game that is associated with the Pick button in the Banner and the Current button in the Results screen, and serves as a quick visual reference.

Game Editing

— [Admin] As an Admin picker, you can edit game data. Click this icon in the right column of any row to display a popup form; enter updated information in the spaces provided. Here are the controls and some notes.

• Save — Submit updated game data when ready.
• × — Close the popup window when complete.
• — Check this box in the right-most column of any row to erase the contents of that field if you don't intend to enter a new value.
• Year and Week are key fields and can't be edited.
• UF and Opp are the score fields. Enter the actual game score here after the game. This will trigger all data updates and post the outcome to the Results page for that game. You can also do this from the Pick popup.
• The kickoff field is combined date and time. These will be displayed in the timezone of the user, but are stored internally in UTC (i.e. GMT). If you enter a kickoff value, include the date, time, and timezone suffix; e.g. Sep 3, 2022 19:00 EDT.
• For SEC, input 1 for an SEC opponent, or 0 for a non-SEC opponent.
• For game location, enter 'Home' for home games, 'Away' for away games, or 'Neutral' for neutral site games.
• For Postseason, enter 0 for regular season games, or 1 for postseason games.

Admin Notes

The admin notes for the currently selected year are displayed below the schedule. Here you can find any general or year-specific information, such as availability of the picks app for inputs, weekly winners, and other topics. Notes are listed with the newest on top, oldest on bottom, and each note has a header line indicating who posted it and when.

As an admin, you're allowed to enter new admin notes, using this procedure.

• 

  Click to enter a new note.

  — Click anywhere on the line to reveal the input area below. Enter your comment in the space provided.
• Avoid non-printing characters; they'll be stripped before the note is posted. You can drag from the lower right corner to make this area larger (not available on mobile devices).
• Post — Submit your note. The screen will refresh to display your new note at the top of the list.
• Cancel — Cancel out of the note without posting.

Results Screen

The Results screen is one of the three main areas of the app (along with Schedule and Inputs); switch to this screen at any time by clicking the Results tab. The Results screen is where you can find the results of each game and the current standings, both for the Big Kahuna championship and the Big Johnson competition.

Game Selection

At the top of the screen is a Game Selection area, which provides various controls to pick which game is to be displayed. A game can also be selected by clicking the icon from the Schedule screen.

• 2021 — Select any year from a drop-down menu. If you select a new year, the currently selected week will determine which game is displayed. If that week doesn't exist (i.e. you're looking at week 13 of one year and switch to a year with only 12 games), the week will be adjusted to be within range.
• 1 — Select any week from a drop-down menu. This will switch to a different game within the currently selected year.
• Current — Display the current (upcoming) game. This corresponds to the one associated with the Pick button in the Banner and the blue outlined game in the UF Schedule on the Schedule screen.
• Latest — Display the most recent completed game; i.e. where results are known. This is the default game for this screen, so you can easily find the latest standings.
• — Select the previous game. This can cross year boundaries; if you're on week 1 of a year, you'll go back to the last game of the previous year. You can't go back further than 1986, game 1 (the beginning of the Picks Era).
• — Select the next game. This can also span year boundaries; if you're on the last game of a year, you'll advance to game 1 of the next year. You can't go any further forward than the last game for which data has been loaded into the app, typically the current year or one beyond.

Below the selection controls will be a table displaying data about the selected game. The columns are identical to those described for the UF schedule on the Schedule screen, except omitting the Wk (week number), Ovr (overall record), and Conf (SEC record) columns.

Below the game selection area will be the results tables for the selected game, which will be in one of two basic formats, depending on whether the selected game is yet to be played (i.e. incomplete), or is completed and results are known.

Incomplete Game

If the game has no final score (not yet played or started but not over), you will see the following items.

• Countdown Timer — To let you know how much time you have before your pick needs to be in. This is based on whatever date and time are in the system for that game. If the kickoff time changes, the timer will adjust accordingly. For games where the Time is "TBD", noon of that day is arbitrarily used as a time for the countdown clock. You will only see the countdown timer if the game has not begun; after kickoff, it goes away.
• Picks So Far Table — A table listing all currently active pickers, plus any guest pickers who have entered a pick so far. You will see your own pick (if you've input it) and a marker ("X") for any other picks that are in. After kickoff, when the picks are locked, the "X"s will be replaced by the actual picks, so you can track how people are doing during the game. As an admin picker, you will always see the actual picks. You can click on the "Picks So Far" title at any time to refresh the table, so you're fully up to date on who's got their pick in and who hasn't.

Completed Game

If the game is over, and the final score has been posted, you will see the following items.

• Game Results — How every picker fared in that game, sorted by pick rating, as described in the Rule topic. The picker (or pickers, in case of a tie) with the lowest rating will be at the top and will be the winner for that week. The bottom row of the table (highlighted in green) provides the average of all picks for the week, for information and comparison purposes.
• Overall Standings — Where every picker stands in the Big Kahuna championship as of that week, sorted by overall points. Points are accumulated throughout the year, and after the final game is played, the picker with the lowest points total is the Big Kahuna! The bottom row (in green) provides averages. Here are a few notes.
  • — Click this icon in the Rk (rank) column to bring up a table showing the selected picker's picks and results for year-to-date. An admin picker will see the entire year's data, including future games, not just year-to-date. Click × to close the popup window. This feature also applies to the Big Johnson standings. You can move this dialog box around if desired by dragging from the blue area at the top (except not on mobile devices).
  • Ch — Reflects the change in rank for that picker from the previous week. This gives you an idea of who's trending up and who's trending down.
  • Δ1st — Shows how many points each picker trails behind the current leader. Stay within single digits and you're in striking range of the lead!
  • ΔNxt — Shows how far each picker trails behind the next picker ahead of them. This gives you an idea of where several pickers may be tightly grouped.
  • Ws — Lists how many weekly wins each picker has. Winning weeks is a good thing, but consistency is what wins the Big Kahuna award.
• Big Johnson Standings — Where every participating picker stands in the Big Johnson competition as of that week. This table is nearly identical with the Overall Standings, aside from only applying to regular season games, with the following exceptions.
  • The Ws column is omitted; weekly wins are not tracked for Big Johnson.
  • Delta — This is a metric describing how well (or poorly) you adapted your picks during the course of the year. Recall, Big Johnson inputs are locked in at the start of the season. As you adjust your regular picks during the course of the year, this column will display a positive (green) value if those adjustments improved your picks position compared to your static Big Johnson inputs, or a negative (red) value if you made things worse.

Game Comments

At the bottom of the screen is an area listing game comments. Existing comments are listed from newest on top to oldest on bottom, and each comment has a header line indicating who posted it and when. To post a new comment, follow these steps.

• 

  Click to enter a new comment.

  — Click this prompt to enter a new comment. You can click anywhere on the line. Clicking this prompt will reveal the input area below and allow you to enter a comment.

Enter text and click Post.

Post Cancel
• Text Area — Enter your text here. Avoid non-printing characters; they'll be stripped off before the comment is posted. You can drag from the lower right corner to make this input area larger on the screen (this feature may not be available on mobile devices).
• Post — Submit your comment. The screen will refresh to display your new comment at the top of the list.
• Cancel — Cancel out of the comment without posting.

Inputs Screen

The Inputs screen is one of the three main areas of the app (along with Schedule and Results); switch to this screen at any time by clicking the Inputs tab. The Inputs screen is where you enter your picks for the entire year, or as much of it as you like. This is by comparison to the (Picks) icon on the Banner, which only allows you to enter your pick for the current game. The Inputs screen is also the only place to enter inputs for the Big Johnson competition.

Picks Inputs

When you first enter this screen, you will see a schedule for the current year, with input fields for your predicted UF and opponent pick values. If you have previously entered values, they will be displayed as placeholders (light gray), otherwise the input fields will be blank. You will also have these controls available.

• User — Select another picker to input or update their Picks or BigJ data.
• You — Return to your own data.
• 2021 — Select any previous year from a drop-down menu. This will allow you to examine your past picks, just for reference. They will be displayed as non-editable values, since all past years are closed to new picks.
• Current — Return to the current year.
• — Select the previous year, from 1986 to present.
• — Select the next year, up to and including the latest year loaded into the system.
• Save — Save your Picks or BigJ inputs once you've entered them into the fields. You can enter multiple game inputs at a time or as few as one; you don't have to enter all at once. You can also enter just UF or just opponent values in whatever order makes sense for you. Just be sure to have both UF and opponent values in place prior to kickoff of that game.
• Clear — Clear your inputs from the displayed table so you can start over. Warning - This will erase all inputs on the table.
• Opt-in to BigJ — Elect to opt-in for participation in this year's Big Johnson competition. Once you opt-in, several more controls appear, as described below. An admin picker can opt-in on behalf of another Picker by first selecting them from the drop-down menu.

The input table is mostly self-explanatory, as it includes week number, opponent, location, and conference data similar to what was described for the UF Schedule and Results tables. Following are some comments specific to Inputs.

• You can only enter pick inputs for games that are open; i.e. haven't been played yet. As the season progresses, the earlier games, once completed, will be locked from further inputs. Those rows on the table will show your pick in a static, non-editable form. You may only enter inputs into text input fields, representing games that are still open. For Big Johnson, the entire table will be locked once the season begins.
• If the Gators qualify for post-season play, the additional game(s) will appear here, so check back once the regular season is over. This applies only to the Picks inputs; the Big Johnson competition ends with the regular season.
• Ovr / Conf — Provide the projected overall and SEC won/loss records for the Gators based on your inputs. These are decision-support tools for your benefit as you prepare your picks, to give you a sense of whether your picks match up with your expectations for the team. They are not meant to reflect the actual won/loss records.

After Opting into Big Johnson

As described in the Rules topic, Big Johnson is a secondary competition, separate from the Big Kahuna championship, that pickers may optionally choose to participate in merely for the fun of it. Big Johnson applies only to the regular season, and the idea is that you submit your inputs for all games before the season, and they're locked in. The winner will be the one who can best determine how the Gators will do based only on preseason information.

You opt-into the Big Johnson competition by clicking Opt-in to BigJ . When you do, you will gain a Big Johnson table and several additional controls. You can always tell which table you're on by the header, which will be either "your_name's Picks Inputs" or "your_name's Big Johnson Inputs".

• Opt-out — Click this if you change your mind about participating in Big Johnson. You can opt-in and opt-out as often as you like prior to the start of the season.
• Copy — Click this button from either the Picks or BigJ data tables to copy all data from that table to the other one (either Picks to BigJ or vice versa). All filled-in entries will be copied, replacing entries in the other table for those games, but only if the destination game of the copy is still open. It's a handy tool if you intend your Picks and BigJ inputs to be the same at the start of the season ... just enter the data once, then copy.
• Switch — From whichever table you're on, switch to the other. Upon first opting in, you'll be automatically switched to the BigJ table.
• xx% — A metric at the bottom of the table showing how close you are to being eligible to participate in the Big Johnson competition. You must enter picks for all regular season games to be eligible, so you want this to reach 100%. When it does, you're eligible. This item is visible from the BigJ table.
• Eligibles — Click this button to display a popup window listing all pickers who have so far attained BigJ eligibility. Click × to close the window. This button is visible from the BigJ table. This popup box can be dragged around on the screen if desired (except not on mobile devices).

Stats Screen

Click the Stats tab in the Info screen banner to access the Stats screen. You must be logged in to access the stats.

The Stats screen provides data spanning the history of the Gator Pickers. Three types of data are available -- Picker Stats, Team Stats, and Hall of Fame. They are described below; use the buttons to select which you wish to peruse. Picker stats are displayed initially by default.

Picker Statistics

Picker stats provide information on all pickers who have participated in the Gator Pickers system since its inception in 1986, tracking how well they've done over the course of time. Here is some information on the stats data and how you can manipulate it.

Controls

• By default, the table will display data only for currently active pickers. Click All Pickers to include non-active pickers as well (who will be displayed in this color).
• If you are displaying all pickers, click Active Only to hide non-active pickers.
• Sort on any column by clicking in that column header. Click again to reverse the sort direction (toggle). The default is to sort by Avg (average rating) from low to high.

Columns

Most of the columns are self-explanatory, but here are a few notes.

• First is the first year participating. Wins and WPct track weekly wins and percentage compared to all games picked.
• KYrs is the number of years participating as an active member (competing for the Big Kahuna). Ks and Kpct track Big Kahuna championships.
• Likewise, JYrs is the number of years participating in the Big Johnson competition, and Js and JPct track Big Johnson victories.
• Skips are a count of times a picker missed a pick (and had to take a skip pick). Guest is a count of times a non-active picker submitted a pick.
• Points is total points accumulated (remember, less is more). But this isn't very interesting because pickers have widely varying number of games under their belts. So, Avg is the average per game rating, which is quite interesting.
• The Skips, Points, WPct, and BKPct columns are omitted for mobile devices, in the interest of readability on the smaller screen.

Team Statistics

Team stats provide information on how the Gators have performed on the field during the Picks era; i.e. 1986 to present (information on older games is not included here). Only completed games are included in this data.

Options

A number options are built-in to the Picks app for display of team data. These may change over time as I add new ones, but here is the current list:

• Summary — All completed games. This is the default.
• Level — Games by level. P5 is "Power 5" or what used to be known as BCS conference and major independents. G5 is "Group of 5", or second tier BCS competition. FCS is lower division (formerly 1AA).
• Conf — The opponent's conference. Note that these change over the years as we've had a number of waves of conference realignment, and probably more to come.
• Opponent — Who the Gators have played. Some of the team names have changed; I am using the current name if all most cases.
• Where — Whether the game was a home, true road, or neutral site game.
• Season — Whether the games was regular season, postseason bowl, or postseason championship game.
• Weekday — What day of the week the game was played on. While most were on Saturday, of course, we've played games on every day of the week in the Picks era.
• TimeRange — What time of day kickoff occured. This is meant to show whether the Gators have been better early, late, in between, or it doesn't matter.
• Decade — Just to show how we've done over the long haul.
• Ranking — To show how we've done as a ranked team against other ranked or unranked teams, and as an unranked team agains ranked or unranked opponents.
• State — The state where the game was played.
• Coach &mdas; The head coach of record, including interims.

Controls

Select the option to display using these controls:

• Use the drop-down menu to directly select which option to display.
• Use the arrow buttons to move back and forth through the option list one at a time.

Columns

Most of the columns are self-explanatory, but here are a few notes.

• GPct — A percentage of the games for that row (category) compared to the entire list of completed games. For example, Steve Spurrier coached 150 games, which is 33% of the 454 completed games as of the end of 2021.
• WPct — A percentage of the winning percentage of games on that row (category); i.e. Spurrier coached 150 games and won 122, or 81.3% of them.

Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame provides the winner's circle for the Big Kahuna championships and Big Johnson winners over the years.

Controls

• By default, the table will display the Big Kahuna Hall of Fame. Click Switch to BigJ to instead display the Big Johnson HOF.
• From the Big Johnson HOF display, click Switch to BK to return to the Big Kahuna HOF.

Columns

Here is some column information common to both hall of fame tables.

• Rate — Their winning average rating.
• Gms — The number of games played that year. This counts only regular season games for the Big Johnson competition, but all games for the Big Kahuna.
• Pkrs — For the Big Kahuna, this is the total number of active pickers that year, omitting any guest pickers. For the Big Johnson, this is the number of pickers who opted in that year. In either case, this number represents the "competition" the winner had to overcome to win their championship.
• Count — A counter tracking multiple championships. This will be blank for the first BK, then use the symbol "⚬" to identify multiple wins. If the count gets high enough (we're looking at you, TimC), the symbol "➎" will be used to signify five wins.

Picker Statistics

Click on a column header to sort by that column.

Team Records (Picks Era)

Hall of Fame