Huron High School huddles up before the start of the game against Saline at Huron in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. Saline defeated Huron, 49-0. (Patrick Record | The Ann Arbor News)
ANN ARBOR -- This wouldn’t have been much fun by myself.
I wanted to take time to thank all the MLive Ann Arbor News readers that joined us for our weekly Beat the Elite contest.
It was a lot of fun seeing many of the same names every week, and the excitement readers had when they were able to attain the elusive perfect score.
We had 38 prefect scores over nine weeks, so it wasn’t any easy accomplishment.
I do want to take the time to single out one group -- the group of readers that submitted picks each and every week of the regular season.
An extra heartfelt thank you goes out to Josh Tropea, Matt Hession, Frank Rozsa, Brian Pieske, Melody Hoffman, Gabe Burdette, Brian Puffer, Scott DeLand, David Holden, Glenn Vanneste, Aaron Ward, David Evanski, Alex Teixeira, Lazon Hicks Sr., Lance Cadmus, Mark Musolf, Larry Hieber, Trevor Hawkins, Cindy Denney and Chinney McGee.
Fourteen people in that group didn’t win a t-shirt this season, but I’m fixing that right now. I’m sending out emails to you this weekend with details on how to pick up your Beat the Elite t-shirt.
You helped make this column a winner for me, so thank you!
Now, one last order of business, throughout the season I’ve been pointing out interesting week-by-week stats. I spent some time the last couple of days going over the numbers, and have some fun ones I’d like to share with you…
* Josh Tropea had the best average of the readers who participated each week by picking 77 percent of the games correctly.
* My season average ended up being 72 percent (63-24).
* Beat the Elite averaged 124 entrants per week for a total of 10,769 picks. On the season, the overall percentage of correct picks was 72 percent.
* The best week for readers was Week 5 with a schedule that featured Chelsea at Adrian, Temperance Bedford at Saline, Ypsilanti Lincoln at Dexter and Ann Arbor Pioneer at Ann Arbor Skyline. Readers guessed 85 percent of the games correctly.
* The worst week for readers was Week 1 with a schedule that featured Ypsilanti at Ann Arbor Pioneer, Muskegon Mona Shores at Saline, Jackson at Ann Arbor Huron and Fowlerville at Dexter. Readers guessed only 45 percent of games correctly.
* Readers exceeded 80 percent in Week 5, Week 7 and Week 8.
* Saline easily enjoyed the most support over the nine-week regular season. It finished the year averaging 94 percent support on a weekly basis. Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard was the only other team to average more than 80 percent on a weekly basis.
And that’s a wrap for now.
Beat the Elite will return in about a month for basketball season, so I hope everyone that enjoyed doing this during the football season will come back for more!
Michael Niziolek covers local sports for MLive Ann Arbor News. Email him at mniziole@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+
Ad Choices