• PLAYOFF QUALIFICATIONS IF SEASON ENDED TODAY: With just three weeks to handicap this year's regular season, the playoff qualifications for each participant is coming into focus. The most important playoff qualification will be had by this year's regular-season champion, of whom the Biased Nihilist (45 pts) presently holds the advantage over both Vikings17 (38 pts) and his son Kr@tos (37 pts). Winning the regular-season championship entitles the lucky participant to have scoring advantages over the rest of the Challenge field for the first-two rounds of the postseason, especially in the first round of the playoffs in which the regular-season champion has tremendous scoring advantages. The next best playoff qualification is that of divisional champions, for they will have the second-best scoring advantages in the first-two rounds of the playoffs. The next best qualification after the Divisional champions is that of the divisional wild cards and also the special wild card. The chances of winning an overall Bookie Challenge championship as a divisional wild card or as a special wild card are not very good. However, in the history of the Bookie Challenge's postseasons, only two participants have ever won a Bookie Challenge championship as a divisional wild-card entrant. The first to do it was the Biased Nihilist, who won the overall championship as a divisional wild-card entrant in Challenge year #5, and subsequently, Driveline pulled off the incredible handicapping feat in Challenge year #9. In Challenge year #9, Driveline actually entered that year's postseason as the Special Wild card, of which a Special Wild card has the exact same scoring opportunities as does a divisional wild card. A special-wild-card status is awarded to the participant who does not qualify for a Challenge postseason as either a regular-season champion or a divisional champion, but the special status is only given to the participant who has the best point total out of the remaining "at-large participants". For the record, an "at-large participant" has never won a Bookie Challenge championship. Listed below are the present playoff qualifications for each handicapper in the league if the season ended today:

  REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPION: The Biased Nihilist
  DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONS: The Biased Nihilist (Corozal div), Kr@tos (Hail Mary), Vikings17 (Run-&-Shoot), and 7mick7 (Red Zone)
  DIVISIONAL WILD CARDS: jcvike28 (Corozal), Pennypie86 (Hail Mary), Driveline (Run-&-Shoot), and Blitzkrieg (Red Zone)
  SPECIAL WILD CARD: dbucc
  AT-LARGE PARTICIPANTS: Jets69, TCU, Theopholis, and Matty_Ice.

  Listed below are the scoring formats for the first-two rounds of the postseason (please Note: The scoring format is the same for all participants for the third and final rounds of the playoffs).

  NFL WILD CARD ROUND (Round One): All participants must select 5 best bets and the exact score of the last game played in the round. Only Divisional Champions, Divisional Wild Cards, and the Special Wild Card can choose a 3-team parlay.

  Regular-season Champion--3 pts for each best bet win---3 pts or 6 pts for 3-team parlay winner
  Divisional Champions----2 pts for each best bet win---3 pts or 6 pts for 3-team parlay winner
  Divisional Wild Cards and Special Wild Card entrant----1 pt for each best bet win----3 pts or 6 pts for 3-team parlay winner
  At-large Participants------1 pt for each best bet win---Not eligible for parlay selection
  All Participants------------5 pts, 2 pts, or 1 pt for the two exact-score games played in the round.

  NFL DIVISIONAL ROUND (Round Two): All participants must select 5 best bets and the exact score of the last game played in the round. All participants are eligible to select 3-team parlay combinations.

  Regular-season Champion and Divisional Champions----3 pts for each best bet win---3 pts or 6 pts for 3-team parlay winner
  Divisional Wild Cards and Special Wild Card entrant----2 pts for each best bet win----3 pts or 6 pts for 3-team parlay winner
  At-large Participants------1 pt for each best bet win---3 pts or 6 pts for 3-team parlay winner
  All Participants-----------5 pts, 2 pts, or 1 pt for the two exact-score games played in the round.

• THERE ARE SIGNS OF A PULSE, BUT CHALLENGE FIELD STILL ON LIFE SUPPORT: One has to ask the question of this year's Challenge field: "What gives?" Granted, after this past weekend, this year's Challenge field showed some signs of life, but to avoid a total flat-line of its handicapping this season, the field is going to need some miraculous things to happen in the next three weeks if it plans on salvaging the regular season as it concerns its best-bet numbers and 6-point parlay hits. As of right now, the year-to-date totals for the two aforementioned statistical categories are putrid at best and are threatening to end in all-time lows for this season. Specifically, as it pertains to the best-bets for this season, the field presently owns a best-bet tally of 186-225-7, which factors out to disappointing .453 winning percentage. Compare those best-bet stats to the all-time low from Challenge year #3, 351-410-34 (Win% .461), and one can readily see that side-stepping the worst best-bet total by a Challenge field is still a doable proposition. But when it comes to dodging the worst 6-point parlay hits by a Challenge field, well, that's a horse of a different color. After this past weekend the field will head into week #16 with a wretched tally of just 12 overall 6-point parlay winners so far this season. The lowest all-time record for the fewest 6-point parlay hits by a Bookie Challenge field is 23 6-point parlay winners, of which is an all-time low tally that has been accomplished twice before, once by the Challenge field of year #10 and another time by the Challenge field of year #3. In all likelihood, it appears as if this years Challenge field is almost guaranteed to end its regular season with the lowest amount of all-time 6-point parlay hits, as it is too much to expect this year's field to connect on 11 more 6-point parlay winners in the remaining three weeks of the regular season.

Hands down, the Biased Nihilist is presently the HOTTEST HANDICAPPER in the league, bar none. In this year's competition everything is going right for the Nihilist--EVERYTHING! Incredibly, the "Corozal Kid" is piecing together one of those rarely stupefying seasons in which he is tantalizingly trying to rewrite the all-time record books. Granted, there are a few haters within the Bookie Challenge's ranks who want nothing better than to see the Nihilist fall flat on his face, who want to downplay the Nihilist's phenomenal handicapping season, but the Nihilist has been so rock-solid this season that any egregious fall from grace is nearly impossible to happen. This past weekend the Nihilist delivered on his league-leading third parlay hit on the season, of which the parlay winner was also his league-leading 38th all-time 6-point parlay winner, and when accounting for his league-leading six 6-point parlay hits for postseason handicapping, the Nihilist presently owns a staggering 44 all-time, 6-point parlay winners, and nobody even comes close to the Nihilist's all-time parlay records. Already this season the Nihilist set a new all-time record for the most consecutive "weeks-won", of which the record was three weeks in a row that he accomplished earlier this season. What's more, after winning this past weekend outright, the Nihilist has now tied Tony Soprano for the all-time record of four "weeks-won" in a single regular season of handicapping the competition. At the present time, the Nihilist is tied with Kr@tos for the top best-bet record in this year's competition, leads the league with 45 total points, and is on pace to perhaps set new all-time records over the span of the final three weeks of this year's regular season, as in he can possibly break the all-time single-season scoring record (54 pts), break the all-time consecutive scoring record (22 weeks in a row), and can also become the first handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge to win a number-one top seed at a divisional seeding, a regular-season championship, and an overall Bookie Challenge championship all in the same season. He can also become the third participant to go for an entire competition without registering a scoreless outing. Hell, man, the way things are going this season, the Nihilist can't help but see himself as being the envy of the league, so much so that he is considering buying a Rod Smart "He Hate Me" jersey just to rub it in. But after thinking it over, he might make a custom order and instead of having "He Hate Me" on the back of the jersey--he'll go with something even better and more apropriate, such as "I Love Me".

"Broadway Al" (aka Jets69) goose egged his outing this past weekend and fell farther behind his divisional counterparts in this year's Hail Mary divisional race. At the present, he is in last-place in the division (4th place) and trails the divisional leader Kr@tos by a whopping 17 points, of which is seemingly an insurmountable deficit when considering that only three weeks are left to handicap in this year's regular season. And heck, for that matter, Jets69 is going to be hard-pressed to snatch away the divisional wild-card slot from rookie Kennypie86, as he trails second-place Kennypie by nine points (29 pts vs 20 points). With all the aforementioned being said, "the Jet-Lagged Gambler" (Jet69's other Bookie Challenge moniker) had better hope he can catch third-place dbucc and separate dbucc from his Special-Wild-Card postseason qualification. Otherwise, Jets69 will enter this year's postseason as a lowly "at-large participant". Amazingly, as if by clockwork, this past weekend Jets69 ONCE AGAIN nailed two out of three parlay picks within his parlay combination, of which marked a league-leading ninth time this season that he has chalked up another near-miss of a 6-point parlay winner. What's more, the lack of connecting on any 6-point parlay hits has been the bane of his handicapping season in this year's competition. In fact, Jets69 is only one of four participants who have yet to nail down a 6-point parlay hit this season, with jcvike28. Theopholis, and rookie Matty_Ice being the other three who haven't registered a parlay winner. Accordingly, all four are in last place within their respective divisional races. But in the case of Jets69, it's a crying shame that he hasn't connected on any parlay hits this season, because he has had the top best-bet marks in the league over the past several weeks. However, after this past weekend, Jets69 has since been passed up in that specific statistical category by both the Biased Nihilist and Kr@tos (both handicappers have 18-13-1 best-bet records that are good for a .581 winning pct). What has to be remembered is that in Jets69's epic battle against Kr@tos for last season's Rookie-of-the Year" honor, it was his regular-season best-bet record that foiled Jets69's run to win last year's Rookie-of-the-Year award, for Jets69 registered a lowly best-bet tally of 16-22-0 (Win% .421) in last year's regular season. But because Jets69 connected on three 6-point parlay hits during last year's regular season, he did manage to squeeze out last year's Special-Wild-Card postseason qualification. However, this regular season has so far been a totally different story, as Jets69's failure to rack up any 6-point parlay hits in this year's regular season is what has hindered Broadway Al from seriously challenging Kr@tos for this year's Hail Mary divisional championship. To be frank, before the start of this year's Hail Mary divisional race, the fact that both Kr@tos and Jets69 ended up in the same division, this year's Hail Mary divisional race promised to be a rematch of last season's rookie duel between both handicappers. If anything, Jets69 was hoping to exact a measure of revenge against Kr@tos, but if the "Jet-Lagged Gambler" doesn't get it going--and quickly!--he might as well just lay down and get some rest because there's always next year.