CCHA Pick ‘Em 2025-26: 8.5 Arrivederci Rico!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Let’s finish up with the East Regional.

(4) NoClue vs. Bye – The cheap joke is that NoClue certainly has a clue as shown by the fourth place finish. The serious side is how this came about. A .681 pick percentage and a second place finish in the Battle for the Beagan plus eleven (11!) top-10 finishes, 2 weekly wins, and the entire season spent in the top 7 in the race for the MacNaughton – that may be the first time in Pick ‘Em history – ain’t no joke. The only opportunity for improvement is the 26 bonus points.

(5) puckdude40 vs. Bye – The winner of the 2023-24 Jeff Sauer Trophy finished fourth in that race this year with 31 bonus points. Puckdude40 also had seven top 5 finishes and was never outside the top 10 the entire season including spending the first 4 weeks at the top of the standings. So where’s the weakness, Yeah, well, about that. Could you really call finishing with a .651 pick percentage a weakness?

(13) MTUHuskyGold vs (20) Footballguy51 – MTUHuskyGold spent 19 weeks in the top 10 including a stop in the top spot during week 6 (WOW!). However, a slide during the last two weeks landed them in the 13 seed. Can some of this mojo be recaptured? Well, one weekly win and 5 top-5 finishes along with a .633 pick percentage are a good indication that it’s possible. The only weakness is 24 bonus points which ranks in the bottom quartile. Their opponent is none other than the contestant who for the fourth consecutive year has far and away the pick of the season. What a week 9 for Footballguy51 who not only won the week but did so by drawing three to an inside straight with three upset picks. His 34 bonus points ranked in the top 10 but a pick percentage of .553 ranked next to last. This is a fascinating matchup pitting each contestant’s strength against the other contestant’s weakness. Draft Kings is all over this one.

(12) beaverhockeyfan vs. (21) iwearpurple – Our last matchup sees the 2022-23 Jeff Sauer Trophy winner posting another strong bonus showing with 39 bonus points, good for 5th. Six top-5 finishes with a weekly win is solid performance. beaverhockeyfan maintained a fairly consistent performance through the year spending 11 weeks in the 11/12 spot in the standings. The only challenge to overcome is a pick percentage of .607. iwearpurple finished the season with a .649 pick percentage (good for 8th) and 30 bonus points. A weekly win and 6 top-5 finishes shows some strong upside. However, missing a few weeks made things difficult to overcome. This match is a lot tighter than it looks.

[mbenecke]

Rooting hard for the folks from this board in their matchups this weekend. Let's stack some wins!

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Round 1 of the playoffs is complete. How did you do?

In the Midwest regional there were no upsets as all the higher seeds took care of buisiness. mbenecke beat bye while GoNanooks took out Tommiealum93. SweeneyHawksHockey bested manurespreader, and giwan took down Puck Master.

While there were also no upsets in the West regional, there was plenty of action as iowabasedtraveler clobbered bye with 15 points which was the highest score this round. Did they leave anything in the tank for the second round? Soulbeaver tied their way to the second round over Icd80 while TUPD delivered what has to be called the You Have Got To Be Kidding Me tie over John J. MacInnes 13-13 to advance. In almost every other match, 13 points is enough to advance. Ugh. That sucks. Sorry, dude. Bronco Hockey Fan took out AgentClass who seemed to go missing the last month of the season.

In the North regional, well, there were no upsets. SectionP took care of Bye while Berger21 outlasted HockeyJohn 10-8. In yet another You Have Got To Be Kidding Me match, StevieYNot beat CFBHome by one point, 14-13. Ugh. Did I mention 13 points is usually enough to advance? Tough break. In the last match. BillyLP smacked Bye right out of the tournament.

Moving on to our last regional, NoClue took advantage of the day off and bye'd their way to the next round over bye as did puckdude40. MTUHuskyGold ended Footballguy51's season 14-10, and iwearpurple became the only upset winner in the first round by outlasting beaverhockeyfan14-7. How long will this Cinderella dance?

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Round 2 results are in. Let's get to it.

In the Midwest regional mbenecke continues on by tying GoNanooks 7-7 in a close one. In the other match, SweeneyHawksHockey outlasted giwan 9-8 in another close one.

Over in the West, iowabasedtraveler continues their amazing run by taking out soulbeaver 10-3. If it were going to end, of course it would end this way as Bronco Hockey Fan tied their way to the quarters 10-10 over TUPD. Yeah, normally putting up 10 in round 2 is enough to advance, but you gotta tip your cap here.

In the North regional, SectionP posted the most points in the round and eliminated Berger21 13-9 while BillyLP kept the streak alive by ending StevieYNot's run 10-7.

There are some big goings on in the east as NoClue was a NoShow enabling MTUHuskyGold to reach the quarters. In the other match, the Cinderella story continues on as upset-minded iwearpurple advances over puckdude40 in a tight one, 8-7.

In the Midwest, West, and North regionals we see the top two contestants duking it out, winner makes the final four. However, in the East, two of the lower seeds remain alive.

The form for the quarterfinals will be made available after the Ferris/Mankato game tonight.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Here are the results of our little side contest. If you're out (like me) go ahead and fill out forms the rest of the way and I'll keep the tally. 23 is the score to catch (can't believe I'm out!).

Code: Select all

Contestant         Score
TalonsUpPuckDown     23
BillyLP              17
Footballguy51        17
mbenecke             17
Hockey John          16

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Here is the form for the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. Good luck!

Quarterfinal and Semifinal Rounds

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The quarterfinal results are in and the final frozen four is set. In the Midwest, mbenecke tied his way to the semis with a 5-5 win over SweeneyHawksHockey. Over in the West, we see iowabasedtraveler taking it to Bronco Hockey Fan by a whopping score of 6-2. BillyLP keeps the dream alive with a 3-2 win over SectionP in the North. Finally, in the East, MTUHuskyGold brought an end to iwearpurple's Cinderella run 4-3.

In the semifinals we have two top seeds still alive, mbenecke from the Midwest and iowabasedtraveler from the West. Standing in their way is 13th seed MTUHuskyGold and 6th seed BillyLP. Puck drop for the semis comes up next so stay tuned.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

The semifinal results are in and what a battle! In the first game, mbenecke took it to MTUHuskyGold by a final score of 5-2. Congrats mbenecke! In the second game, iowabasedtraveler outlasted BillyLP in a 6-5 nailbiter. Congrats to iowabasedtraveler! And congrats to MTUHuskyGold and BillyLP for making the penultimate games must see TV!

So, after 5,110 games picked over 23 weeks, it comes down to this. For the first time in Pick 'Em history the #1 seed mbenecke will face off against the #2 seed iowabasedtraveler. Mano-a-mano. A real 'two men enter, one man leaves' Thunderdome. Who will emerge with the coveted Mason Cup? Will it be this year's winner of the MacNaughton Cup and Bill Beagan trophy or will it be this year's winner of the Jeff Sauer trophy? There are tons of storylines for the press to follow which makes for a level of excitement not seen in years. Good luck!

Championship Round

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Here are the results of our losers side contest:

Code: Select all

Playoffs            Rds 1 & 2    Quarters and Semis     Total
TalonsUpPuckDown        23                14              37
mbenecke                17                10              27
BillyLP                 17                 8              25
Footballguy51           17                 8              25
Hockey John             16                 6              22

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

CONGRATULATIONS TO mbenecke WHO IS THE 2025-26 WINNER OF THE MASON CUP! iowabasedtraveler put up a strong fight but lost on the tiebreaker 6-6. What a playoff! For the first time in Pick 'Em history the #1 and #2 seeds went head-to-head with the winner being decided by a tiebreaker. Also, we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that mbenecke will need to make room on his trophy shelf as he's not only the Mason Cup winner but also the MacNaughton Cup and Bill Beagan Trophy winner. What a year for mbenecke!

Here are the results of our side contest.

Code: Select all

Playoffs            Rds 1 & 2    Quarters and Semis  Championship   Total
TalonsUpPuckDown        23                14               1          38
mbenecke                17                10               6          33
Hockey John             16                 6               6          28

And that'll do it for another season of the CCHA Pick 'Em. Thanks to everyone for playing this year and Roll Along!

[mbenecke]

You can send my prize money and 10 foot tall trophy in the mail.

Thanks for putting this together TUPD! And thanks for playing, everybody! Can’t wait to do it all again next season.