It has already been a very interesting week in the Circa Sports football contests and we haven’t even gotten to Sunday yet. The Thanksgiving “Week” tripped up a lot of Survivor contestants and a lot of entries in the Circa Million III put the picks in early to grab one of the Turkey Day sides.
This is the last week in November and it sure feels like December is crunch time year after year in the NFL. That is true of the contests as well, as those that have not fared as well as they would have liked through the first 11 weeks are running out of time to make up for it.
There are a lot of entries in the spotlight this week because it is week three of the third quarter, which means that the next round of quarter prizes will be handed out next week and this is the week to position your entry to have a shot at the money.
Circa Survivor
Usually I start this article with a look at the Circa Million, but the carnage from Thanksgiving in the Circa Survivor is the biggest contest story, so I’ll start there this week.
There were 134 entries in the field going into Thanksgiving, but that number was cut down severely. The Cowboys lost for 80 entries and 14 more lost with the Lions. That means that we are down to 40 entries vying for $6 million going into Sunday in Week 12.
Of the 40 that are left, 12 decided to go with the Patriots against the Texans. Six opted for the Eagles against the Giants. Five entries took the Bengals and 49ers. Four entries are on the Ravens for Sunday Night Football. The Panthers and Seahawks were selected twice, while the Dolphins, Chargers, Texans and Falcons were each picked once.
The $6 million prize pool means that each entry is worth $150,000 at this point in time. There is an extra bonus for any entry that goes a perfect 20-0 and uses either the Buccaneers or Chiefs in Week 18. We’ll see how many survive another week, but the drama has reached a fever pitch at this point.
Circa Million III
Moving to the Circa Million III, the drama isn’t quite as compelling, but we are still talking about significant money with the remaining quarter prizes and the full-season prizes that are in play. This week was certainly a tricky one. Those that opted not to take a Thanksgiving game only had 12 games to pick from for the rest of the weekend. That didn’t leave a lot of options.
With a tough week and a lot of toss-up lines, a lot of entrants probably had a couple of picks that they liked, but it takes five to tango on a weekly basis in this contest and sometimes that is a tall order.
JJarvis117 still leads the field with 42 points. The lead is a slim one, as PriceCheck is just one point behind. FJ1925 is alone in third with 40.5 points. DBLE Dutch 18 is alone in fourth with 40 points and Berta is alone in fifth with 39.5 points. There is a three-way tie for sixth and a five-way tie for ninth.
As far as the quarter standings, there are seven entries with a perfect 10-0 mark in the quest for the $171,750 first-place prize. There are a lot of entries at 9-1 heading into this week, as the next 10 picks will decide $271,750 worth of prizes for doing well and then $25,000 for doing really poorly to win the Booby Prize. Bronco Blue is the only entry at 0-10 in that race.
A quick recap of Week 11:
- The top-five consensus (five most popular picks) was 3-2 (Colts, Vikings, Ravens, Dolphins, Seahawks)
- The consensus (most selected team in each game) was 9-6
- Overall record was 10,171-9,759 (51 percent)
For the year-to-date:
- The top-five consensus is 32-23
- The consensus is 92-74-1
- Overall record is 114,393-105,651-1891 (52 percent)
Here are the lines, pick counts and consensus for Week 12 (* denotes home):
1 Bears 228
2 Lions* (%plussign% 3) 403
—
3 Cowboys* 318
4 Raiders (%plussign% 7.5) 332
—
5 Bills 590
6 Saints* (%plussign% 5.5) 234
—
7 Patriots* 895 (consensus #4)
8 Titans 780 (%plussign% 6.5)
—
9 Texans* 757
10 Jets (%plussign% 2.5) 449
—
11 Eagles 887 (consensus #5)
12 Giants* (%plussign% 3.5) 621
—
13 Bucs 778
14 Colts* (%plussign% 3) 963 (consensus #3)
—
15 Falcons 756
16 Jaguars* (PK) 359
—
17 Panthers 789
18 Dolphins* (%plussign% 2) 504
—
19 Bengals* 449
20 Steelers 1181 (%plussign% 4.5) (consensus #1)
—
21 Chargers* 734
22 Broncos (%plussign% 3) 718
—
23 49ers* 715
24 Vikings (%plussign 3) 863
—
25 Rams 1105 (consensus #2)
26 Packers* (PK) 737
—
27 Ravens* 648
28 Browns (%plussign% 3.5) 634
—
29 Washington* 698
30 Seattle (%plussign% 1) 590
The top-five consensus is the Pittsburgh Steelers, Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.
We’ll see how it all goes in Week 12. Dave Tuley will have contest updates in his Tuley’s Takes column on Monday and also Tuesday, so keep an eye out for those.
