King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Panel o' Experts tie! Schlereth, Zillgitt share prestigious championship, earn dinner at columnist's house. Plus: Wait, Year in Sports was even worse.
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Jan. 3, 2008 | Mark Schlereth of ESPN and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today are the champions of this year's NFL Panel o' Experts, having correctly picked the winner of 171 of the 256 regular-season games played in 2007. Their victory -- by three games over you, the teeming masses, as represented by Yahoo's users -- entitles them to a valuable prize that has been won by many and claimed by none: dinner at my house.
This is the second straight tie and the fifth time in the five-year history of the panel that an ESPN expert has won at least a share of the title. That's not surprising given that the four-letter has at times made up about half of the panel and even in this year's expanded field accounts for a third of the players.
Zillgitt, like USA Today colleagues Jarrett Bell and Larry Weisman a first-time entrant this year, rallied in Week 17 to catch Schlereth at the wire, going 12-4 while Schlereth went 11-5.
Mike Golic shared the championship with Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports last year. The other winners were Ron Jaworski in 2003 and Sean Salisbury in 2004 and '05, the only repeat winner. Jaworski had the highest winning percentage this year, but since he didn't pick a winner in any of the Monday night games he announced for ESPN television, he finished in a tie for seventh place.
The Panel o' Experts is based on correct picks, not winning percentage. So ESPN's conflict-of-interest rules -- which are awfully persnickety for a network that's one giant conflict of interest -- may have kept Jaws from claiming a second title. He would have had to go only 6-9 in the Monday games to beat Schlereth and Zillgitt.
While Robinson made a solid showing, finishing in a three-way tie for fourth, Golic came close to pulling off a rare first-to-worst tumble. He went 149-106, one of only four panelists -- out of 21 -- to miss on more than 100 games and post a winning percentage under .600. He even finished behind ESPN colleague Eric Allen, an incorrect-picking machine whom I keep on the panel as insurance against my finishing last.
Golic was kept out of last place by porn star Adriana Sage, who followed last year's strong showing -- she finished third -- by going 146-110, three games worse than Golic. Sage was philosophical and defiant Wednesday, saying by e-mail that she'd expected to have a tough year picking.
"I spent a lot of my time pursuing new endeavors, allowing less time to follow the league," she wrote. "Aside from that, instead of making my picks from a logical and neutral perspective, they were made with wishful thinking."
She said she'll keep picking games through the playoffs on her nonporn site Erotic Model Picks, and vows to be back picking next year.