Been awhile since the last post, here's a quick wrap up of my picks since yesterday.

UConn (picked) loss to Mich. State. Loss with majority.

LA Kings (picked) def. Phoenix. Win with majority.

Germany loss to Switzerland. Loss with minority.

Louisville Cardinals def. Oklahoma Sooners. (Loss with Majority)

Hit Justin Leonard this morning over Phil Mickelson, with the minority.

Tonight I've got the UConn Huskies over Mich. State, with the majority.

UConn alum here, go Huskies!

Friday night has come and gone, two picks in the books. One win and one loss.

At 7PM I took the San Antonio Spurs over the Pacers, a win with the majority.

Later that night I took The New Orleans Hornets over Golden State, a loss with the majority.

This morning I've got Justin Leonard with a lower first round score over Phil Mickelson.

Schalke 04 was victorious this afternoon, bringing my current streak to 2 and total wins to 4 thusfar. This win was against the majority.

Tonight I've got the Spurs over the Pacers, with the majority.

Nuggets won last night. Got Schalke 04 over those other scrubs. Against the majority.

Overall record right now is 3-1-1. All three wins thus far have come with the majority.

First loss of the season tonight. Damn Nittany Lions. Got the Denver Nuggets tonight, Jazz have a pretty bad road record.

With the majority.

Congratulations to me on my first PUSH of the season, many more to come I'm sure

Picking Baylor Bears over Penn State tonight in the NIT Championship, with the majority as of 5PM.

Hit my pick last night, East All-Stars over the West in the McDonalds All-American Game, with the majority.

I've selecting Davis Love III for the lower first round score because I've never heard of the other guy.

New Streak Rules

The third season of ESPN's Streak for the Cash really isn't a season at all, it's more of a marathon for the cash.

The new rules have the 'season' running from now (April 1st) through mid-December. Instead of having a goal number for consecutive victories, ESPN will now have the 7 players with the best streaks to Bristol for a "Streak-Off" to decide who will get the million dollars. There will also be a variety of prizes for reaching streaks longer than 13 wins as well as cash prizes for the most wins in each month.

These are some pretty nice changes for a few reasons. First of all, it guarantees someone will win the million. Unlike season two, where I believe the longest streak was only 21 of the 27 needed.

Secondly, the game won't end abruptly in the middle of some insanely important sporting event, like say the NCAA Tournament...

As for tonights pick, I'm going with the Eastern All Stars over the West in the McDonalds All American Game, again with the majority.

So far today I have picked Spain over Turkey and won, which was with the majority. I simply felt that Spanish people are probably better at soccer, or futbol, than Turkish.

Streak For The Cash Experiment

Since the “Streak for the Cash” debuted on ESPN.com last August I’ve been interested in why people pick the way they do. The object of the game seems simple enough, correctly select the winner in 27 consecutive matchups, and win $1 million. Easy right? Think again, the matchups that are available are hardly locks and only one person has ever completed the streak (to 25 during season 1). ESPN does not have exactly how many people select a given matchup available, but they do give you a couple of percentages to help you along the way.

Most obvious is the percentage of people who chose one option or the other. 38.8% for Team A, 62.2% for Team B. Pretty simple.

Less obvious is the availability of the percentage of the population who are participating in that matchup. Selecting that 62.2% on a hunch becomes much tougher when only 10% of people have bothered picking between the two. You can get this percentage by floating your mouse over the bar that represents how “Hot” the matchup is.

So with a new streak starting tomorrow, April 1st, and no winners this season I’m going to start keeping track of my picks and whether or not that pick was with the majority or against the majority.

There will not be any limits in terms of maximum or minimum games played in a day, week, or the entire season. It will be as if I was playing normally. For those wondering I have a 99-95-6 record this season with a maximum streak of only 7, so I’m not an expert or anything. In fact my record is decidedly average. I regularly fall into ESPN’s trap of guessing on afternoon soccer games, while sometimes doing a bit of research on college basketball games.

Some of my stats to get started:

1Q of 2009 Record:

99 Wins
95 Losses
6 Ties

200 Total Games Played

92 Total Days This Season (Jan 1 – Mar 31)

2.17 Games Per Day.

Longest Winning Streak: 7

Longest Losing Streak: 5

Each day I will post my picks and results here along with whether the pick was with or against the majority. I will also host a copy of the spreadsheet I’m using to keep track of my data. Feel free to keep track of my progress yourself. My username on ESPN.com is Schweikher1 and I belong to Streak group “EZ”.