Post Season Week 1 National Trophy predictions

The trophy, which is actually a plate, can sometimes be seen as a lower award, but to some teams it is something to aspire to and having even a minor trophy in the cabinet is better than nothing (just ask Arsenal fans).

To some of these teams fighting it out in the second tier of post season competition it can seem like a bit of a damp squib after pushing for Championship playoffs and falling short. However with the glory also comes the BUCS points, which I am sure their respective Students Unions wouldn't mind at all.

Let the games begin!

Post Season Week 1 National Championship predictions

The playoffs are upon us! The post season has crept up on us faster than an Offensive Lineman at a cake buffet and the real business of knock out football begins (weather permitting).

Firstly, to deal in some glory/ignominy. During the season the Double Coverage team had a little prediction league running between a few of the writers and the overall results are in. Out of a total of 247 games predicted:

Rich predicted 180 correctly (72.8%) with 6 upsets

Luke predicted 174 correctly (70.4%) with 6 upsets

Jon predicted 170 correctly (68.8%) with 8 upsets

Simon predicted 170 correctly (68.8%) with 3 upsets

Pikachu predicted 166 correctly (67.2%) with 5 upsets

Willy Tee predicted 164 correctly (65.5%) with 5 upsets

An upset is decided when only two writers chose a team to win and get it right. Upsets were the tiebreaker so Jon finished above Simon

To bring a new slant to our play off predictions we've decided to ask our writers to give their best guess as to who will win in the playoffs with some new players in the game and also some new rules.

Dana Neale, Tommy Gibbs and Chris Stupack join our predicting team bringing knowledge of teh TVC, MAC and BNW with them. The rules are simple. Each player must predict a team to win each game, if you are involved with a team in that game your pick will automatically be for your team (less controversial that way!)

Now on to the picks!

DCW Top 25 Poll

1 Hertfordshire +1

2 Birmingham -1
3 Loughborough -
4 Derby -
5 Stirling -
6 Hull -
7 Sheffield +1
8 Bath -1
9 Portsmouth +2
10 UWE -1
11 Kingston -1
12 NTU +3
13 Southampton -1
14 BNU +5
15 Warwick +1
16 UEA +4
17 Carnegie -
18 Cambridge -4
19 Gloucester +4
20 Kent -6
21 Manchester -
22 Glasgow -4
23 Plymouth -
24 Swansea NEW
25 Leeds –

The final writer’s poll of the season and there is a change at the top as the Hertfordshire Hurricanes claim the number one spot after finishing the season undefeated once again. This change at the top is quite surprising considering that the Lions last game was against the Loughborough Aces, the number three team in our rankings. Really it is too close to call between the top two teams, the fairest would be to have them tied at the top.