Football Companion 3.0
Football Companion '98  by Anthony Stuchel

Football Companion is a combination NFL schedule/score tracker that will help you track your favorite teams through the NFL season. Football Companion also makes its own predictions for upcoming games as the season progresses based on the scores that you enter into the program. This version of Football Companion has a number of new features including:

- entering your own predictions

- better computer-made predictions

- prediction hit/miss statistics

- many more team statistics

- team editing

You can find out more about the various screens and dialogs by selecting one of the following:

Main Menu

Teams Page

Week Games Page

Playoff Games Page

Prediction Statistics Dialog

Team Games

Team Statistics

Team Data


Teams Page

The Teams page is very simple to use. Simply select the teams you wish to appear in the team list (on the right) by selecting the appropriate radio button in the Division radio button group. You may select all the teams in the NFL or just a certain conference or division. When any group is selected other than "All Teams," the teams in the team list are sorted by their current win-loss-tie record. When sorting teams that have identical records, Football Companion will break the tie by applying the appropriate NFL tie-breaking rules between conference or division teams.

If you double-click on a team in the team list, you will be taken to the Team Games/Stats dialog. If you right-click on the team list, a pop-up menu will appear that has the following options:

View Team Games

View Team Statistics

Edit Team

Each of these menu options will take you to the appropriate page in the Team Games/Stats dialog.

Select the Help button at the bottom of the page to view this help. Select the Print button to print out the names and records for teams that are currently in the team list.


Team Games

The Team Games page is part of the Team Games/Statistics dialog that allows you to view and edit the scores for each game that the selected team will play.

In the center of the page is a scrollable window that contains all of the games that the selected team will play through the season. Teams play only once each week, but usually have one or more 'off' weeks. These are marked as such. You may enter in the scores for each game as the season progresses. Press the Update Statistics button located near the bottom of the page to record the scores you have entered. Entering 00 for both teams' scores tells Football Companion that the game has not been played. If you move to a different page, Football Companion will update the scores for you.

Select the Update button to register scores that you entered in the score boxes. Select the Print button to print the current team's games. Select the Help button to view this help file. Select OK to close the dialog.


Week Games Page

The Week Games page contains all of the games that will be played for the selected week. Change the week by using the up and down arrows to the right of the week number and use the arrows on the right of the game listing to scroll through the games. This information includes the days and times that the games will be played as well as the teams' overall records (for games in the entire season) and the scores for each game.

You may edit the scores for each game on this page. In fact, this is the most logical place to record the games that have been played during the previous week. Entering 00 for both teams' scores tells Football Companion that the game has not been played. Pressing the Update button will record the scores that you enter as well as update the statistics for the teams. Football Companion will update the statistics for you if you switch to a different page.

Also of interest on this page is the computer prediction for each game. This prediction is based solely on the scores for games played in this season and in the previous season. The scores that are under the prediction caption are the scores that Football Companion has predicted for each team. Predictions are cumulative--if an actual game has not been played prior to the current game, the predictions for this game are based on the predictions for the previous game. The "O/U" (Over/Under) score is the total number of points that the program predicts will be scored in this game.

The Week Games page also includes score boxes for you to enter your predictions for each game. These boxes work identically to the ones in which you enter in the actual scores. Here you can compare your own predicted scores with what actually happened. See if you can predict better than the computer!

After entering the actual game scores or your scores (or a combination of both), you should then press the Update button to enter in the information and have Football Companion re-calculate the standings and predictions for the teams. Select the Prediction Stats button to view the Prediction Statistics dialog. Select the Print button to print out the information for the current week, and select the Help button to view this help topic.

These predictions are for entertainment purpose ONLY and are not intended as accurate predictions for wagering on games. Softdisk Publishing will NOT be held responsible for any material and/or monetary loss incurred on bets using the predictions in this program. It has been declared illegal to wager on football games in most states.


Playoff Games Page

The Playoff Games page contains the all of the playoff games for this season. At any time during the season, you can see which teams would go to the playoffs if the season ended right then. Naturally, this does not have any real relevance until all of the regular season games have been completed. It does, however give you an indication of the standing of the best teams.

The Playoff Games page is organized in a tree structure that can be scrolled to the left and right using the scroll bar near the bottom of the page. The AFC playoff games begin on the left side of the tree and progress to the right, and the NFC games begin on the right side of the tree and progress to the left. The Super Bowl is located in the center of the tree.

The Playoff Games page can be in one of two modes -- the actual mode and the predicted mode. This is changed by pressing the View Actual or View Predicted button located at the bottom of the Playoffs page.

Actual mode

In actual mode, the teams in the playoffs are based on the currently entered scores for the regular season games. Because the playoff teams are determined by various statistics in the regular season, this mode is only useful for seeing which teams will probably make it to the playoffs. Only when the entire regular season of scores has been entered will the Playoff Games page have the real playoff teams. Press the Update button located near the bottom of the page to record the scores you have entered. Entering 00 for both teams' scores tells Football Companion that the game has not been played. If you move to a different page, Football Companion will update the scores for you.

Note:	Because the beginning games of the playoffs are only relevant if the entire regular season has been played, it is only possible to edit the scores in the Playoffs page when the entire regular season of games has been entered. Also, in case the situation arises that Football Companion incorrectly calculates the teams entering the playoffs, it is possible to modify the entering teams by using the combo boxes provided. Select the Reset Playoffs menu option under the View menu to reset the teams to those the computer calculated.

Predicted mode

In predicted mode, the playoffs are calculated and computer-predicted all the way to the Super Bowl. The teams that make it to the playoffs are based on the currently entered scores and the predicted scores for those games that have not yet been played in the regular season. The playoff games themselves are then predicted. Because the games are only predictions, it is not possible to edit the scores in predicted mode.

Note: Changing the outcome of games in the regular season naturally affects the teams that are to go to the playoffs. Therefore, if the outcome of a game is changed in the regular season, games in the playoffs may be invalid and are therefore reset if necessary.

These predictions are for entertainment purpose ONLY and are not intended as accurate predictions for wagering on games. Softdisk Publishing will NOT be held responsible for any material and/or monetary loss incurred on bets using the predictions in this program. It has been declared illegal to wager on football games in most states.


Main Menu

The main menu contains the following commands:

File

Open	- Opens a Football Companion schedule file.

Save	- Saves the currently loaded schedule file.

Save As	- Saves the currently loaded schedule file using a name that you specify.

Print	- Prints the current page of information.

Exit	- Exit Football Companion

View

Teams - Go to the Teams page.

Week Games - Go to the Week Games page.

Playoff Games - Go to the Playoff Games page

Reset Playoffs - Resets the entering playoff teams to those that the Football Companion has calculated.

Help

Index - View this help file.

Help on Help - View help on how to use Help.

About - View information about Football Companion.


Prediction Statistics Dialog

The Prediction Statistics Dialog is where you compare the computer's predictions for a certain week with the actual scores. The dialog is divided in two columns with the current week's prediction records on the left and the total prediction records up to and including this week on the right.

Each column contains two boxes. One box has the win/loss (correct/incorrect) record for you and the computer. This record (represented by a win-loss and a percentage) is the number of games for which the computer and you correctly predicted the winner of the game (based on the actual scores, the computer predicted scores, and your predictions). The box directly below it has the point spread record for you and the computer. This record reflects those game that the computer and you correctly predicted the point spread for games. Here is an example of how these statistics are determined:

Actual:	Dallas	24

Miami	21

Predicted	Dallas	28

Miami	21

The point spread is the difference between the scores minus ½. You must beat the spread in order to win by the spread. In this scenario, Dallas won by a point spread of 3. The prediction stated that Dallas would win by a point spread of 6½ (7 minus ½). The statistics will show that the predictor correctly chose the winner of the game, but did not correctly predict the point spread. The predictor thought that Dallas would win by 6½. Dallas would have had to win by 7 or more points in order for the predictor to have correctly predicted the point spread of the game. In other words, if you think that a team is going to win by a lot of points, the team had better win by a lot of points.

Statistics are calculated using only the games that have been played and predicted. The computer predicts all of the games, but statistics are only calculated for it if the actual scores have been entered. Your predictions are calculated only if you have entered in a prediction for a game and the actual score has been entered.

Select the Help button to view this help file. Select the OK button to leave the Prediction Statistics screen.


Team Statistics

The Team Statistics page is part of the Team Games/Statistics dialog that allows you to examine a great deal of things about the current team. The Team Statistics page is divided into four tables: Overall, In Division, In AFC, and In NFC. Each of these four tables contain information regarding games that the current team played at home and away and total wins, losses, ties, points for (PF), and points against (PA).

The points for and points against refer to the total number of points that this team scored and the total number of points other teams scored against it. For example: if the Home PA is 56, in all the home games that this team has played, the total number of points that opposing teams scored is 56.

Select the Print button to print the current team's statistics. Select the Help button to view this help file. Select OK to close the dialog.


Team Data

The Team Data page is part of the Team Games/Statistics dialog that allows you to edit the team name and city, as well as information about how this team did last year.

The Team Data page has edit boxes in which you may change the name and city of the current team. The area titled "Last Year's Record" contains information about how the team did during the last year's season. Last year's record (combined with this year's record) is used by the computer when predicting games. You can use this information when making your own predictions, too. There are boxes in which you can enter the total wins, losses, and ties for this team last year, as well as the total points for (PF) and points against (PA) for this team.

Select the Update button to register data that you entered into the name, city, and last year's record boxes. Select the Help button to view this help file. Select OK to close the dialog.