The 2019 Phil Steele/Northcoast Picks, Record Documentation, Commentary and Discussion Thread

[savage1]

Ok-here we go.

We usual the usual one sided and selective bragging about the NFL and the 2-1 day yesterday.

We are also told the ext. 9 comps. have gone 9-3 the last few weeks.

In the weeks when these comps. lost(and believe me there are weeks when these comps have lost and lost big), NOTHING/ZILCH/NADA is said about

the record.

The NC Motto should be "We tell you about then when they win, but the "sounds of silence" prevails when they lose."

Also we get the usual worthless Monday pricing with the 2* and Marquee is in effect for tonight(you know $30 with $40 back in CREDIT if it loses or $20

with no guarantee) and the $12 for the Marquee.

Again how come there is never a 3*, 4* or even 5* or just and opinion on Monday and Always a Marquee but never just an opinion or even nothing??

I wonder if Phil schedules sex with his wife in the same type of rigid and never changing manner he does with his pick schedule. lol

The bottom line is that NC is in the RED so far as USUAL this season no matter how much Phil/Todd try to fool and deceive you by slinging one way bullshit

in your face.

ANYWAYS THE EARLY BIRD PLAY OF THE WEEK IS UTAH -14.

 

[BuzzKill]

Northcoast

Over 47 Browns/49ers
Browns +5 (TO)

 

[savage1]

Northcoast

Over 47 Browns/49ers
Browns +5 (TO)

Thanks for posting, Buzz Kill.

I am quite sure I should know this but what the heck does the TO mean after the +5?
tia

 

[BuzzKill]

Not sure what the TO means, sorry

 

[ACP]

Not sure what the TO means, sorry

it means Top Opinion

These are usually his Marquees. I assume the other play is the MNM. THE Monday Night Magic play

 

[savage1]

Not sure what the TO means, sorry

Well the good part is that I feel completely stupid anymore knowing that there is at least one other person who doesn't know. lol

Wait a minute though-the thought just came to me that the TO could mean top opinion although I don't recall NC releasing top opinions on

Monday night-it is always a 2*and a Marquee.

I will see how these picks are designated at the SM once game begins.

 

[savage1]

it means Top Opinion

These are usually his Marquees. I assume the other play is the MNM. THE Monday Night Magic play

Thanks-my apologies for posting what I did as I did not see that you had already posted an answer.

ps In any case I have always wondered for ratings purposes what the difference is between an opinion and especially a top opinion vs a Marquee or

or be more specific a single Marquee, Double Marquee and Triple Marquee.

Win or lose this is one of the big reasons I don't bother with any plays other than the Late Phones as there is mass confusion as I just stated

and also how important these plays are re: ratings compared to the Late Phones.

ps If there is no difference between TO's and Marquees, then why bother to have the two separate designations in the first place??

 

[savage1]

NC loses both the star rated play and the Marquee/Top Opinion or whatever you want to call it.

I will have a full weekly and cumulative weekly recap on usual tomorrow.

What is most important and noteworthy here is that so far NC has had exactly ONE WINNING WEEK out of SIX, which was week 3 when they had a excellent week.

When you hear Todd, Phil's mouthpiece, you will be told how great in exact detail how a FEW parts of the service have done but the other negative stuff minimized

in vague generalities if mentioned at all(we are told about how well the comps. have done the last two weeks but were NEVER told about the losing

weeks-in short stuff like this counts ONLY when they win.

In short if I could summarize how NC presents itself to the public, these are a few of the words/phrases which come to mind: distortion, lies by omission,

blow smoke up your ass, and in general just plain old DECEPTION.

If having a 1-5 weekly record and an overall losing record is what you are looking for, then by all means go for it and especially so if you

have masochistic tendencies. lol

Back Tuesday morning with recaps.

 

[savage1]

Ok-for now here are the weekly and cumulative recaps and then some editorial comment:

Week Six:

College sides and totals 4-5 with 5.7 units LOST.

Pros 2-2 with 1.1 units GAINED.

Overall for the week 4.6 units were LOST or $460 dollars at $100 a unit.

The cheapest cost of service for a non PS subscriber of the several mentioned to get all of the Late Phone Plays was $245.

Thus factoring the cost, it is seen that $705 dollars was LOST.

Cumulative:

College 30-28 with 7.95 units LOST.

Pro 11-9 with 4.4 units GAINED.

Overall 3.55 units have been LOST or MINUS $355 at $100 a unit.

The total cost of service so far is 14.44 units or $1,444.

Thus adding in the cost, it is seen that so far the non PS subscriber is MINUS 17.99 units or MINUS $1799 at $100 a unit.

That said if you were psychic enough to play ONLY the college totals, which is the implication by what Todd says in his advertising, you would be ahead for the season

and way ahead overall if you played JUST THOSE last season only along with the top NFL Plays-if only it was that simple. lol

To change the subject, although imo NC has gone way beyond the point of no return and is a lost cause for all of the many reasons I have cited

and will never return to profitability even if they win, there are a few noteworthy things which bother me and imo should bother you as potential

consumers.

The first is their deceptive and sleazy advertising which I have alluded to many times before, the most important relevant thing being that their so called

discounts are based on absurd,insulting and unrealistic sky high retail prices which are not even close to what their competition charges,

many of whose picks are a lot better and more consistent.

The other overall feeling I have gotten from Phil Steele/NC over the many years I have followed them is that there is no real compassion for clients

when they lose, but rather an attempt to sweep the losses under the rug as quickly as possible and immediately turn attention to the next promotion

to try to take away the hurt-in short the accent is on the well being of Phil Steele/NC and no one else.

If there was any real concern for the clientele and/or potential clientele as well as confidence in their picks, you would get some bona fide guarantees.

A clear example of this is Monday night, which consists of paying $20 for the Monday Night Two star rated play with no guarantee or $30 with the

guarantee being that if play loses, you get back $40 in "store credit"(not cash) to use in the future to buy other picks.

For me that shows that they are still putting themselves first as they are trying to extort more money with the $30 price.

Imo instead there should be no screwing around with the price and should be $20 no matter what.

It should be simple-how about $20 for the play and if it loses, you get next week's Monday Night play for free OR $20 or even $30 if they

want to be generous in store credit for ay other promotions or picks.

Imo this kind of advertising should also prevail for anything they offer.

Last week after a losing week the week before, Todd stated on comp. line that any PS subscriber(I didn't hear him mention non PS subscribers)

should call the office to get great discounts for the week at hand.

Notice that the accent is on "discounts" meaning that NC is putting the emphasis on the monetary aspect for the benefit of Phil Steele/NC rather than

the consumer.

Imo if they wanted to be creative and show some confidence in their picks, they should have something along the lines of what I suggested with

their Monday Night guarantee.

To be blunt, how about promos which are along the lines of "Buy any package we offer with the Late Phones for this week, and if you lose

when the price of whatever you paid is factored in as a PS or non PS subscriber, you get the following week for whatever you signed up for

ABSOLUTELY FREE!"

Of course know I am dreaming because that is not, has never been and probably never will be the mindset of Phil Steele/NC where the modus

operandi is to do whatever is needed whether it is ethical or not(I am not sure that the word "ethical" has any meaning when it comes

to sports handicappers if you catch my drift) to get people to part with their money.

That's it for now-back later with the comp. message and the predictable/never changing Tuesday boring hype surrounding PowerPlays,

all circles you can draw around the predicted this and that, which show what a "genius" Phil Steele is even though the bottom

line is that with his 100-120 hour work weeks compiling mostly irrelevant stats data like this, NC continues to lose year after year with

its overall picks.

Also with three weekends to go in October look for a SCRIPTED game of Something to be pumped-the choices are College GOM, College Total of Month

or the NFL GOM, which usually comes on last weekend of the month.
​

 

[savage1]

Ok-first of all I want to correct previous post, as I incorrectly stated cheapest cost of service for a non PS subscriber.

It should have read $189 rather than $245.

Thus the correct recap is as follows;

Week Six:​

​

College sides and totals 4-5 with 5.7 units LOST.​

​

Pros 2-2 with 1.1 units GAINED.​

​

Overall for the week 4.6 units were LOST or $460 dollars at $100 a unit.​

​

The cheapest cost of service for a non PS subscriber of the several mentioned to get all of the Late Phone Plays was $189.​

​

Thus factoring the cost, it is seen that $649 dollars was LOST.​

​

Cumulative:​

​

College 30-28 with 7.95 units LOST.​

Pro 11-9 with 4.4 units GAINED.

Overall 3.55 units have been LOST or MINUS $355 at $100 a unit.

The total cost of service so far is 13.88 units or $1,388.

Thus adding in the cost, it is seen that so far the non PS subscriber is MINUS 1743 units or MINUS $1743 at $100 a unit.​

Ok here are the takeaways from ext. 9 and 3 today:

Ext. 9 First we get an honest recap for Monday's 0-2 day.

We also get a pump for NEXT season's PowerSweep for $69.

The as predicted, the usual Tuesday PowerPlays spiel, which thankfully is slightly improved and less embellished.

And yes the picks have gone 10-2 the last two weeks-it is too bad that the same cannot be said about the Late Phones.

ANYWAYS THE FOUR STAR POWERPLAYS COMP. IS TOLEDO - 25 1/2.

Ext. 3 We are told that this coming week will be "Customer Appreciation Week" with "great discounts."

Lets see how great these discounts are in terms of a non PS subscriber.

Right off the bat Todd tells us that there will be a Five Star going this weekend in college.

Keep in mind that this play is NOT the October GOM, but rather one of the around 4-5 floating SCRIPTED Five Stars used during the season,

to be used whenever NC feels like putting one out, which imo is based on marketing strategy rather than the worth of the play itself.

In sort, based on many years of following these guys, the date of such a play is determined before they actually know what the play is going to be-I will

leave it to you to decide what that means.

Anyways the deal is that a non PS subscriber gets this big play, along with the Saturday Sides, NFL on Sunday along with all of the Marquees this week thrown in

for free EXCEPT for Saturday and Sunday for $139.

The Saturday College Totals will be thrown in for an additional $39-last week the totals were tossed in for $19, meaning they cost $20 more this week.

So lets see-$139 plus 39=$178 plus $20 for Monday night bringing total cost to $198.

Last week the same cost $189 less the SCRIPTED Five Star,

Again I will leave it for you t decide whether this constitutes a real "Customer Appreciation Week" or not.

For me is amounts to little more than juggling some numbers and tossing in a floating big play, the merit of which is questionable.

THE UNDERDOG PLAY OF THE WEEK IS NEBRASKA + 8.

 

[savage1]

One thing I forget to mention in last post:

With three weekends to go for October counting this weekend and with the release of the floating Five Star,

it means that none of the other three GOM's will have been released by Sunday.

This means that they will have those three big plays left to release over the next two weekends.

For advertising purposes in theory this sets up very well as it will allow them to release not one but TWO GOM on the same weekend,

which I am sure they will hype bigtime and with ALLEGED discounts to go with it.

This is just one more example of why at this point NC is considered by many including me to be a mass marketing machine FIRST and handicapper a distant second-

it shows in their overall at best mediocre performance record with the latter.

 

[savage1]

Ok here we go for Wednesday.

And of course like every other day of the week, you can expect the same thing on each day each week-it never changes along with the promos,

some of which haven't changed in 20 years. lol

Well Wednesday as usual the "Prince Spaghetti Day Special" is The Economy Club and the accompanying tease/bullshit and pricing that goes with it-12

college and 5 NFL Plays.

how some of these plays may go on to become Late Phone Plays, blah, blah, blah.

I always wondered what Todd means by "these plays going on to become Late Phone Plays later in the week."

Does something happen with these plays to make them not just mere relatively cheap mid week plays but rather to become "elite" become Late Phone Plays.

Do these plays have minds of their own and/or like entities which allow them to "graduate" to Late Phone status come Saturday and/or Sunday? lol

We are also told/reminded about the obviously SCRIPTED/floating Five Star going this week, a play which historically has been hauled out by Phil/NC

when the revenue stream isn't so hot(actually most of the time) and they need to do something to bring attention to themselves(perhaps

putting some barely clad hot looking/seductive young lady would help and possibly guy for the sake of any lady gamblers or gay men might also help).

Oh yes-again this week has been designated as "Customer Appreciation Weekend."

If there was truth in advertising this weekend along with just about every weekend would be designated as "Customer DEPRECIATION Weekend"

rather than "Appreciation Weekend" because imo the number of folks who buy anything from NC DEPRECIATES

rather than appreciates because more folks do NOT "appreciate"the at best mediocre Late Phone Picks week after week as well as the insulting bogus

promotions and deceptive record keeping.

The latest example of this can be found today.

We are told that the obviously SCRIPTED Five Star by itself costs $100 for a non PS subscriber-this is way, way too high compared

to what most other services charge for a play of this nature-as usual this is just more indication of arrogant Phil Steele

and/or the rest of the marketing crew are of their VERY overall mediocre service evidence by the vastly inflated prices.

Want more evidence?

Well Todd, Phil's spokesperson reminds us again of the "Huge Savings" on ext. 3(I talked about this yesterday- ext. 3 will not be updated today).

The "huge savings" he talks about amount to what will be a total cost for the week of $198 for all of the Late Phones with some Marquees sprinkled in

Last week the same package cost $189 or $9 LESS.

Thus my math shows that the price WENT UP this week rather than now.

But of course in all fairness I should point out that there was no SCRIPTED big play last week.

As I have stated before, for the most part I view the Phil Steele/NC alleged discounts about the same as I do of walking into Sax Fifth Avenue and seeing

a $4495 woman's imported handbag being "discounted all the way down" to a "mere" $3495 as a one day "special."

Get the picture!!

ANYWAYS THE ECONOMY #2 PLAY OF THE WEEK IS BOISE - 11 1/2.

 

[BuzzKill]

 

[savage1]

Way ot

The Cardinals are winning 13-0 in the deciding game against Atlanta in the bottom of the third.

I would love to see what would happen if an all night drenching rain was scheduled to begin in about a half an hour.

Something tells me that if that was the case the Cardinal batters would be trying to make outs whereas Atlanta would

be having the pitching coach go to the mound as many times as possible and Atlanta would use every know pitcher and for that matter

every available player on the bench to pitch to stall for time so that the game would be rained out before it was an official game after

five innings. lol

Seriously is there any rule on the books which would forbid teams acting in this manner if something like this should occur?

 

[savage1]

You got to feel for Phil Styeele/NC with this "tough/heart breaking" LOSER Mar "quees"my ass pick tonight-they had em all the way. lol

1 Unit

Total Play

[101] Appalachian State Mountaineers vs.

[102] Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns

Wednesday October 9th, 2019 8:04 PM EDT
Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns [Over]​

 

[savage1]

Ok folks-here we go with today's con artist bullshit, bogus promotions, spin and overall deception.

Actually it is pretty much the same as we always hear.

On ext. 9 we get a recap of last night that the play lost.

The being Thursday, it is of course the Ron Jeremy Big Dong/Dog Pump Day with the usual pricing.

Two Marquees tonight for $12 apiece.

I cannot figure out why the Thursday Marquees are always $12 apiece but on Saturday they have been get three for a total of $12.

ANYWAYS THE RON JEREMY BIG DONG/DOG PLAY IS TEXAS + 11.

Ext. 3 Well as expected we are reminded again of the SCRIPTED Five Star going as well as it being Customer Appreciation with HUGE DISCOUNTS or for reasons

stated yesterday, it should be rightfully called Customer DEPRECIATION Week.

Also as I pointed out yesterday, the "huge discounts" cited are not discounts at all but rather an increase in price from last week

the alleged and SCRIPTED Five Star notwithstanding.

What doesn't make sense to me and has never made sense to me is if this is a legitimate Five Star, then what is the GOM to follow in the next few weeks?

If it is rated 4.5 stars, then how come the Five Star going tomorrow is not the GOM?

If it is also rated five stars, then what NC is saying that for this particular month, by "coincidence" there just happen to be two games of five star value.

I think you can read between the lines here.

As I have always said and will continue to say, these floater five stars, which imo in some ways by definition contradict/or at least are at odds with the regular GOM,

are nothing more than plays which are SCRIPTED FIRST for a particular week for marketing purposes only.

I would bet heavily if it could proven, that Phil Steele/NC SCRIPTS the day of the play long before they know what the actual play is going to be,

which might not even be decided until Saturday.

This is the same type of thinking( but for a different reason) I cited yesterday when we are told that sometimes the Economy Club midweek plays somehow

"graduate" to Late Phone Plays between Wednesday and Saturday. lol

ANYWAYS THE NFL PRO TOTALS PLAY OF THE WEEK IS OVER NEW ORLEANS 44.

 

[savage1]

From time to time I email Phil Steele/NC stuff/commentary I don't post here although it is along the same lines.

Here is something I just emailed them expressing my feelings which you might enjoy:

With the SCRIPTED Five Star this weekend, that means that the other three GOM's have not yet been used.
That means with two weekends left for October after Saturday, that means in one of those two weekends you will be offering as a special two GOM's going in the same weekend.
Thus the only two questions are 1) Which weekend will it be and 2) Which two of the three possibilities will you SCRIPT together for that
weekend.
In any event imo you are going to look pretty stupid and insincere if your College GOM goes next weekend as it will be right after this week's
Five Star.
However knowing how incompetent and clueless Phil Steele and the rest of the marketing staff is, I wouldn't be that much surprised it it
is next weekend.
And just think-whatever weekend you choose for the "doubleheader," as a start you can claim that each of the GOM'S is worth $100 apiece
before you offer your "great discounts."

 

[ACP]

This shit is starting to get interesting… That sounds hilarious a five star followed with three game of the month...is that what you were saying?

it doesn’t fucking make sense one bit… I just think he used to be good, where everybody followed his shit back in the day...now he’s been all hyped up on ESPN and everything else and he’s fucking worthless... you know if they say? If you throw enough shit on the wall, something will stick right? This is why he has all these clubs! (small college-totals of the week- late telephone plays -Marquis-top Opinions-the como line-... something is going to win something just might go 2-0 for the week and he can brag about it come the following week… Again throw enough shit on the wall something will stick!!!

 

[savage1]

This shit is starting to get interesting… That sounds hilarious a five star followed with three game of the month...is that what you were saying?

it doesn’t fucking make sense one bit… I just think he used to be good, where everybody followed his shit back in the day...now he’s been all hyped up on ESPN and everything else and he’s fucking worthless... you know if they say? If you throw enough shit on the wall, something will stick right? This is why he has all these clubs! (small college-totals of the week- late telephone plays -Marquis-top Opinions-the como line-... something is going to win something just might go 2-0 for the week and he can brag about it come the following week… Again throw enough shit on the wall something will stick!!!

LOL-Great and funny post and spot on, ACP!!

Being the old timer I am, I learned this shit many years ago about Phil Steele and NC, and it never changes-it is, has been and always will be Groundhog Day with the

manner in which they conduct their service, their promotions and their overall modus operandi.

Unlike hockey where the prevailing philosophy last I heard is to get as many shots on goal as possible to score goals, in the case

of Phil Steele/NC this kind of crap doesn't fly and simply gives the impression that 1) they figure that by so doing, it will increase their

chances of being able to brag about something and especially so when they use ONLY the time frames which show this

"great" winning percentage.

2) It also allows them to peddle more types of plays in the hopes that there will be at least some suckers out there who will buy into one or more

of these when they hear the deceptive records and purchase.

 

[BuzzKill]

Phil Steele's Inside the Pressbox - College
Phil Steele's Inside the Pressbox - Thursday NFL