Badge rules
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Badges are facts about past picks, given by published rules. A badge is not a recommendation.
The rule
Market-adjusted points over the last four NFL weeks with graded picks: at least 15 scored picks (10 on totals) and at least +2.0 points, for forecasters whose record on that market starts before the window. Levels (No.1 to Top 10) in the same window use the live record only, with at least 30 scored picks (20 on totals).
- Holders now
- 4
- Window
- last 4 weeks
Picks that count. Picks we recorded before kickoff; picks whose time before kickoff was set by the publishing platform (timestamped by the publishing platform) or shown by a web archive copy of the page (archive record); and, for ESPN, CBS Sports and NFL.com, picks read after the game where the outlet's own published record for that expert matches our recount (per the outlet's published record). Any other pick read after the game can only lower a record, and any known loss ends a run. Points use the fair market price at the moment of each pick, with the bookmaker margin taken out; a straight-up pick without a two-sided price at that moment is left out, a spread or total pick without a price on its own line counts at even odds, and a pick read after the game counts as a miss (−1). Levels (No.1, Top 3, Top 5, Top 10) use the live record only, from Week 6 of 2026 on.
Holders
| Holder | Badge | Since | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Richard CBS Sports | SU · +6.7 market-adjusted points · 43 picks · Weeks 2–5, 2026 Matches the outlet's published record | Oct 13, 2026 | Card |
| Jason Reid ESPN | SU · +6.0 market-adjusted points · 42 picks · Weeks 2–5, 2026 Timestamped before kickoff (web archive copy)Matches the outlet's published record | Oct 13, 2026 | Card |
| Lindsey Thiry ESPN | SU · +3.2 market-adjusted points · 42 picks · Weeks 2–5, 2026 Timestamped before kickoff (web archive copy)Matches the outlet's published record | Oct 13, 2026 | Card |
| Jamey Eisenberg CBS Sports | ATS · +13.0 market-adjusted points · 63 picks · Weeks 2–5, 2026 Matches the outlet's published record | Oct 13, 2026 | Card |
How common
Held now by 4 of the 73 forecasters in the badge count.
Our chance check (Oct 13, 2026): the same picks, with every game's score drawn again at random around the market line, 40 times. If a badge shows up about as often by chance as in the real record, it is a fact about the past, not a sign of skill.
Show as table
| Variant | Picks used | Qualifying | Held, real record | Held by chance, average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATS | picks recorded or timestamped before kickoff, archive records and checked outlet records | 12 | 1 | 3.4 |
| SU | picks recorded or timestamped before kickoff, archive records and checked outlet records | 23 | 3 | 8.2 |
