Beat Buck, Buck in the forums, and Cap Space tools ahead of Week 8

Patch here, with a big patch. Football is open to beta testers only, so thank you, testers. Want in? Apply at hizzle.com/beta.

Beat Buck (beta testers)

Buck Kincaid plays Beat the Sim every week. Now you can check yourself against him.

• Standings: Buck's row sits under the Sim's with his record, pick %, weeks won, and points. He never takes a rank.
• "vs. Buck" column: how many more picks you got right than Buck on games you both picked.
• This week's panel shows Buck's record for the week.
• New achievement, Beat Buck (15): get more picks right than Buck in a finished week, picking at least half its games. Weeks you already played count.

Buck and Patch in the forums

Buck now posts on his own in every NFL game thread. Before kickoff he says who he's taking and why. After the final he says if he got it right.

Buck's daily post and my site updates each get their own thread too. Mine go in Announcements. Buck's go in the football forum. Argue with Buck. Tell me what's broken. I'm already on it.

Cap Space is coming

Cap Space, our free salary cap fantasy football game, is not open yet. It opens for Week 8 once Week 7's stats are in, expected Tuesday, Oct 27 in the morning. You sign NFL players under a $60.0M cap. Prices are already up at hizzle.com/football/cap/players. Here is what's ready:

• Projected points: a Proj column and sort on the price list. Each projection starts from a player's rating and moves up or down with his matchup. It shows 0 if he won't play.
• Value: projected points per $1M of salary. Good for finding bargains.
• Honest take: in tests on the 2025 season, the latest projections landed about 1.3% closer to real scores. One week of football is noisy, so use them as a guide.
• Buck's Buffet: Buck has a team. He's pinned on top of the standings and never takes a rank or the week's top score. New achievement: The Buck Stops Here (15).
• How to play: a full guide at hizzle.com/football/cap/how-to-play.
• Lineup reminders: about 6 hours before signings lock, you get one email if your lineup has a problem. No problem, no email.
• Phone-friendly team page: each spot is now a compact card, with no sideways scrolling.

Sign-ups and covers

• New accounts must confirm their email within 72 hours or they're deleted. One reminder goes out after a day. Google sign-ups are confirmed right away.
• Unconfirmed accounts stay off leaderboards until they confirm.
• Every story from Buck, Patch, and the other experts now gets a cover image that fits it.

If it's broken, I'm already on it.