NCAA Football Pick Game

Rules

  1. Number of Games To Be Picked

    1. You must pick at least 5 games against the spread each week.

    2. You can pick more than 5 games in a week.

    3. If you pick fewer than 5 games, the games you don't pick will count as a loss. For example, if you pick only 3 games one week, you will automatically receive 2 losses that week.

    4. If you forget to make your picks one week, you will receive 5 losses.

    5. Weeks are considered to start on Tuesday and end on the following Monday. In other words, the Florida St. - Ole Miss game on Labor Day is part of the first week's games, not the second week's games.



  1. Number of Bowl Games To Be Picked

    1. You must pick at least 75% of the bowl games.

    2. If you pick fewer than 75% of the bowl games, the games you don't pick will count as a loss. For example, if there are 20 bowl games, and you pick only 12 of the bowl games, you will automatically receive 3 losses.



  1. When To Make Your Picks

    1. Picks may be made as early as this website posts the point spreads.

    2. The pick for a particular game must be made before the game starts.

    3. 99% of the time, the game times listed on the website are correct. However, every once in a while, an 11:00 am game shows up as an 11:00 pm game, and vice versa. Also, sometimes game times are changed late in the week, and the website doesn't know to update the time.



  1. Tabs At The Top Of The Page

    1. The "Games" tab at the top of the page is where you make your picks for the week.

    2. The "Season" tab at the top of the page is where you can review the picks you've made and see what games other players have picked.

      1. By clicking the "My Picks" link on the "Season" tab, you can see the games you have picked for the week.

      2. By clicking the "League Picks" link on the "Season" tab, you can see the games other players have picked for the week.

      3. The games other players have picked will not be revealed until the game has started. This prevents someone from gaming the system by picking the opposite of another player in an attempt to make up ground.

      4. For some funky reason, the other players' picks aren't always revealed at the time the game starts. It's a bug that has yet to be worked out.

    3. The "Standings" tab will show you updated standings. Expect to see my name at the top of the standings most of the time. ;-)

    4. The "Board" tab is where the message board is. I (Steve Campbell) tend to overuse the message board. I like to try to get college football conversations started. I encourage you to join in with me.

      1. When a new message is posted, the website will send an email to all the participants notifying them a new message has been posted. I believe you can opt out of receiving these notices if you wish. Contact Cedric directly to do so.

      2. When responding to a message, please do so on the message board, rather than replying to the email. This helps keep all the discussions in one place. More importantly, if you respond to an email, rather than post on the message board, Cedric doesn't get notification of the response, and he gets left out of the conversation.



  1. The Point Spreads

    1. The point spreads for the games are taken from PinnacleSports.com.

    2. The point spreads are subject to change at any time up until game time.

    3. However, once a player picks a game, the point spread will be locked and will no longer change. This prevents two people from picking the same game, but having different point spreads on the same game. A check mark next to a point spread means someone has picked that game, and the point spread has been locked.



  1. How To Read The Point Spreads

    1. On the "Games" page, the visiting team is listed on the left, the home team is listed on the right, and the point spread is listed on the far right.

    2. The point spread indicates whether the home team is the favorite or the underdog.

    3. If the point spread is negative, the home team is the favorite, i.e., Las Vegas thinks the home team will win by that number of points.

      1. (Technically, that's not quite right. Las Vegas isn't predicting the favorite will win by that number of points, but a full explanation of what the point spread really means would take up too much space and be boring.)

    4. If the point spread is positive, the home team is the underdog, i.e., Las Vegas thinks the home team will lose by that number of points.

    5. For example, in the first game of the year Wake Forest is the home team and is a 17 point favorite over Tulane.

    6. If Team A is a 5 point favorite over Team B, and Team A beats Team B by exactly 5 points, the game is considered a "push", and the game counts as neither a win nor a loss for you. For the purposes of the pick'em contest, it's as if you never picked that game (however, the game still counts as one of your five picks for the week or as one of your required bowl game picks.)



  1. How To Make Your Picks

    1. If you think the visiting team will cover the point spread, click the circle next to the visiting team's name.

    2. If you think the home team will cover the point spread, click the circle next to the home team's name.

    3. Once you have made your picks, click "Submit Pick" to lock in your picks for the week.

    4. You can change your mind at any time up until game time. Simply click the circle next to the other team if you want to pick the other team. Of, if you don't want to pick that game, click "Clear" to the right of the point spread, and your pick will be erased. If you change your pick, be sure to click "Submit Pick".

    5. If you forget to click "Submit Pick', you're stuck with whatever picks you've made previously. They cannot be changed by the administrator once the games have started.

    6. ALWAYS be sure to click "Submit Pick".



  1. The Winner

    1. The winner is the person who has the best winning percentage at the end of the season.

    2. There is no tie-breaker, because a tie just isn't going to happen.

    3. There is no prize, other than the admiration/jealousy of your fellow participants.



  1. Sources of Information

    1. You may consult whatever sources of information you wish.

    2. Some good sources of information are:

      1. Pre-season magazines

      2. "Expert" picks on ESPN, SI.com, CBSSportsline, etc.

      3. College GameDay (but not necessarily Lee Corso)

      4. PhilSteele.com

      5. Covers.com

      6. Sagarin Rankings

    3. But, if you sign up for a tout service, such as the Power Sweep Newsletter or one of those "Call 1-800-Win-Big and we'll give you our super-mega lock of the year" phone numbers, you're taking this thing way too seriously and you're a weenie.