1st Down Football Pool

:: Rules

Picks

The weekly pool entry fee is $5 per week. Submitting any picks for a given week automatically places you into the pool for that week.
Based on the group consensus, picks will 'lock' at two points during the week. Picks for the first game (Thursday in Weeks 1-16, Sunday in Week 17, & Saturday in Week 18) lock separately; picks for all other games lock starting at the time of the next game. Once locked in your pick may not be changed.
If you run into problems submitting picks via the web interface, email your selections to Joe. As long as they're received before the cutoff time mentioned above, you'll be entered in the pool for that week.
The maximum point value selection for each week will be 16 points. In weeks where there are teams on bye (weeks 5-7, 9-11, & 13-14), point value selections will range from 2-16 points (for weeks 6 & 14, where 2 teams are on bye), 3-16 points (for weeks 5, & 9-11 where 4 teams are on bye) or 4-16 points (for weeks 7 & 13 where 6 teams are on bye), rather than 1-16 points. Everyone playing in the pool for one of the bye weeks will be given points automatically to account for the games not being played.
Your total score for a given week is the sum of all of the point values you selected for games whose winner you chose correctly. In the event that a game ends in a tie, you will receive no points for that particular game (in other words, a tie counts as a loss).
The weekly pot will be awarded to the player with the highest total score for the week. In the event of a tie, the pot will be split evenly between all players who share the high score.
All winnings/losses will be settled at the end of the season, taking into account the number of weeks you played and the number of weeks that you won the pool.

Season Pool

The season pool entry fee is $30. You can enter the season pool by selecting "Join Season Pool" when creating your account.
No separate sets of picks are allowed. Your season pool selections for a given week are the same as those you submit for the weekly pool.
The season pool pot will be split among the top three finishers, according to their total season score. 60% of the total pot will go to the winner, 30% to the runner-up, and 10% to the third place finisher.
Your season score will be computed as your highest 16 out of 18 weekly scores, with two drops allowed. If you don't participate in the pool for a given week, your weekly score will count as zero (which of course can count as one of your scores to drop).
All winnings/losses will be settled at the end of the season.

Survivor Pool

The entry fee for each survivor pool is $20. You can enter the survivor pool by selecting "Join Survivor Pool" when creating your account.
Each week, you select one team to serve as your survivor pick - you are eliminated if they lose, but survive to play another week if they win!
You may only select a team as your survivor pick once in a given survivor pool. Your survivor pick for a given week need not be a team that you picked to win in the pool that week.
Once the game involving your currently selected survivor pick kicks off, you may no longer adjust your selection
The last owner standing wins the survivor pool; in the event that the last group of owners alive all lose, the pot will be evenly split.
At the conclusion of each survivor pool, a new pool will begin the following week with all teams available for selection again. If you would prefer not to participate in the new survivor pool that follows, please email your preference to Joe before submitting your picks for the next week.