Week 1 of the NFL season has a number of tantalizing matchups, the biggest of which is at Arrowhead, where the Cleveland Browns visit the Kansas City Chiefs in the Sunday at 4:25 slot. The season kicks off with the Cowboys traveling to Tampa to take on Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, while the other big matchups to watch for on Sunday are Seattle at Indianapolis, Pittsburgh at Buffalo, Green Bay at New Orleans, and Chicago at the Rams on Sunday night. On the other end of the spectrum, the Jaguars-Texans game could decide who gets the first overall pick in 2022.
We are just TEN days away from the start of a new NFL season and the anticipation is palpable. Being a new blog and needing traffic to justify my existence, that can only mean one thing: it’s prediction time! In the pool, the Predictor was developed as a way to see what would happen if all the picks were made all at once, right before the start of the season. It is, of course, an exercise in futility in terms of competitiveness but also a good indicator that, no matter how plugged in we may be, there’s really no predicting what will happen. Oh sure, we have a good idea that Kansas City will be good and Houston will be very very bad, but every season teams come from nowhere to compete (or suck). Most of the fun of this is looking back and seeing how very wrong we (ok, *I*) were just a few months previous.
With that in mind, we have the NFL Preview section, your home for the my predictions. You’ll find this content on the sister site footballnews.allpurposeyards.com. When I learn how to link the pages, I’ll put it on the sidebar. Until then, feel free to bookmark the new site as well!
The release schedule has been set up and will look as follows: Tuesday: AFC East Wednesday: AFC North Thursday: AFC South Friday: AFC West Saturday: Sleepers/Busts; Impact Rookies Sunday: NFC East 🥴 Monday: NFC North Tuesday: NFC South Wednesday: NFC West 💪 Thursday: Playoff Predictions
With any contest, there are rules, and the APY NFL Football Pool is no exception. The concept is simple – you pick a team to win and accumulate points over the season – however, there are still some rules to adhere to:
ENTERING THE POOL To enter the pool, you must pay your $20 fee before the end of the first weekend. Once the fee is paid, there are no refunds. Entry fees can be paid by e-transfer or other form of internal transfer. If you cannot pay by these channels, contact me for arrangements.
MAKING YOUR PICKS 1. All games must be selected before the game is played or before 1:00 pm ET on Sunday, whichever is earliest. 2. You will be provided with a weekly pick sheet from which to make your selections – you must either make your selection from this list or provide your own. The picks must be easy to understand. If I see irregularities before cut-off, I’ll let you know, but there is no guarantee that I will do so – it’s up to you to ensure that you’ve made your picks and that they are accurate. 3. You are expected to make your picks on time each week. If you will be away with no connectivity over a portion of the season (or just one week), you are expected to make your picks in accordance with the time rules. 4. Picks can be sent via one of the following channels: EMAIL to one of the official APY NFL Football Pool email addresses: mattgouldburnfootball@gmail.com or matt@allpurposeyards.com POST A COMMENT to the APY page for that particular week 5. You have up to four (4) confidence picks per week – if you make more than four confidence picks, I will count the first four games selected as confidence picks and regard the remaining as standard picks.
CONFIDENCE PICKS The confidence pick option in this pool may differ from other pools – instead of assigning a confidence from 1 to 16 (or X), you select four games that you are most confident in. If those picks win, you get an additional point. However, if a confidence pick does not win, you lose a point. Note: Ties count as not winning, so if your confidence pick game ends in a tie, you will lose a point.
SCORING As a pick ’em pool, you earn points for picking the winner each week. With the inclusion of a confidence pick, the scoring differs for those games but still using the same principle as the standard picks. Here is the scoring breakdown for the pool:
Standard game win: 1 point Standard game loss: 0 points Confidence pick game win: 2 points Confidence pick game loss: -1 point
Here is an example of how the points work: Baltimore was selected with confidence and won the game, the Ravens earn 2 points Buffalo and Chicago were selected as standard picks and won their games, they earn 1 point each Carolina was selected as a standard pick and lost, the Panthers earned no points Indianapolis was selected as a confidence pick but lost, the Colts lost 1 point
Away
Home
Winner
Score
Pick
Confidence
Points
Cleveland
Baltimore
Baltimore
38-6
Baltimore
1
2
NY Jets
Buffalo
Buffalo
27-17
Buffalo
1
Las Vegas
Carolina
Las Vegas
34-40
Carolina
0
Chicago
Detroit
Chicago
27-23
Chicago
1
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Jacksonville
27-20
Indianapolis
1
-1
WINNING THE POOL The pool winner will be the contestant that scores the most points over the course of the season’s 18 weeks. Any mini-pools may encompass a shorter portion of the season and will be announced before that portion of the season commences.
PRIZES
There are 44 entrants to the pool, with 2 yet to pay.The prize breakdowns will go as follows:
FIRST PLACE: $600 SECOND PLACE: $150 THIRD PLACE: $70 FOURTH PLACE: $20
END OF SEASON POOLS: $40
Halfway through the season, all participants will be split randomly into two pots, those two groups will vie for a sub-pool prize of $20 each. More details will be available in the Week 9 update. For tiebreakers, money will be split evenly between the winners (for example, a two-way tie for first place will result in the first and second place prizes being evenly split between the two).
SEASON LENGTH The APY NFL Football Pool runs the full length of the regular season. New for the 2021 season, the NFL has expanded to an 18 week season, where each team will play 17 games and receive an off week/bye week.
GAME POSTPONEMENTS, CANCELLATIONS, and FORFEITURES Games may be postponed, cancelled, or forfeited over the course of the season and the rules for handling these games within the context of the pool can be found below
POSTPONEMENT Postponement to later that week: if a game is postponed to another day within the gameweek (no later than the following Wednesday night), the game will be counted in that week. For instance, if the Packers-Saints game currently scheduled for September 12th is postponed, but played from Sept 13-15, that game will count in the Week 1 stats. Postponement to another week: If the game is forced to be postponed until a later week, the game will be removed from the Week 1 schedule and added to the later week’s list. Any confidence picks assigned to the game will not
CANCELLATIONS If a game is cancelled (that is, the game is not played as scheduled and not made up), it will have no action. Any bets on that game will be considered null and void, and will not count in the standings
FORFEITURE If a game is forfeited, such as due to a team outbreak of unvaccinated individuals, the game in the pool will have no action. While a team may win or lose due to a forfeit, it is nearly impossible to determine beforehand if a team may have an outbreak that puts a game in jeopardy.
In any of the above scenarios, a confidence pick may be reassigned as long as the scheduled time of the game has not passed. If not reassigned, it too will result in no action.
