Welcome to another season of the APY NFL Football Pool!
The pool got off to a late start this season as an extended vacation took the place of the normal preseason organizational activities, but rest assured it’s a go for the 2022 season. This is my formal request for you to join us for another season… and a thank you to those who have already committed in the form of the $20 payment to this season!
ABOUT THE POOL
Seasoned veterans can skip this part, but if you’re a new recruit, this is a weekly picks pool with a twist. Everyone makes picks for each of the 272 games of the NFL season*, starting with the first one between the Bills and Rams in Los Angeles, and ending with one of the NFC East games that NBC wants to show us at the end of Week 18. The twist with this pool is that you make confidence picks on up to 4 games per week, or 72 games in the season**. Those confidence picks are the difference makers each season – you get your confidence picks right, you’re near the top of the standings.
* – a third of you will not pick all 272 games of the NFL season.
** – you may only select a maximum of 4 confidence games per week, no taking 16 confidence picks in Week 18 for your sanity and mine. Mostly mine.
POOL FEES AND PAYMENT
The fee to join the pool is $20, payable before the first Sunday of the season – September 11. Payment can be made by e-transfer or direct deposit, for those with the capability. E-transfers must be sent to mattgouldburnfootball@gmail.com. If you pay via direct deposit, kindly let me know you’ve made the payment so that I may reconcile in my records.
MAKING YOUR PICKS
You will receive a spreadsheet each week with the schedule for each week’s games on the Tuesday prior to each week of the season. You will need to provide me with the picks for each game either before it starts (for Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday morning games) or no later than 1:00 PM ET (for the rest). Naturally late selections are not allowed.
All picks selections to be sent to me directly at mattgouldburnfootball@gmail.com. The time stamp on the email will be the key to whether the pick is on time or not.
Using the Week 1 schedule as the template, here are the keys to the pick sheet: in green are the pertinent game details. Time of the game and the away and home teams. Basic stuff. The Winner column is where you put your winner and the Conf column is where you add your confidence picks by choosing the 1 in the dropdown. If you’re not confident, leave it blank. The cut-off time is identified in blue on the far right. Miss that cut-off and your pick will not be accepted.
HOW POINTS ARE SCORED
In a completely hypothetical scenario, here is how the scoring will work with a four-game excerpt:
For this four game stretch, I would have received 2 total points – winning two for the correct confidence selection of the Rams, losing 1 for the misguided confidence in the Eagles, gaining one for the non-confidence selection of San Francisco, and not gaining or losing any points on Pittsburgh.
One important note: if you make more than four confidence picks and neither of us catch it before game time, I will use the first four confidence selections and discard the rest. While I do endeavour to catch all typos, extras, or anything else, there is manual labour to this process so things may get missed (not often but not never). Be diligent in ensuring that your pick submissions are accurate and within the requirements.
PRIZES
Generally, prize allocations are confirmed after the first week of the NFL season, when the prize pot is confirmed. Based on the number of members, prizes are usually awarded to the top 3-5 finishers, which other mini-pool prizes also available later in the season. This again is largely contingent on the number of people who sign up though the winner will receive 65-70% of the total purse.
COMMUNICATION
Pool communication will be available via two channels:
1. The official website of the APY NFL Football Pool, footballpool.allpurposeyards.com. Bookmark this site, as the pool updates will be updated here first.
2. Email through the official email of the APY NFL Football Pool, mattgouldburnfootball@gmail.com. Every Tuesday, you will receive a recap of the previous week, along with the pick sheet for the following week’s games.
I look forward to seeing you again for the upcoming season – good luck everyone!