The 18th ANNUAL College Bowl Pool rules are as follows:
1) Pick the winners of each of the 17 bowl games versus the point spread. Note all point spreads supplied are with a 1/2. This is to assure that no game ends in a tie in the pool. For example, Florida is a 2 1/2 point favorite over Florida State. If you pick Florida, they must win by at least 3 points for you to win that game. If Florida wins by only 1 or 2 points, they may win the National Championship, but YOU would lose that game.
2) Weigh each game by assigning a value from 17 (best pick) to 1 (worst pick) for each bowl.
3) If the team you pick in a game beats the spread, you score the value you assigned to the game (a perfect score would be 153).
4) If you lose the game, you get no points.
5) Pool winnings are distributed as follows:
1st place 30%
2nd place 22%
3rd place 17%
4th place 13%
5th place 9%
6th place 6%
7th place 3%
8th place free
Proceeds coming from 9th place and on at $20 a piece.
For example, if 50 contestants are in the pool the payout would be:
1 - $252.00
2 - $184.80
3 - $142.80
4 - $109.20
5 - $75.60
6 - $50.40
7 - $25.20
8 - had fun
rest pay $20 each.
6) Payment ($20) is expected as soon as possible after the New Year! Do not pay till the pool is over, because - who knows? - you might win.
7) Any ties in positions are broken by looking at the games in the tie-breaker order. Tie-breaker order is the reverse order of the games as listed. For example, if there is a tie and one person picked the correct winner of the Sugar Bowl and the other didn't, the one who picked the Sugar Bowl winner would win. But - not to worry - the computer aided pool engineered (CAPE) 'all possibilities' chart will have that all taken into account (see #10).
8) E-mail your picks to me (STOWE) by Tuesday, December 24th please. Indicate your choice somehow and be sure to indicate the value you assign to each game. The first game is Christmas afternoon.
9) I will electronically produce a recap probably by Thursday, December 26th.
10) Current expected value of each entry will be computed while the pool is in progress and a list of all possibilities will be produced so you can readily see precisely your chances and which games are most crucial to your winning and placing in the pool.
11) LET OTHERS KNOW ABOUT THE POOL. Anyone may enter (even Drozd and Holland relatives).
12) Current pool status information will be accessible on the web at:
http://odysseus/football/