30th Annual Bowl Pool

College Bowl Pool Rules

• Pick the winners of each of all 34 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, Alabama may be a 4 1/2 point favorite over Texas.  If you pick Alabama, they must win by at least 5 points for you to win that game.  If the Crimson Tide win by only 4 points, they would still win the National Championship, but you would lose that game.

• Weigh each game by assigning a value from 34 (best pick) to 1 (worst pick) for each bowl.

• Picks are to be entered directly at the Bowl Pool web site (see below).

• In order to participate you need to be setup for the football pools.  All regular weekly football pool players are all set.  New players must indicate their desire to participate and get setup by Bud.  This can be done by e-mail to stowe@budmans.com.  In order to have picks entered, you or someone representing you, needs to have a budmans.com user account.  This is also needed to access the web site.  This is done at http://budmans.com .  Please have this setup well in advance of the first game which begins at 3:30 pm CST, Saturday, December 19th, 2009.

• 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 595 (and trigger an investigation by 60 Minutes!))

• If you lose the game, you get no points (go figure.)
  
• Picks can be changed at any time up to game time of the first game.
  
• 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 60 contestants are in the pool the payoff would be:
  1 - $312.00
  2 - $228.80
  3 - $176.80
  4 - $135.20
  5 - $93.60
  6 - $62.40
  7 - $31.20
  8 - had fun
  rest pay $20 each.

• Payment ($20) is expected by January 15th at the latest!  No need to pay till the pool is over, because - who knows? - you might win.  Payouts will be distributed as soon as all payments have been received.  Contact me by email to make any special arrangements.

• Any ties in positions split the proceeds!  There are no tie-breakers.

• All picks must be in by 3:30pm, Saturday, December 19th, which is when the first game kicks off.
  No late entries are allowed by the system.

• Bowl Pool recap and results will be updated at the bowl pool web site: http://budmans.com/fb09pool/bowlpool/

• The web site will also list all possible outcomes and current expected values throughout the bowl season.  You will always know precisely your situation in the pool and which games are most important to you.  (Although I can't really run these until we get down to 25-26 games left.)