Ed's NFL Office Pool

When is the weekly deadline to submit my picks and submit my payment?

Each week the deadline to enter your picks and pay your entry fee is Saturday night, at 9:00 pm PST. This gives me time to create a grid containing everyone's picks and post it here Saturday night, prior to the Sunday morning games. (You will always have a copy of everyone's picks prior to the first game.)

Week #13 contains three games on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and thus I will most likely have a Wednesday night, 9:00 pm deadline that week, so we can include those three Thanksgiving Day games.

Week #16 has two games that are scheduled on Saturday, and thus the deadline that week will most likely be Friday night at 9:00 pm. Check back here, of course, for further notices.

Why don't you normally use the Thursday evening game?

Not including the Thursday evening games gives everyone three extra days than you would otherwise not have to fill out your picks and e-mail them to me. (If we used the Thursday game everyone would have to submit their picks to me by Wednesday evening.)

Can I enter more than once?

Yes, you can enter as many times as you like. Each entry costs $10.00.

Do I have to play each week?

Absolutely not. Feel free to jump in or jump out at any time. There is no disadvantage in doing so. Each week is a new, weekly contest. This is not a season-long contest, nor a survivor-type of pool.

Where do I send my picks? Where do I send my entry fee?

Send your picks to edwardcollins@yahoo.com. This address is also my PayPal address. When sending via PayPal, please send the money to a friend and via your PayPal balance or bank account (PayPal says this is perfectly okay), so that no PayPal fees are taken out at my end.

If I win, how and when will I receive my winnings?

All winnings are sent back via PayPal, to the same PayPal address you used to send your in entry fee. I will also send the money back to a friend so that no PayPal fees are taken out at your end. All winning will be sent by Tuesday. If you choose, I will hold back $10 and use it as your entry fee for next week's contest, assuming you wish to play again the following week.

How many players usually enter your pool each week?

This is the very first year I'm hosting this contest. I expect the number of players to grow over time, as more people become aware of it. (If the number of players grows too much, I will probably increase the entry fee to $20, to reduce the number of entrants to a more reasonable level.) We had 23 players for Week #10, and that remains our season high.

When I pay via PayPal, can I pay for a month's worth of picks at a time? This way I can pay you once instead of four separate times.

Yes. If you send me more than the weekly entry fee, but you also only send me one pick sheet, I will always bank the additional amount and assume you will be using it for upcoming entry fees. If you pay via PayPal and then forget to send your picks, your money is banked for an upcoming week or it will, of course, be returned to you.

What happens if I make an error with my picks?

There are only three types of possible errors you could make. (1) You might forget to select a team or (2) you might accidentally select both teams or (3) you might forget to include a tie-breaker score. If I catch any errors in time, I will attempt to contact you via e-mail prior to posting everyone's selections. If I don't catch the error or if I do but I can't get a hold of you, in both of the first two cases my automated import script is set up to give you the visiting team. If you forget to include a tie-breaker score, I have no choice but to assign you a tie-breaker score of zero for that week.

Do I need permission to enter your pool?

No, not at all. Simply send me the entry fee and your picks for the current week and you're in!

I don't have Excel. Is there an alternative format for submitting my picks?

Yes. There are two alternatives.

(1) Simply open the Excel pick sheet form in OpenOffice. OpenOffice is free and is the leading open-source software for spreadsheets. Mark your selections as described above and then save the file as a Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP (.xls) (*.xls) file. This file format is one of the many choices available when you execute a SAVE AS command.

(2) The other method is to use any text editor (TextPad, Notepad, etc.) and create an ASCII text file. Here is an example of a valid file. The format of the text file is as follows:

The first line of the file is the week number.
The following lines are the mascot names of the NFL team you think will win each game. You're only listing what you believe will be the winning team. The teams can be listed in uppercase or lowercase or any combination of the two. (Important: You must list your teams in the same order as the Excel form. You can always find this order here.)
The next line contains your tie-breaker score
The next line contains your username.
Finally, the last line contains your optional answer to that week's survey question.

Below are two examples of your what your ASCII text file might have looked like for Week 1 of the 2014 NFL season: