Three Pairs NFL Pool/Rules
COMPLETE RULES FOR PARTICIPANTS
Payment
Prior to Thursday, September 6th, send or bring $40 in cash, check, or PayPal.com order to:
- Gregory Kohs
- 489 Lake George Circle
- West Chester, PA 19382-2188
- TheKohser@gmail.com
- 610-696-1644
If you are able to recruit a NEW player to the pool, you may take a $5 deduction off your entry fee. This is good for up to two new players per person -- a $10 deduction. If you pay by PayPal, please add an additional $2 to your payment, to cover their sinister transaction fees.
This year’s pool is going to be much easier than last year's.
POST-SEASON PREDICTION
Put on your wizard’s cap and get out your crystal ball. Prior to 7:00 PM, Thursday, September 6th, (yes, once again the NFL is scheduling a Thursday night game to kick off the season) you will select four (4) NFL teams. Pick a pair of teams from the AFC and a pair of teams from the NFC. At the end of the regular season, you will get 5 points for each regular-season win by each team, 5 points for every win beyond that which they produced last year during the regular season (improvement), and then 5 points for every post-season game the team appears in. There is no penalty for ending up in the “wrong direction” versus last year. Teams receiving a bye in the first playoff week will not accrue points for the bye. There will be an additional 5-point bonus if one of your four teams wins the Super Bowl. The 2006 final standings are found at: the NFL.com database.
You may not switch out any of your teams at any time, so choose carefully.
FANTASY PLAYERS
At the beginning of each 4-week span, I will be presenting the pool participants with a set of relatively-equal paired choices for quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers. You will have to make a choice between each pair, to build a stable of 3 players, one at each position. One (1) point will be awarded per every:
- 75 yards passing per game by the quarterback
- 33.3 yards rushing per game by the running back
- 25 yards receiving per game by the receiver
If any of the teams on which these players are rostered have a bye in the schedule, the average of their 3 other games' yardage will be normalized into that blank 4th game.
We will have a special 1-week selection process for the final week of the season. Between December 25th and 29th, each participant will pick (of their own choosing) any pair of quarterbacks, any pair of running backs, and any pair of receivers. This will be a final chance for desperate players to get back in the running!
To launch Weeks 1 through 4, your draft card is as follows:
QUARTERBACKS:
Choose between last year's top QB's -- Drew Brees or Peyton Manning.
RUNNING BACKS:
Choose between last year's top RB's -- LaDainian Tomlinson or Larry Johnson.
RECEIVERS:
Choose between last year's top WR's -- Chad Johnson or Marvin Harrison.
Points awarded will always be rounded down, so if your receiver has 3 catches of 24 yards each on a particular day (72 total receiving yards), you’ll only get 2 points for him that week. Yards will not carry over from week to week.
STAY-ALIVE PAIRS
Each week of the NFL regular season, prior to 12:00 Noon on Sunday, participants will make a selection of two (2) NFL teams that they want to win on Sunday. (For this portion of the pool, we are going to disregard all games played on Thursdays, Saturdays, Mondays, or any other non-Sunday day because of a hurricane, tornado, flood, terrorist plot, impeachment hearing, or “very special” episode of The Office.) After you select a team once for your Stay-Alive Pick, you may not select that team again for the rest of that 4-week period. (For the last five weeks of the regular season, you must stretch your no-re-pick rule to a 5-week period.)
Scoring: If you are correct on both of your Stay-Alive Pair teams (both your teams win; that is, not a tie, not a loss), the participant earns 10 points. If you are correct on only one of the paired teams, you get 5 points. If you are incorrect on both paired teams, you receive no points and forfeit any remaining opportunities to pick in that 4-week period (or 5-week period at the end of the season).
REPORTING YOUR PICKS
You must submit your picks before the required deadlines -- either in person, by e-mail, by postal mail, or by phone/voicemail -- otherwise, you may forfeit points for that week, if applicable. All deadlines are Eastern Time. (Some of the selections carry through for multiple weeks, so non-responsive participants may still accrue points this way.) You may report your picks in advance, as far in advance as you care to. You may also set up with me a system of "provisional" picks should you ever fail to submit an actual pick on time. However, be aware that your advance picks may be visible to all players once the weekly "update" goes out in the middle of each week.
As the pool manager, to maintain the integrity of my participation in the pool, I will be sure to disclose my own picks to at least one different person each week, PRIOR to the end of business day on Wednesday. Therefore, if you don’t want me seeing your picks before I make my own selections, wait until at least after work on Wednesday before you submit your picks. It is only fair to point out that I have won my own pool a couple of times, and a Kohs family member typically seems to do well in most years, although it has been impossible for me to have cheated, and I don’t really care for helping my family to cheat, since they never reward me with any secret kick-backs!
Failure to make appropriate picks in time
Any participant who fails to make any of the appropriate picks before deadlines will be assigned the player or team that is eligible for selection that appears first alphabetically (first name, then last name, in the case of players; city, then nickname, in the case of teams).
SCORING
Instead of merely tallying the raw point scores each participant accumulates in each of the three sections of the pool, we will instead RANK the participants’ point sub-totals in each section. The three participants with the lowest average rank across all three sections will be winning money. This will have the effect of “leveling” each of the three sections, so that one does not become inordinately more important than any of the others.
Thus, if you rank 2nd best in your post-season team picks, 8th best in fantasy, and 1st in stay alive, you would have an average rank of 3.67 (which could very well mean you’re a winner).
We will also award small prizes to the individual leaders in each of the 3 categories! That’s right . . . a grand total of up to six people could walk away with money this year. If that doesn’t keep everyone riveted until the very end of the Super Bowl, I don’t know what will.
PRIZE MONEY
The total amount paid into the pool will be distributed (100%) at the end of the Super Bowl, after the Post-Season points have been allotted to all players, and all rankings are calculated. Cash will be paid out:
- 35% to the overall Rank Leader
- 25% to the #2 overall ranked player
- 10% to the #3 overall ranked player
PLUS:
- 10% to the winner of the Post-Season team picks segment
- 10% to the winner of the Fantasy segment
- 10% to the winner of the Stay-Alive segment
In the week before the Super Bowl, if a tie in ranking for any of the segments or for the overall leader positions is determined to be mathematically possible, we will have the contending players select the winner of the Super Bowl, total points scored, and total number of touchdowns (a three-tiered tiebreaker).
CALENDAR REMINDER
The following are the key dates you should remember:
September 6th, 2007; Thursday
- 7:00 PM Deadline for picking Post-Season teams (locked for the season)
- 7:00 PM Deadline for picking QB, RB, WR
- Deadline for contributing $40 ante (Late fee of $5 per week will be levied each week after September 13th. Non-payment after September 30th will result in cancellation of participant's entry in the pool.)
September 9th, 2007; Sunday
- 12:00 Noon Deadline for picking Stay-Alive Picks
Every Sunday following, likewise as above -- Stay-Alive Picks
We will be recycling the four-week Fantasy and Stay-Alive windows on:
- October 7th
- November 4th
- December 2nd
- There will be one final Fantasy selection week between December 25th and 29th, where each participant will pick (on their own) a pair of quarterbacks, a pair of running backs, and a pair of receivers.
Remember, the deadlines are exactly that -- deadlines. You may always submit picks EARLIER than the deadline -- even provisional selections “just in case”. But if you miss the deadline, you suffer the consequences.
CONTACT INFO
I can be reached by phone, e-mail, voicemail, postal mail, and in-person!
- Gregory Kohs
- 489 Lake George Circle
- West Chester, PA 19382-2188
- TheKohser@gmail.com
- 610-696-1644
Now . . . PREPARE TO PARE DOWN THE PLAYMAKERS INTO PERFECT PAIRS . . .
