bojack.org Underdog Pool 2009-10

Official Rules

 

All proceeds to charity

 

LINES:  Every week, sometime on Tuesday, I or my consultant (TRP, who created and runs the original underdog pool) will log onto USA Today's lines site (http://covers.usatoday.com/data/odds.aspx#nfl).  This site has multiple lines, and so they'll more likely have something for us by Tuesday.  We will take the first spread given on the RIGHT, but NOT the opening line (the one on the far left).  If there's something wrong with the USA Today site and we can't access it, we'll look for Yahoo or ESPN. If there's internet trouble or something, we'll check the morning newspaper on Wednesday.

If I haven't posted lines by late Tuesday evening, feel free to send me a friendly reminder via e-mail at jackbogsblog@comcast.net.  Occasionally, real life may intervene and I'll stone-cold forget.

 

We're going strictly with the number seen when logging in to look on Tuesday morning (or Tuesday afternoon, or whenever we look first), and that won't change under any circumstances.  So if, when we check on Tuesday, Pittsburgh is favored by 17 over Detroit, and then Ben Roethlisberger, Mike Tomlin, and the entire Patriots defense come down with botulism from food served at a team function on Wednesday, the line will remain 17 in our pool even as it changes (or is removed) in Vegas. 

 

If any of this is unreadable or unclear, let me know and I'll give it another shot.

 

NO LINES:  In the event that the USA Today site has a game with no line posted when we first look, we'll keep looking until Thursday.  If a line is posted before then, we will add it to the list with the first number we see.  If there's no line by the last time we check on Thursday, that game is not in play.  Pick 'em games are also not in play.

 

PICKS:  Each week, you will select one and only one underdog.  If that underdog wins outright, you win the number of points they were an underdog by.  Do you swing for the fences with a prohibitive underdog?  Or do you try to get 1-3 easier points per week?  Your call.

 

Your pick can be made in any of three ways: (1) by e-mail to me at jackbogsblog@comcast.net; (2) by posting a comment on the weekly post on bojack.org with the slate of teams for the week; or (3) only in case of an emergency, by phone (see below). Picks posted on the blog are readable by everyone; picks sent to me by e-mail or phone won’t be revealed until the week’s deadline has passed, and at that point other players’ picks can’t be added or changed.  It would probably be to one’s tactical advantage not to post the pick on the blog much before the deadline, but how you play is up to you.

 

DEADLINE:  ***YES, I WILL ENFORCE THIS.***  The deadline for getting your pick in is midnight Pacific time on Saturday night/Sunday morning.  There is a grace period -- if you have the pick in by the time I post the picks early Sunday morning, you got away with your tardiness.  But if I post the picks and you desperately try to e-mail in a pick afterwards, tough.  It's an unfair advantage to make your pick after seeing everyone else's pick, so I do enforce this rule.  So -- seriously, don't mess with the grace period.  Do it by Saturday midnight.

 

If you're picking a Thursday or Saturday game, obviously, that pick has to be to me before that game kicks off.

If you don't send in a pick, you sit out the week.  There is no "default underdog."  No pick, no points.

 

In the event you're having computer trouble, feel free to phone in your pick to me at 704-9418 (with the original Oregon area code), but by the deadline, please.

 

SEASON:  The pool concludes at the close of the last game in the final week of the playoffs (not including the Super Bowl, of course, since there is only one game that week).