Rules

The Pick

• Each week you pick 4 regular games and 1 bonus game: 5 picks total.
• Every pick is against the spread, using the lines posted for that week.
• Your bonus pick is marked BONUS. It scores like a regular pick plus a cover bonus (see Scoring).
• NFL games go by mascot (Seahawks). NCAA games go by school (USC).

The Lines

• Weekly lines are posted here by 10:00 AM ET Tuesday.
• Lines are sourced once and locked: they do not change all week, no matter what the sportsbooks do afterward.
• Each week's slate is a mix of NFL and NCAA games.

Submitting Picks

• Submit your picks right here on the site, on the Picks page.
• All picks are final at the first kickoff of the week. The site stops accepting picks at that moment, no exceptions.
• Get them in early so you are not sweating the deadline. Picks lock at the first kickoff of the week, whatever day that falls on, and the board counts it down for you.

If You Miss the Deadline

Nobody scores a zero for missing a week.

• If your picks are not in by first kickoff, you are entered automatically on the first five NFL games of the week by kickoff time, taking the favorite in each, with the fifth as your bonus.
• They score exactly like picks you made yourself, and they count toward your season total.
• Submit a partial slate and the missing spots get filled the same way. Anything you did pick stays exactly as you picked it.
• Auto-picks show up marked AUTO on the Results page, so it is always clear which picks were yours.

Why: a zero week is close to unrecoverable, and a pool where someone is out of the running in September is a worse pool for everyone still in it. This keeps you live. It does not make it a good idea: five chalk favorites against the spread is rarely the slate you would have built.

Scoring

All picks are scored against the spread. Maximum 35 points a week.

Regular games (4 per week)

The bonus game (1 per week)

Scores exactly like a regular game, plus a cover bonus: for every point your pick covers the spread by, you earn +1 point, up to +10. The cover bonus applies to favorites and underdogs alike, and a push earns no cover bonus.

Worked example: you take the Colts -7 as your BONUS and they win 14-0. Margin 14, minus the spread of 7, leaves 7 points of cover. You score 5 for the win plus 7 cover bonus: 12 points.

Half points count. Most lines carry a half point, and a final margin is always whole, so covering a half-point line always leaves a half point of cover and you are paid it. Take a +1.5 dog and land on a tie: you covered by 1.5, so the bonus pays 6.5. Week and season totals can end in .5.

Weekly and season totals

• Weekly maximum: 20 from regular games + 15 from the bonus game = 35 points.
• Points accumulate across the whole season. Final season standings decide where everyone finishes.

The Week

• Through the weekend: games are scored as they finish, so results and standings move in close to real time. Tuesday morning is when the week is final.
• Tuesday 10:00 AM ET: the new week's lines post and lock.
• First kickoff: picks hard-lock.
• Games play out through the weekend, then it all rolls over again Tuesday.

The Season

• The season opens with the early-season football slate and runs through the week of the last NCAA bowl game.
• Standings are cumulative across the whole season, so a bad week is a bad week, not the end of it.
• If the final standings are tied at a place that matters, it goes to a playoff round. Tied players pick both NFL conference championship games against the spread, one marked BONUS, and the higher score takes the place. Still tied after that, the Super Bowl decides it: the spread first, then closest to the combined total. Still tied after that, the place is shared.

This site keeps score and nothing else. Anything to do with entry or prizes is arranged privately between the players and never runs through here.