2010 Buy/Sell College Football Pool
It’s almost that time of year, which means the games are beginning. The first of which can be a little confusing, but it’s not as hard as it seems. And you only have to do one thing at the beginning of the season then just sit back and watch.
The basic idea of the 2010 Buy/Sell College Football Pool is that each participant selects 5 teams they would buy or sell based on the preseason AP Poll.
Basically, if you think a team will be ranked higher at the end of the season than they are in the preseason, you would buy them and earn points based on how much higher they end up. If you think a team will be ranked lower, you sell them. However, if you buy a team that ends up lower, you lose points. The same goes for teams you sell that end up ranked higher than they were in the preseason. Don’t worry; the full set of rules is below.
For those of you that participated last season, there is one change: no draft. Instead, read through the rules and then email me your 5 teams and whether you choose to buy or sell each one.
Here are the rules…
Buying and Selling: Each player buys or sells teams at their preseason AP Poll rankings and scores points based on how many ranking slots those teams make or lose between the preseason poll and the final poll. For example: Pittsburgh is #15 in the preseason AP Poll. If you buy Pitt and they finish #10, you gain 5 points. If you buy Pitt and they finish #20, you lose 5 points. Conversely, if you sell Pitt from #15 you lose 5 points if they finish #10 and make 5 points if they finish #20.
Scoring for Unranked Teams: All teams not in the top 35 (yes, you read that right, top 35) in the preseason poll will count as #40. So if you choose to buy Boston College and they finished #20, you would gain 20 points since you bought them at #40. Conversely, any team you buy that is part of the preseason top 35 but finishes outside of it with be scored as if they finished at #40. There is one important part of this rule to keep in mind though: if you buy a team that is not in the top 35 in the preseason poll and they finish unranked, they will be scored as if they finished at #45, meaning you would lose 5 points. After all, if they didn’t make their way into the top 35, you should be penalized somehow.
Scoring Bonuses for Top 5 Teams: Participants win bonus points if they buy a team that ends in the top 5 or lose bonus points if they short a team that ends in the top 5. However, bonus points are only earned or lost for teams that rise in the rankings. You don’t earn or lose points for teams that drop. The bonus points are: #1 – 10, #2 – 7, #3 – 5, #4 – 3, #5 – 1. For example, if you buy TCU at #6 in the preseason poll and they finish #1, you would earn 5 points for their climb to #1 and another 10 points as a bonus for them finishing the season in the top spot. Conversely, if you sold the Horned Frogs at #6 and they finished #1, you would lose 15 total points. This rule improves the game by creating an incentive to buy high-ranked teams and not sell them. Without the bonus points, everyone would end up selling the top teams without much to lose. And on the other hand, without bonus point, no one would buy the #2 team because the most you could gain is 1 point.
There you have it. If you wish to participate, email me (thebullgator@live.com) your 5 teams and buy/sell choices no later than Wednesday, September 1. I’ll post weekly updates throughout the season.