Biggy Football
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Well tomorrow winds down another college football season and another Biggy Football pool for me. I've been playing in this pool for over 10 of its 35 years. What started as an easy way to combine all of my sports betting into one season long pool has, over the years, become an obsession.
The pool is basically a group of people/teams - usually between 40 and 50 total - who each plop down 400 bones in order to make NFL and NCAAF picks each week for a season. At the end of each week, whoever has the highest score for the week gets a small payout of either $50 or $100, depending on the week. At the end of the season, the remaining pool is paid out to the top 30% of the teams that make it into the money spots, similar to the way a poker tournament or sng is paid out.
Each week your picks are NOT played versus the spread, but rather a confidence scale. There are 18 slots. If you are confident in a team from a particular game on the list, you can put them in the 18 slot. If they win you get 18 points; however, if they lose you get 0. Basically you fill all the slots with the games on the list. It can get interesting when you are trying to pick upsets, hedge certain picks as well as take calculated risks in the right spots.
There also slotted games, which basically means you must pick a winner from a specific game in a specific spot. The slotted spots are 11, 7 and 5. This makes it real interesting when you have a game with little or no spread and a close to 50/50 split on the decision by Biggy teams. That's where you start to seperate the teams who are headed to the money and those headed to the cellar.
There are also picks for the college high score, pro high score, shutout bet and over/unders. It all probably sounds a tad confusing, but it doesn't take long to get the swing of it.
So why am I writing about this on a poker blog? Well, I wouldn't mind seeing some new teams (I'm looking at you, dear reader) on the list next year from some of you jokers. In addition, I've pondered just starting another similar pool for the folks I know on these here intertubes. My concern is we wouldn't have enough entries to make it worth while. Keep in mind, of the $400 entry fee, I only pay $200 a year as I have a teammate. The cool thing is I used to work with this guy more than ten years ago, before he eventually moved to Colorado. We probably wouldn't keep up much were it not for the Biggy each year.
If you are concerned about the entry fee, keep this in mind. If you break that $200 down across a full season, it really isn't much money for having some fun with sports. And trust me, you will suddenly care about games you wouldn't normally give two shits about. Also, it is a great replacement if you are tiring of Fantasy Football. If you wanna check out how it works, go to the link at the top of this post. My biggest gripe these days is it is time for the commissioner to graduate from Geocities and use a blog for keeping us informed.
Toodles.
Until next time, may the felt be with you.
There are also picks for the college high score, pro high score, shutout bet and over/unders. It all probably sounds a tad confusing, but it doesn't take long to get the swing of it.
So why am I writing about this on a poker blog? Well, I wouldn't mind seeing some new teams (I'm looking at you, dear reader) on the list next year from some of you jokers. In addition, I've pondered just starting another similar pool for the folks I know on these here intertubes. My concern is we wouldn't have enough entries to make it worth while. Keep in mind, of the $400 entry fee, I only pay $200 a year as I have a teammate. The cool thing is I used to work with this guy more than ten years ago, before he eventually moved to Colorado. We probably wouldn't keep up much were it not for the Biggy each year.
If you are concerned about the entry fee, keep this in mind. If you break that $200 down across a full season, it really isn't much money for having some fun with sports. And trust me, you will suddenly care about games you wouldn't normally give two shits about. Also, it is a great replacement if you are tiring of Fantasy Football. If you wanna check out how it works, go to the link at the top of this post. My biggest gripe these days is it is time for the commissioner to graduate from Geocities and use a blog for keeping us informed.
Toodles.
Until next time, may the felt be with you.
posted by TripJax @ 9:55 AM,
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