How To Run A College Football Bowl Pool

There are numerous opinions circulating regarding the bowl season of college football.

It is likely that there is an excess of games. Undoubtedly, players and teams have diverse motivations. In truth, only three games hold significant importance. However, this does not imply that it is not enjoyable.

Enhance the excitement with a college football bowl pool, elevating the fun factor. Engage in friendly competition with your loved ones or colleagues, injecting significance into games featuring unfamiliar teams battling it out in sparsely occupied stadiums.

Continue reading to learn how to organize and participate in a competition, as well as explore different formats, including the infamous confidence points, which may not be everyone’s preferred choice.

Select your college football bowl pool platform

Fortunately, technology has effectively reduced the effort involved for those interested in initiating a bowl pool.

There are various sports and fantasy websites that offer the opportunity to participate in or create a bowl pick ’em pool. ESPN, being the host of almost all bowl games, is understandably the most widely used platform. However, there are other alternatives available.

Make sure to visit your preferred website and verify if the option is available to you.

Naturally, there are still individuals who prefer utilizing pencil and paper. While this may require extra effort for the person overseeing the pool, there is a certain satisfaction in physically printing out the list of participants and personally circling the victors.

If you choose to go in that direction, it is important to clearly state the rules and consider adding additional information, like team records or the spread, even if it is not directly utilized.

How do confidence points work?

A confidence pool is among the most favored varieties of bowl pools, allowing participants to determine the point value of each game in their own entry.

If you were to rank the game you feel most confident in, it would receive a score of 43. Conversely, the game you have the least confidence in would be assigned a score of 1.

In the event of your chosen team emerging victorious, you will be awarded the corresponding points. Yet, a defeat in a high-confidence game implies forfeiting a substantial number of points.

The ultimate winner is determined by the person who accumulated the highest number of points. It is not solely based on guessing the most games accurately; rather, it depends on effectively allocating confidence points.

There are numerous approaches to this strategy. Some prefer to prioritize their higher confidence points games towards the end, as they have a better understanding of the teams and players involved. This also allows for the possibility of making a strong comeback, as more points will be available as we approach January.

However, the downside is that those games usually have a higher number of opt-outs due to more players being bound for the NFL.

Certain teams may choose to prioritize their efforts early on, especially smaller schools that have fewer players opting out and more opportunities for mismatches. Creating balanced matchups between non-Power 5 conference schools is not an exact science, so if you can identify where they made mistakes, you can establish a significant advantage in the early stages of the game.

Alternatively, you have the option to rely on computers to handle it. While advanced statistics may not be flawless in predicting game outcomes, they are quite adept at pinpointing potential disparities. It would be wise to prioritize assigning the most confidence points to the SP+ or FEI ratings, which indicate the largest expected margins of victory.

Bowl pools using spread picks

If you’re not confident in picking games straight up or don’t want to calculate the math involved, an alternative option is to select games based on the spread.

Due to the legalization of online sports betting in Michigan for the past two college football seasons, numerous individuals have gained increased confidence in making spread predictions for games.

The inclusion of more varied picks in this format significantly reduces the chances of participants making identical selections like in a traditional picks pool. The ultimate winner is determined by the individual who has the highest number of accurate picks.

When participating in a bowl pool, one aspect of sports betting that we typically forego is line shopping. Unlike betting on individual games, where we would usually compare odds from different sportsbooks and track any changes in the lines to find the most advantageous value, this practice is not applicable to a bowl pool. Nevertheless, if I intend to wager on the Michigan vs. TCU game, I would still explore various sportsbooks and keep an eye on line movement to ensure I obtain the most favorable odds. For a comprehensive list of games and their latest odds, you can visit our College Football Bowls odds page.

However, in your bowl pool, you frequently select teams based on the opening line or the line that was set when the pool was established. This ensures that everyone is making picks based on the same spreads.

Straight up picks for a college football bowl pool

To maintain simplicity, you can choose the winner for each game in your bowl pool based on who correctly predicts the most outcomes.

Although the other methods will definitely introduce more diversity to your selection, you will still find plenty of it here. With a total of 43 games, many of which involve teams that may not be well-known to most people.

It is important to include a tiebreaker in all methods, with the championship game’s total points scored being the most likely scenario where it will be needed.