How to Run a Pick’em Office Football Pool

Choose the competition before inviting the group

Straight-Up Pick’em asks members to pick game winners. Against-the-Spread Pick’em asks which team covers the spread. Confidence Pick’em adds confidence points to correct selections. Choose the approach that fits how much strategy your group wants, and share the Pick’em scoring and deadline rules.

Next, choose NFL, College Football, or both. College Football covers NCAA Division I FBS. An NFL-only pool suits a group that follows pro football; a combined pool brings Saturday and Sunday into the same competition. Use the NFL and College Football guide to compare the options.

Create the pool and review its rules

Create your myfbpool account and choose Pick’em when setting up the pool. Review the pool’s leagues and rules before members begin making picks, including the applicable deadlines, tied-game scoring, and any optional weekly prediction tiebreaker.

The commissioner setup guide then walks through three steps: Invite members, Set weekly card publishing, and Start pool.

1. Invite members

Send invitations to your coworkers, friends, or family. Members use their invitations to join the private pool with their own accounts. Check Members & Invites to see pending invitations and who has joined.

Tell the group which leagues and format you chose, where to find the weekly card, and to check its deadlines. Review the pool’s registration settings before starting so you know whether later invitations and joining will remain available.

2. Set weekly card publishing

Automatic publishing means One week at a time. Review the opening day and time for weekly cards. Once the pool is active, eligible cards open on their schedule; this does not publish a complete future schedule at once.

You can customize an unpublished automatic card by choosing its games. Saving that selection keeps its automatic opening in place, so you can tailor a week without switching the pool to Manual. Review the saved selection and opening status before leaving the card.

Manual publishing remains an alternative when you prefer to review and publish cards yourself. A saved manual draft still needs manual publication.

3. Start pool

Review the start confirmation and its registration consequences, then start the pool. You do not need an accepted invitation or an already published card to start. Automatic cards can begin opening after activation according to their saved schedule.

Give members a simple first-week reminder: open the card, make selections, and submit them before the applicable deadline shown there. If the pool uses a weekly prediction tiebreaker, members should also enter that prediction before its deadline.

Follow each week and the season standings

Use weekly results to see how the group did on that card and season standings to follow cumulative points. The optional weekly prediction tiebreaker helps rank a tied week; it does not break ties in cumulative season standings.

Keep routine questions in one place by sharing the Pick’em FAQ. For a closer look at the tools that reduce weekly administration, read about Pick’em pool software.