Playoff Rules for 2022

1A playoff rules shown below. Click here for 1AA playoff rules.

1A Playoffs

Ten players will participate in the 1A playoffs. Each player in the 1A playoffs will start with a 0-0 record (0 points). Players earn points for each correct pick, and each player assigns a point value to each game. Each game must be worth at least one point, but no more than 5 points. The total must add up to 100. The champion will be the player who earns the most points during the playoffs.

For each correct pick, you will earn the amount of points you have assigned to each game. If you pick the wrong team, you will earn 0 points for that game.

Sending in Your Picks

You may send in your picks at any time, before kickoff of any game. Changing your game predictions up to 15 minutes before kickoff is allowed, but the point values for each game must stay the same as you originally picked. Changes in game winners may not be made within 15 minutes of kickoff. The 1A champion will be the player with the most points after all the bowls have been played.

Tie Breaker Rule #1 - Points Off

It's possible that two or more players could tie for first, having earned the same amount of points in the playoffs. To break the tie, each player will need to predict the score of the BCS Championship game. The player whose score prediction comes closest to the actual score will be the winner. There is no penalty for "going over."

For example, suppose players A, B and C all tie with the same amount of total points earned in the playoffs, and that Ohio St beat USC, by a score of 27-19. Though Player B picked USC to win, he has a lower points off total, so Player B wins.

Tie Breaker Rule #2 - Point Differential

After eliminating all players who had the highest total points off, there could still be a tie. The next tie breaker is predicted point differential vs. actual point differential. In the example above, player A predicted a 21-point win (31-10 for Ohio St). Player B predicted a 4-point win (28-24 for USC), and player C predicted a 15-point win (41-26 for Ohio St). The actual result was an 8-point win, so again, player B is the winner.

Tie Breaker Rule #3 - Total Points Scored

If there is still a tie after players were eliminated in rule #2, the next tie breaker rule is total points scored. In the actual game, 46 points were scored (27 by Ohio St and 19 by USC). Player A predicted 41 total points would be scored, player B predicted 52 points would be scored, and player C predicted 67 total points would be scored. In this rule, player A would have the advantage.

Remaining Tie Breaker Rules

If there is still a tie for first place after players were eliminated in rule #3, the following procedure will be followed:

4 - # of wins in all 5-point games
5 - # of wins in all 4-point games
6 - # of wins in all 3-point games
7 - # of wins in all 2-point games
8 - # of wins in all 1-point games
9 - A coin flip will determine the winner

1AA Playoffs

All players who are not in the 1A playoffs and who have at least 100 total games picked during the regular season are eligible for the 1AA playoffs.

Making the Cut
The 1AA playoffs will work similar to a golf tournament - players will have to "make the cut" to advance to the next round. The bottom half of the players will be cut at the end of round 1 and another half after round 2. All players who do not send in their picks are automatically eliminated. Also, all players with losing records in the 2nd round will be eliminated.

Rounds
Players in the 1AA playoffs earn 1 point for each percentage point of their total regular season record. For example, Player A has a regular season record of 69-31, so he will carry 69.0 points into the first round of the playoffs. During the first round, there will be 21 games to pick, and standings at the end of the first round will be based on the number of wins in the first round plus the number of points earned during the regular season. In our example, if Player A won 13 games in the first round, he would end up with 82 points at the end of the first round.

All players into round 2 start off at 0-0. At the end of the 20 games in Round 2, the bottom half of the players sre cut, and the rest of the players advance to the 3rd Round.

Champion

The 1AA playoff champion will be the player with the best record in the final round of the playoffs. If there is a tie in the final round, the 1AA playoffs will use the same tie-breaking procedure as the 1A playoffs. That is, each player will need to predict the score of the BCS Championship game. The player whose score prediction comes closest to the actual score will be the winner. There is no penalty for "going over."

For example, suppose players A, B and C all tie with the same amount of total points earned in the playoffs, and that Ohio St beat USC, by a score of 27-19. Though Player B picked USC to win, he has a lower points off total, so Player B wins.

If there is still a tie at this point, meaning two or more players had the same total points off, the champion will be the player with the best record in Round 2 (out of the tied players from Round 3). If there is still a tie, the champion is the player with the best record in Round 1. If there is still a tie at that point, both players who are tied will be champions.