'Tis the season -- bowl season, that is. Did you know that the college football bowl season -- in its full, gluttonous glory, not the diminished, COVID-era form it gave us last year -- is back in action this Friday? It's true! Bowl season gets underway on Friday with the Bahamas Bowl (of course) and the Cure Bowl. And then there are a whopping seven bowl games on Saturday. Truly, our cup runneth over.
The return of bowl season also means the return of the Go Iowa Awesome Bowl Pick 'Em contest, though, and this time we've got TWO games, one via Fun Office Pools and one via ESPN.
The Fun Office Pools game makes use of the spread to make your picks, just like the regular season version of the Pick Em game did. For instance, the spread on the Bahamas Bowl is Toledo -10.5. That means Toledo is a 10.5-point favorite to beat Middle Tennessee State. If you think the Rockets will lay a beating on the Blue Raiders, then you should pick Toledo to cover that spread. If you think the Blue Raiders will pull off the upset -- or just lose by 10 points or fewer -- then you should pick Middle Tennessee State.
Got it? Good. All games in the Fun Office Pools game are worth one point. The winner is the individual with the most points. If we need to break ties, the tiebreaker game will be the National Championship Game.
Join the Fun Office Pools game here.
GROUP: 2021 Go Iowa Awesome CFB Bowl Pick Em
PASSWORD: hawkeyes
The ESPN game does not require you to factor in the point spread when making your picks -- you just pick a winner or loser for each game. If you think Toledo will won the Bahamas Bowl, pick them. If you think Middle Tennessee State will get the job done, choose them.
However, the ESPN game does involve the use of confidence points. You'll need to give every game a point total from 1 to 44, which represents your level of confidence in the team you've selected to win the game. One means you have very low confidence in a team to win; 44 means you have a LOT of confidence in a team to win. If you are very sure Toledo will win the Bahamas Bowl, put a lot of confidence points on them. If you are unsure who will win that game, put very few confidence points on them.
The winner of the ESPN game is the individual with the most points at the end of bowl season. Note that since points are accured via correct confidence point selections, you don't necessarily need to correctly pick the most games to win the contest. You can win by picking fewer correct outcomes, if the outcomes you do get right have a lot of confidence points.
Join the ESPN game here.
GROUP: GoIowaAwesomeBowlPickEm
PASSWORD: hawkeyes
Both games employ rolling locks, which essentially means that you can change your picks up until kickoff of a particular game. So you are NOT locked into whatever picks you make right now; if you change your mind about a game, you can alter your pick, so long as the game hasn't gotten underway yet. You can also change confidence point distributions in the ESPN game, although obviously you cannot choose a confidence point amount that's already been used in a game that's been played. So if you put five confidence points on the Bahamas Bowl, that point amount is done -- you won't be able to put exactly five confidence points on any other bowl game.
Let's get our picks on. If you've got questions, hit up the comments below.
GO BOWL PICK EM AWESOME
