2021-22 College Bowl Pool Summary File is Ready!

Ok, everybody! The summary file is ready.

Without further ado...the files:

• 2021-22_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xlsm
• 2021-22_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xlsx

If you have any trouble getting the download links to work, try a couple of things: 1) try opening the link in an icognito tab, 2) try using a different browswer, 3) try right-clicking and opening in a new tab or "saving as...". Honestly, I don't fully understand the underlying issue with Chrome and these download links.
For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the simple, single person Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy, paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file -- once I've got that posted -- which is where they manage everything.

As always, the file is protected, but not with a password, so feel free to unprotect the workbook and then unhide some of the sheets running this stuff behind the scenes to see how it works. And if you add some cool hacks/additions, pass them along, so we can all enjoy them.

We'll see if we can make it through the entire bowl season without changes, cancellations, etc.

Finally, as also always happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheets. This, like the NFL pick 'em sheet I do, I do for free as a labor of love. That said, if you are so compelled, feel free to PayPal me whatever you like, and I'll put these donations towards website hosting fees:

$5.00     $10.00     $25.00     $50.00

Really you just have to change that dollar amount in the URL -- https://paypal.me/excelgeek/5.

Enjoy, everyone!

2021-22 College Bowl Pool Entry Form is Ready! (Summary file to come)

Ok, everybody! I've got this season's college football bowl pool Entry Form file finally ready! I'm still working on the modifications necessary to bump up the old version to include this year's 43 total bowl games. (I didn't include the FCS Bowl, which was already played back on the 12th.) I'll try to wrap that up this evening, but since I know many of you pool administrators out there need to get picks in from your participants, here's at least that file. Special shout-out to super fan Kendall for helping get some of the info pulled together for me this year. Thanks, man!

Without further ado...the file:

• 2021-22_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xlsx

For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the simple, single person Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy, paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file -- once I've got that posted -- which is where they manage everything.

As always, the file is protected, but not with a password, so feel free to unprotect the workbook and then unhide some of the sheets running this stuff behind the scenes to see how it works. And if you add some cool hacks/additions, pass them along, so we can all enjoy them.

We'll see if we can make it through the entire bowl season without changes, cancellations, etc.

Finally, as also always happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheets. This, like the NFL pick 'em sheet I do, I do for free as a labor of love. That said, if you are so compelled, feel free to PayPal me whatever you like, and I'll put these donations towards website hosting fees:

$5.00     $10.00     $25.00     $50.00

Really you just have to change that dollar amount in the URL -- https://paypal.me/excelgeek/5.

Enjoy, everyone!

2020-21 College Bowl Pool Files Are Ready! Finally!

Ok, everybody! This season's college football bowl pool files are finally ready! I'm sorry I didn't get these out late Selection Sunday, per usual, or even yesterday before the first game, as I'd planned, but it was a challenge to make all the modifications I needed to, and the last minute changes kept rolling in.

Many, many noteworthy items this COVID-19-impacted year:

• There would have been 3 new bowl games added this year, had it not been for the pandemic. There is the Myrtle Beach Bowl, which was actually played yesterday. There would have been the Fenway Bowl, which was to be played at Fenway park a la the Pinstripe Bowl played at Yankee Stadium, but it was canceled due to COVID, and was replaced with a one-year-only Montgomery Bowl, which will be played tomorrow. Finally, there was to be a LA Bowl played in southern California, but it was canceled this year due to COVID.
• 16 bowl games canceled, some stating that it was "due to the pandemic" (or similar), and a few outright saying they canceled because there weren't enough teams to play, given the large number of otherwise eligible teams choosing to opt out of the bowl season. We've lost the Bahamas Bowl (COVID, travel restrictions), the Frisco Bowl (SMU couldn't play due to COVID cases), the Celebration Bowl (both the MEAC and SWAC canceled all of their fall sports), the Las Vegas Bowl (pandemic reasons), the Hawai'i Bowl (COVID, travel restrictions), the Independence Bowl (couldn't find team to play Army), the Quick Lane Bowl (pandemic reasons), the Military Bowl (had selected Army when the Independence Bowl canceled, but couldn't find another team), the Pinstripe Bowl (pandemic reasons), the Holiday Bowl (pandemic reasons), the Cheez-It Bowl (this is the old Copper Bowl, not last year's Camping World Bowl, which this year is the Cheez-It bowl -- couldn't find enough teams to play), the Redbox Bowl (was the first to cancel due to COVID back in August), the Sun Bowl (pandemic reasons), the Birmingham Bowl (couldn't find enough teams), and the previously would-be new Fenway and LA Bowls (pandemic reasons).
• All in we're left with 29 games, down from last year's 41. (41+3-16+1=29)
• We did have two title sponsor changes. Last year's Camping World Bowl becomes this year's Cheez-It Bowl, which isn't to be confused with last year's Cheez-It Bowl, which was really just an incarnation of the old Copper Bowl, which is no more. The Belk Bowl from last year is this year's Duke's Mayo Bowl, which is probably one of my favorite title sponsor-named bowls of all time.
• I've updated the sheets with opening betting lines for your convenience, but you should probably update these as we get closer to the games, as the lines are constantly being updated until game time. I use the "VI Consensus" lines from Vegas Insider.

Without further ado...the files:

• 2020-21_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xlsx
• 2020-21_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xlsm

For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the simple, single person Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy, paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file, which is where they manage everything.

As always, the file is protected, but not with a password, so feel free to unprotect the workbook and then unhide some of the sheets running this stuff behind the scenes to see how it works. And if you add some cool hacks/additions, pass them along, so we can all enjoy them.

I'll personally be shocked if we make it through the entire bowl season without more changes, cancellations, etc., to bear with me and I'll try to keep up.

Finally, as also always happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheets. This, like the NFL pick 'em sheet I do, I do for free as a labor of love. That said, if you are so compelled, feel free to PayPal me whatever you like, and I'll put these donations towards website hosting fees:

$5.00     $10.00     $25.00     $50.00

Really you just have to change that dollar amount in the URL -- https://paypal.me/excelgeek/5.

Enjoy, everyone!

2019-20 College Bowl Pool Files Are Ready!

Ok, everybody! This season's college football bowl pool files are now ready! I'm sorry I didn't get it out last night per usual, but I was feeling a touch under the weather.

Some noteworthy items:

• Navy has made a bowl game again, and I'm again not waiting until after the (now traditional, "final week") Army-Navy game, so I don't know Army's final record, so I've simply listed them as "[23] Army (10-2 or 9-3)". I've found this to be simpler than leaving that cell unprotected, allowing you all to edit it, and then dealing with the possibility that you do that AFTER picks are entered and thereby cause the picks for those game to no longer match.
• The bowl line-up is essentially the same as last year -- no new bowls and no eliminated bowls.
• We do have one or two sponsor/name changes: The Dollar General Bowl is now the LendingTree Bowl, and the bowl I had listed as the Taxslayer Bowl, which I guess was actually officially called the Taxslayer Gator Bowl starting last year, I've now just listed as the Gator Bowl, matching how I shorten most other sponsor-name-included bowl game names -- at least those bowl games whose names don't ONLY include a sponsor name.
• Like I started doing last year, in addition to including the teams' records, I've included their rankings (for those in the top 25).
• I've updated the sheets with opening betting lines for your convenience, but you should probably update these as we get closer to the games, as the lines are constantly being updated until game time. I use the "VI Consensus" lines from Vegas Insider.
• Finally, I did choose to keep the FCS-level Celebration Bowl as part of the line-up. Feel free to have your participants make picks for that game or not, as you like.

Without further ado...the files:

• 2019-20_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xlsx
• 2019-20_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xlsm

For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the simple, single person Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy, paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file, which is where they manage everything.

As always, the file is protected, but not with a password, so feel free to unprotect the workbook and then unhide some of the sheets running this stuff behind the scenes to see how it works. And if you add some cool hacks/additions, pass them along, so we can all enjoy them.

Finally, as also always happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheets. This, like the NFL pick 'em sheet I do, I do for free as a labor of love. That said, if you are so compelled, feel free to PayPal me whatever you like, and I'll put these donations towards website hosting fees:

$5.00     $10.00     $25.00     $50.00

Really you just have to change that dollar amount in the URL -- https://paypal.me/excelgeek/5.

Enjoy, everyone!

2018-19 College Bowl Pool Files Are Ready!

Ok, everybody! This season's college football bowl pool files are now ready!

Some noteworthy items:

• I'm again not waiting until after the Army-Navy game, so I don't know Army's final record, so I've simply listed them as "Army (10-2 or 9-3)". I've found this to be simpler than leaving that cell unprotected, allowing you to edit it, and then dealing with the possibility that you do that AFTER picks are entered and thereby cause the picks for those game to no longer match.
• The bowl line-up is essentially the same as last year -- no new bowls and no eliminated bowls.
• We do have three sponsor/name changes: The Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl is now the Servepro First Responder Bowl. The Motel 6 Cactus Bowl is now the Cheez-It Bowl. And the Foster Farms Bowl has become the Redbox Bowl. You can just feel the tradition building with those...
• This year, in addition to including the teams' records, I've included their rankings (for those in the top 25).
• I've updated the sheets with opening betting lines for your convenience, but you should probably update these as we get closer to the games. I use the "VI Consensus" lines from Vegas Insider.
• Finally, I did choose to keep the FCS-level Celebration Bowl as part of the line-up. Feel free to have your participants make picks for that game or not, as you like. It ends up being an exciting game, at least.

Without further ado...the files:

• 2018-19_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xlsx
• 2018-19_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xlsm

For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the simple, single person Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy, paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file, which is where they manage everything.

As always, the file is protected, but not with a password, so feel free to unprotect the workbook and then unhide some of the sheets running this stuff behind the scenes to see how it works. And if you add some cool hacks/additions, pass them along, so we can all enjoy them.

Finally, as also always happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheets. This, like the NFL pick 'em sheet I do, I do for free as a labor of love. That said, if you are so compelled, feel free to PayPal me whatever you like:

$5.00     $10.00     $25.00     $50.00

Really you just have to change that dollar amount in the URL -- https://paypal.me/excelgeek/5.

Enjoy, everyone!

2017-18 College Bowl Pool Sheets

Ok, everybody! You've all mostly been patient. I apologize that it took me a couple of extra days this year. I've been quite busy with the _real_ job. This season's college football bowl pool files are now ready!

Some noteworthy items:

• Since we again aren't waiting until after the Army-Navy game, and we don't know Army and Navy's final records, I've simply listed what each of those two teams may have for final records. That's simpler than leaving those cells unprotected, allowing you to edit them, and then dealing with the possibility that you do that AFTER picks are entered and thereby cause the picks for those game to no longer match.
• The bowl line-up is different then last year. We're down one bowl! No more Poinsettia Bowl. :: Sniff ::
• Also, three other bowls got a rename: The Miami Beach Bowl is now the Frisco Bowl. The St. Petersburg Bowl is now the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl. O_o And the Russell Athletic Bowl is now the Camping World Bowl.
• There aren't currently betting lines set on the two games involving Army and Navy, so I just added the spreads for those already available -- check Vegas Insider or similar sites. I did, though, use the first team as the "favorite" for those two games, so that I could do some testing with the "Odds of Winning" functionality, which doesn't work unless favorites are set. This is interesting to know, so that if you find a game has no favorite, at least pick one of the teams and either leave the Spread blank or set it to zero.
• My wife, son, and I haven't had a chance to make our picks yet, so for those of you who like to use our picks as benchmarks of sorts, you'll have to wait until I update that later.
• Finally, I did choose to keep the FCS-level Celebration Bowl as part of the line-up. Feel free to have your participants make picks for that game or not, as you like. It ends up being an exciting game, at least.

Without further ado...the files:

• 2017-18_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xlsx
• 2017-18_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xlsm

For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the simple, single person Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy, paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file, which is where they manage everything.

As always, the file is protected, but not with a password, so feel free to unprotect the workbook and then unhide some of the sheets running this stuff behind the scenes to see how it works. And if you add some cool hacks/additions, pass them along, so we can all enjoy them.

Final, as also always happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheets. This, like the NFL pick 'em sheet and the new NCAA football pick 'em sheet I do, I do for free as a labor of love. That said, if you are so compelled, feel free to PayPal me whatever you like:

$5.00     $10.00     $25.00     $50.00

Really you just have to change that dollar amount in the URL -- https://paypal.me/excelgeek/5.

Enjoy, everyone!

2016-17 College Bowl Pool Sheets

UPDATE 12-06-2016: A few of you have reported that there's a bug in the way you set picks for the National Championship game. I hadn't moved the data validation from last year's semi-final games to this year's. That issue is now fixed in both files. I apologize for the sloppiness.

UPDATE 12-28-2016: I've fixed a couple more issues in the Summary file. The first dealt with the way in which the was with the Bowl Rankings and Average Wagers are calculated in the GAME CHARTS sheet. I had missed one of the games, and it cause the rest of them to be referencing the wrong data. The second was on the CRITICAL GAMES tab. I had the National Championship game referencing the wrong possible teams, since the playoff games change each year. This same issue was impacting how the ODDS OF WINNING scenarios were being ran in the hidden scenario data tab. Basically, it was only picking from Nebraska, Tennessee, South Alabama, and Air Force as the possible teams in the championship game instead of from Washington or Alabama in the Peach Bowl or Ohio State or Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. That is now fixed, as well. Thank you, Matt, for helping identify some of these issues.

Ok, everybody! This season's college football bowl pool files are now ready! Many of you have been patiently (and not so patiently) nudging me to get these ready. I'm like, "Hey, can't we at least let the Army-Navy game happen first, so we know what their regular season records are, at least?" and you all are saying, "Nope." Fine. Here you go.

Some noteworthy items:

• Since we don't know Army and Navy's final records, I've left those two cells in both the Summary and Entry sheets unlocked, so that they can be easily edited to specify their respective final records. Note that if you make picks, copy-paste picks in from Entry Forms, etc., before making that edit, your picks will no longer match with the team names/records and scoring will not work for those games.
• The bowl line-up is exactly the same as last year, with the exception that the GoDaddy Bowl has become the Dollar General Bowl.
• There aren't currently betting lines set on all of the games, so I just added the spreads for those already available -- check Vegas Insider or similar sites. I did, though, use the first team as the "favorite" for all other games, so that I could do some testing with the "Odds of Winning" functionality, which doesn't work unless favorites are set. This is interesting to know, so that if you find a game has no favorite, at least pick one of the teams and either leave the Spread blank or set it to zero.
• My wife, son, and I haven't had a chance to make our picks yet, so for those of you who like to use our picks as benchmarks of sorts, you'll have to wait until I update that later.
• I did choose to keep the FCS-level Celebration Bowl as part of the line-up. Feel free to have your participants make picks for that game or not, as you like. I think that's likely to be a great game, btw.

Without further ado...the files:

• 2016-17_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xlsx
• 2016-17_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xlsm

For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the simple, single person Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy, paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file, which is where they manage everything.

As always, the file is protected, but not with a password, so feel free to unprotect the workbook and then unhide some of the sheets running this stuff behind the scenes to see how it works. And if you add some cool hacks/additions, pass them along, so we can all enjoy them.

Final, as also always happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheets. This, like the NFL pick 'em sheet I do, I do for free as a labor of love. That said, if you are so compelled, feel free to PayPal me whatever you like:

$5.00     $10.00     $25.00     $50.00

Really you just have to change that dollar amount in the URL -- https://paypal.me/excelgeek/50.

Enjoy, everyone!

2015-16 Bowl Pool Spreadsheet with Scenario Analysis

I promised this in my previous post about this year's college football bowl pool spreadsheets, and now I'm delivering, even if a touch later than planned.

I've now got a version of the summary file out there with the aforementioned scenario analysis built in. Here's how it works:

• I'm using the betting lines (point spreads) for each game to determine the probabilities of the favorite teams winning. Essentially, I used the College Football table found on this website to convert the point spreads to the probabilities.
• I then run all not-yet-played games (meaning, the winner hasn't been set on the Picks tab) through 1,000 random scenarios, where the outcomes are weighted accordingly. That is, if I run 1,000 scenarios of a game that is a 7 point spread, the favorite in that game should come close to winning 70.3% of the time, but it's still random, so it make be more or less to some degree.
• For games that have already been played, I always use the actual winner in the scenarios.
• Then I apply the winning teams from each scenario to each participant's picks and points, and see which participant ends up with the most points and thereby wins each scenario. Actually I rank all participants' score for each scenario.
• Then I calculate each participant's overall odds of finishing at each possible rank, including their chances of winning the pool, based on that sample of 1,000 scenarios.
• Finally, I do some analysis for each participant to highlight which games are of particular importance to each person. For example, it might be that for a given participant, 100% of the scenarios for which they win the pool involve California beating Air Force in the Armed Forces bowl. It'd be handy for everyone to know that.
• This functionality is all found in two new tabs -- ODDS OF WINNING and CRITICAL GAMES -- as the rest of the sheet remains unchanged.

It's worth noting that running these 1,000 scenarios on my PC -- which is a decent Dell Latitude E6520 (2.40 GHz Intel i7 CPU with 8 GB of RAM and a Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB SSD) -- takes a touch over a minute. I do think that only running 1,000 scenarios is likely way under-sampling things, particularly when there are 20+ games remaining, which means there are over a million and up to 4.4 trillion possible outcomes! Given that, I could build out an option to run 10,000, 20,000, or even more scenarios. It's just that run time for such an option will go up in a linear fashion as you add more scenarios, meaning for 20,000 scenarios it could be half an hour or longer probably, and I don't know that folks really want to wait that long for what still amounts to a sampling of potential outcomes. Also, I don't know that the overall precision of the estimated odds to win for each participant will become that much better.

Without further ado, here are this year's college football bowl pool management files:

• NEW 2015-16_Bowl_Pool_Summary_Scenarios.xlsm
• 2015-16_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xls

If you plan to migrate your data from the prior Summary file version to this one, you should be able to simply copy-paste all of the participants' picks and points from one to the other. I'd do each participant separately, and ALWAYS use the Paste Special... Values option.

As always, the file is protected, but not with a password, so feel free to unprotect the workbook and then unhide some of the sheets running this stuff behind the scenes to see how it works. And if you add some cool hacks/additions, pass them along, so we can all enjoy them.

Enjoy, everyone!

2015-16 NCAA Football Bowl Pool Files Are Ready

UPDATE as of 12/14/2015: Initially, I left off one of this year's now 42 bowl games -- actually the very first one: the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl, featuring Alcorn State and North Carolina A&T. Thank you, readers "Anonymous" and Tron Guy, for setting me straight. For some reason this bowl doesn't appear on the NCAA's website, nor on Wikipedia. And none of the betting line service websites I looked at to get odds shows it. Odd. This has been corrected in both files now.

UPDATE as of 12/28/2015: I've now got a version of the summary file out there with the aforementioned scenario analysis built in. I'm using the betting lines (point spreads) to determine the probabilities of the favorites winning, and then running 1,000 random scenarios, where the outcomes are weighted accordingly. Then I apply the winning teams from each scenario to each participant's picks and points, and see who wins each scenario. Then I calculate each participant's overall odds of winning the pool, based on that sample of 1,000 scenarios. Finally, I do some analysis for each participant to highlight which games are of particular importance to each person. For example, it might be that for a given participant, 100% of the scenarios for which they win the pool involve California beating Air Force in the Armed Forces bowl. It'd be handy for everyone to know that. It's worth noting that running these 1,000 scenarios on my PC -- which is a decent Dell Latitude E6520 (2.40 GHz Intel i7 CPU with 8 GB of RAM) -- takes a touch over a minute. I do think that only running 1,000 scenarios is likely way under-sampling things, particularly when there are 20+ games remaining, which means there are over a million and up to 4.4 trillion possible outcomes! Given that, I could build out an option to run 10,000, 20,000, or even more scenarios. It's just that run time for such an option will go up in a linear fashion as you add more scenarios, meaning for 20,000 scenarios it could be half an hour or longer probably, and I don't know that folks really want to wait that long for what still amounts to a sampling of potential outcomes. Also, I don't know that the overall precision of the estimated odds to win for each participant will become that much better.

At long last, here are this year's college football bowl pool management files:

• 2015-16_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xls
• 2015-16_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xls
• NEW 2015-16_Bowl_Pool_Summary_Scenarios.xlsm

It took me a bit longer than normal to get the files out this season, and I've gotten many comments, emails, Facebook messages, etc., asking when they'd be ready. Well...they're ready.

For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the simple, single person Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy, paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file, which is where they manage everything.

Note: Here's how I dealt with the playoff semi-finals and championship: I've used formulas to automatically fill in the two winners of the semifinals for the left part of the summary file. For each person's picks, they'll have the two teams they selected to win those semi-finals to pick from in the championship. Let me know if that doesn't work well or if you're confused by it. It does make the Individual Chart for the championship game a bit odd if a participant picked a team to win that game that didn't even play in it, but the points system still works fine.

Another note: I don't have the final record for the Navy team, since they're currently playing in the annual Army-Navy game this weekend. I've also left that cell unprotected so you can easily update the record for the Midshipmen if you want to.

Also, I don't yet have my personal picks completed, but will add them, as well as those for my wife (MRS. EXCEL_GEEK) and son (EXCEL_GEEK, JR.) and update the files once we're ready. Some of you have voiced a preference to have those picks included, to give you a benchmark for your own picks (and to see me lose each year to my wife.) UPDATE: Our picks are now included.

Finally, I'm planning on working in a new feature that I'll release in a few days that will enable the pool manager to run a series of simulated scenarios to see which Participants, given their picks and points vs. games that have already been played vs. point spreads, have the greatest chances of winning the pool. It should be a neat feature.

Enjoy, everyone!

2014-15 College Football Bowl Pool

You've all been waiting very patiently for me to update my annual college football bowl pool spreadsheets, and here they are!

There were all sorts of changes this year. Five all new bowl games, one discontinued bowl game, and a few renames. Plus, we're in our first year of the College Football Playoff era! That's right, we've got one game in the list for which we won't even know the teams playing until later on.

Here's the new bowl games:

• The Camellia Bowl. This one will be played in Montgomery, Alabama between a Sun Belt Conference and Mid-American Conference teams. The bowl is owned by ESPN Regional Television.
• The Miami Beach Bowl. This one will be played in Miami in Marlins Park. We always need more Florida bowl games, right?
• The Boca Raton Bowl. This one will be played at Florida Atlantic University stadium in Boca Raton. It's also owned by ESPN Events, and features Mid-American conference teams until 2019.
• The Popeyes Bowl. Officially the Popeye's Bahamas Bowl for its sponsor Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen, this one will be played in Nassau Bahamas and features Mid-American conference teams through 2016. This will be the first game played outside the U.S. since 2010 International Bowl in Toronto.
• The Quick Lane Bowl. This bowl will be replacing the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. This isn't merely a renaming, though. It's a whole new bowl organization. The Little Caesars Bowl is no more (for now).

Here's the renamess:

• The former Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is now called the Foster Farms Bowl.
• The former Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl is now called the Cactus Bowl.
• The former BBVA Compass Bowl is now called the Birmingham Bowl.
• The BCS National Championship is now called the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship, as we enter the CFP era. Bye bye, BCS.

Here are the files:

• 2014-15_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xls
• 2014-15_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xls

For those unfamiliar with the two-file system, the idea is that pool managers can distribute the Entry Form version to those in their pool to make their picks and assign confidence points. The participants them email back that file, and the manager can simply copy -- paste special... values those picks and points into the Summary file, which is where they manage everything.

Note: Since I wasn't sure how you folks would be dealing with the fact that we don't currently know which teams will be playing in the CFP Championship, I've made it so that you can easily edit those teams later. Some of you may prefer to have everyone pick a winner for that game upfront, filling in the teams playing with their two picks for the initial two playoff games. Some of you may opt to have folks send in their picks for that game later, once the teams are known. It's up to you, I guess.

Another note: I don't have the final record for the Navy team, since they play in the annual Army-Navy game this weekend. I've also left that cell unprotected so you can easily update the record for the Midshipmen.

Finally, I don't yet have my personal picks completed, but will add them, as well as those for my wife (MRS. EXCEL_GEEK) and son (EXCEL_GEEK, JR.) and update the files once we're ready. Some of you have voiced a preference to have those picks included, to give you a benchmark for your own picks (and to see me lose each year to my wife.)

Enjoy, everyone!

The 2013-14 College Football Bowl Pool Spreadsheet is here!

Sorry it took me a bit longer than normal to get this out. I usually stay up on Bowl Selection Sunday and get this delivered.

This year, thankfully, there were no material changes to the bowl game line-up. We still have 35 games. Three of the games did get new sponsors, though:

• The former MAACO Bowl Las Vegas becomes the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl.
• The former Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl becomes the National University Holiday Bowl.
• The former Discover BCS National Champtionship becomes the VIZIO BCS National Championship.

As usual there are two files. The first is the "Summary" -- this is the one that pool organizers use to track how everyone's picks are doing vs. actual results. the second is the "Entry Form" -- this is the file that pool organizers send to their participants for them to make their picks and send it back. Pool organizers, remember to use Copy - Paste Special... Values when copy-pasting people's picks in to the Summary.

Here are your files:

• 2013-14_Bowl_Pool_Summary.xls
• 2013-14_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xls

Enjoy!

UPDATED: I received feedback from a number of you today that my NOT initially including the traditional picks and points for me (Excel_Geek) and my wife (Mrs. Excel_Geek) and the recently added Excel_Geek Jr. was UNACCEPTABLE. It turns out many of you like to gauge how you're doing by comparing your picks to ours. Also, some of you apparently find it funny that I rarely do better than my wife (or even last year my son.)

The Summary form now has all three of our picks and points included. Do please enjoy!

2012-13 College Football Bowl Pool Spreadsheets

Sorry for the wait, folks. Here are this year's college football bowl season pool files. Enjoy!

http://www.excelgeek.com/downloads/collegebowls/2012-13_Bowl_Pool_Summary_revb.xls

http://www.excelgeek.com/downloads/collegebowls/2012-13_Bowl_Pool_Entry_Form.xls

For the uninitiated, the "Summary" file is the one the manager of the pool will use to keep track of everyone's picks and points. The "Entry Form" is the file the manager of the pool sends out to the participants, so they can make picks and assign points. Then the manager can copy-paste them into the "Summary" file.

Also, I routinely get requests for a version of this file with room for more participants. While I haven't updated the "expanded" version to this year's teams and bowls yet, you can yourself. Here's where I posted that version:

click here

UPDATED: I've since fixed the issue some folks (who've commented on this post) were having relative to picks not being displayed in the Individual Charts tab for users #21 and above. I've also added in the feature requested by one commenter for calculating negative confidence points for incorrect picks. Good idea, I thought. I added a user option to select either "Zero" or "Negative" for points for incorrect picks. Check it out.

Bowl Season Wrap-Up

Well, another college bowl season is in the books. For those of you keeping score, Mrs. Excel_Geek beat Excel_Geek for the third straight year (or so). And in a nail-biter, new-comer Excel_Geek Jr. matched his daddy for the number of correct picks, but was narrowly edged out by 8 confidence points. So you know, I picked for the little guy, using the =RANDBETWEEN() function and the =RAND() function -- maybe I'll do a post describing how to do that -- to make his picks completely randomly. That's right. My own, well-thought-out, analyzed, expert picks did only very slightly better than completely random picks and point assignments. Oh well...back to the drawing board. See you all next bowl season!

Later,

Excel_Geek

Oh, almost forgot some traffic stats: the 2011-12 Bowl Season (12/3/11 - 1/9/12) increased ExcelGeek.com website traffic by nearly 3.9x the average daily site traffic for the year leading up to it, whereas the 2010-11 Bowl Season (12/4/10 - 1/10/11) increased traffic by (only) nearly 3.4x. 2011-12's peak 20-day moving average traffic day (12/23/11) was nearly 44% higher than that from 2010-11 (12/24/10). The single day peak from 2011-21 (12/5/11) was 72.8% higher than the single day peak in 2010-11 (12/6/10). Overall...a great year.

Next up...March Madness!

Problem with Individual Charts in College Pool Corrected

Oops!
Zach let me know that he found a problem with the Individual Charts tab in the 2011-2012_Bowl_Pool_Summary file. Participants 21-40 were't working properly - showing "no picks made" even if valid picks were input into the Picks tab.

I've fixed this. If you download it now, it'll work properly.

Sorry about that!

Eric

Expanded (Again) Bowl Pool Spreadsheet

It's done. At least I think it all still works. Now you have room for up to 100 participants. I also added in 5 extra bowl game rows for future expansion if necessary. For those of you with large pools, this outa work just fine. Again, you can thank JMorein and EGeierman for footing the bill.

Also, again, this new file is only compatible with Excel 2007 or 2010, as it's far wider (in columns) than is supported in Excel 2003 and older.

click here to download the file.

Enjoy!

Excel_Geek

Another expansion of the College Bowl Pool Spreadsheet is afoot!

I caved (again). I'll be expanding the current College Bowl Pool Spreadsheet to accommodate up to 100 participants. There could be some other minor changes as well. Thank JMorein and EGeierman for spearheading the effort (and footing the $50 bill I'm enforcing to do this). If any others would like to contribute to the $50, simply email me (you should be able to find my email address on this website somewhere) or send me your email using the little chat thingy indicating that you'd like to contribute, and I'll send you out the new files once they're done.

UPDATE: This expanded version will definitely only be for those on Excel 2007 & 2010, given the width in columns it'll take.

2011-12 College Football Bowl Pool Spreadsheet

It seems like the first time in a few years (not sure if this is true, but it feels like it) that I don't have to modify the spreadsheets to add another game. "Just" 35 bowls again this year.

The Humanitarian Bowl has been replaced by the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The Texas Bowl is now called the Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl. The old Meineke Car Care Bowl has been replaced by the Belk Bowl. Yeah...Belk. I had to look it up too. "Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk, Inc. (www.belk.com) is the nation’s largest privately owned mainline department store company with 305 Belk stores located in 16 Southern states. The company was founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, N.C., and is in the third generation of Belk family leadership. The belk.com Web site offers a wide assortment of fashion apparel, shoes and accessories for the entire family along with top name cosmetics, a wedding registry and a large selection of quality merchandise for the home." Okay. Anyway...the reason I even bring any of this up is that while I know that the sponsors of these bowl games spend a lot of money to get their brands out there, where convenient, I'm just going to leave the sponsor name off in the spreadsheet -- e.g. i'll just put "Music City Bowl" instead of "Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl". In cases where the sponsor name IS the bowl name (e.g. "Champs Sports Bowl"), I'll obviously just use that. The new "Famous Idaho Potato Bowl" i'll just call the "Potato Bowl" in the whole "Orange Bowl", "Cotton Bowl", etc., tradition.

Now that that's out of the way, here are the files:

Click here for the "Master" file used by the pool organizer. This is the one with the fancy charts and group scoring summary, etc.

Click here for the "Individual Picks" file used by each person participating in the pool. This is the one the pool organizer typically would email out to his or her participants to have them fill out to make it easier for him or her to copy paste their picks into the "Master" file.

Enjoy, everyone!

Excel_Geek

I've already gotten a slew of inquiries as to when this year's college football bowl pool spreadsheet will be ready. Patience, Grasshopper(s). Once all of the bowls have selected their teams, it will be ready.

Not familiar with the spreadsheets? Click the "College Bowl Game Pool" tag to see what I've done in the past.

Later,

Excel_Geek

Heat Charts are so easy in Excel 2007

Before you roll your eyes and say, "Welcome to life after 2003, Excel_Geek," let me just say, "I know, I know." The driver for this project was that I was analyzing my website traffic using my Google Analytics account. I noticed a few things.

One was that "heat chart" or "heat charts" seems to be a pretty popular search term for folks to find me. I've obviously done a couple of heat chart projects, but back when I was still using 2003, so in order to create them with more than four colors (the limit to Conditional Formatting in 2003), I had to do write some VBA code to accomplish it.

Another thing I noticed what the rhythmic up and down of my site traffic. There were a few major spikes -- March Madness season, college football bowl game season, and one recently when @MSExcel mentioned me in their Twitter feed. What I wanted to further analyze, though, was if there was any pattern to traffic patterns based on Day of Week and recency of blog posts.

I combined these two findings and decided to do a heat chart incorporating both Day of Week and recency to blog posts. Here's what the chart itself looks like:



Along the way I used some other favorite techniques along the way: indexing the data (so I'm not sharing my actual web stats...hey, that's my business), a trick to convert a list of dates into a list of days of the week, VLOOKUP using TRUE instead of FALSE (whatever for? right?), and using SUMPRODUCT to create COUNTIFS and SUMIFS functions that will be backward compatible to Excel 2003 and earlier. I highlighted the creation of the heat chart and these other techniques in the source file, which I'll be sharing with my Insiders Subscribers.

Later,

Excel_Geek

2010-11 College Football Bowl Pool Spreadsheet

Looking for the 2011-12 files? Go here.

Okay, folks. You've waited long enough. Here's this year's college football bowl pool sheet:



2010-11 Bowl Pool Summary Sheet



And here's the individual picks sheet you can pass around to those participating in your pool to copy-paste their picks back into the Summary sheet file (just remember, Copy --> Paste Special... --> Values is your friend):



2010-11 Bowl Pool Individual Picks Entry Sheet



As always, if you find any issues, please let me know. If you've got a cool idea for an enhancement, do the same.



Enjoy,



Excel_Geek