2024-25 NFL Pick 'Em Pool Files Are Ready!

Folks, this may be the earliest I've managed to get this season's NFL Pick 'Em pool files posted! Like last year, it seems that all I had to do to make this year's version was to update to the 2024-2025 schedule. I did test the automatic score pulling feature, and it seems to be good, but I had to use the scores from 2023 to do that testing since no games have been played in 2024 yet. If you run into issues, just let me know.

Like years past, there's also a companion "Picks" sheet to distribute to pool participants, so they can simply email back the file for the admins to copy-paste into the master sheet. Just remember to always copy, paste special... values when moving their picks into the master sheet, so as to not jack up formatting or other stuff.

Without further ado, here are the files:

• 2024-25_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool.xlsm
• 2024-25_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_Picks.xlsx

If you have any trouble downloading the files, try right-clicking on the links and opening them in an Incognito window (using Chrome.) That always does the trick for me.

Remember, this NFL pick 'em sheet I do for free. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, 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.

Anyways...please enjoy this year's NFL Pick 'Em. If you encounter a bug or need help with using the sheet, let me know.

Later,

Excel_Geek

2023-24 NFL Pick 'Em Pool Files Are Ready!

Folks, just in the nick of time I've completed and released this season's NFL Pick 'Em pool. Apologies for making so many of you pester me up to the last minute to get it done! Like last year, it seems that all I had to do to make this year's version was to update to the 2023-2024 schedule. I did test the automatic score pulling feature, and it seems to be good, but I had to use the scores from 2022 to do that testing since no games have been played in 2023 yet. If you run into issues, just let me know.

Like years past, there's also a companion "Picks" sheet to distribute to pool participants, so they can simply email back the file for the admins to copy-paste into the master sheet. Just remember to always copy, paste special... values when moving their picks into the master sheet, so as to not jack up formatting or other stuff.

Without further ado, here are the files:

• 2023-24_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool.xlsm
• 2023-24_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_Picks.xlsx

If you have any trouble downloading the files, try right-clicking the links and opening in an Incognito window (using Chrome). That always does the trick for me.

Remember, this NFL pick 'em sheet, like the college bowl pool sheet I do, I do for free. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, 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.

Anyways...please enjoy this year's NFL Pick 'Em. If you encounter a bug or need help with using the sheet, let me know.

Later,

Excel_Geek

2022-23 NFL Pick 'Em Pool Files Are Ready!

Folks, I've completed and released this season's NFL Pick 'Em pool. I actually got this done before too many of you had to pester me! All I had to do to make this year's version from last year's was to update to the 2022-2023 schedule. Seems too easy. I did test the automatic score pulling feature, and it seems to be good, but, as always, just let me know if things don't seem to be working.

Like years past, there's also a companion "Picks" sheet to distribute to pool participants, so they can simply email back the file for the admins to copy-paste into the master sheet. Just remember to always copy, paste special... values when moving their picks into the master sheet, so as to not jack up formatting or other stuff.

Without further ado, here are the files:

• 2022-23_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool.xlsm
• 2022-23_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_Picks.xlsx

Remember, this NFL pick 'em sheet, like the college bowl pool sheet I do, I do for free. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, 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.

Anyways...please enjoy this year's NFL Pick 'Em. If you encounter a bug or need help with using the sheet, let me know.

Later,

Excel_Geek

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!

2021-22 NFL Pick 'Em Pool Files Are Ready!

Folks, I've completed and released this season's NFL Pick 'Em pool. Like past years, many of you have been diligently pestering me for a few weeks now. The tweaks I had to make to this year's version from last year's were to 1) update to the 2021-2022 schedule, which adds a Week 18 for the first time ever, and 2) make one small change to the macro that automatically pulls scores from FootballDB.com, as they must have just slightly altered their HTML code on the scores pages. I did test that change using prior years and all appears to be working, but, as always, just let me know if things don't seem to be working.

Like years past, there's also a companion "Picks" sheet to distribute to pool participants, so they can simply email back the file for the admins to copy-paste into the master sheet. Just remember to always copy, paste special... values when moving their picks into the master sheet, so as to not jack up formatting or other stuff.

Without further ado, here are the files:

• 2021-22_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool.xlsm
• 2021-22_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_Picks.xlsx

As also happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheet. I remind them that this, like the college bowl pool sheet I do, I do for free. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, 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.

Anyways...please enjoy this year's NFL Pick 'Em. If you encounter a bug or need help with using the sheet, let me know.

Later,

Excel_Geek

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!

2020-21 NFL Pick 'Em Pool Files Are Ready!

UPDATE Sept 11, 2020:

I'm super embarrassed! A couple users of the spreadsheet pointed out that it wasn't pulling scores for last night's game. Well, embarrassingly, just like I did last year, this was due to me leaving in one row of code in the macro that I was using to test pulling scores using preseason games. I'll update the master spreadsheet, so you can re-download, but if you've got yours all set up and everyone's picks added and don't want to have to do that again, you can make a simple VBA code change yourself!

The first thing you'll need to do is enable the "Developer" menu in the Ribbon (if you haven't already). Head to File - Home - Options - Customize Ribbon, and then find Developer in the left list of available menus and commands, and Add it over to the right side of selected menus and commands. Click OK.

Now you'll have a new menu for Developer. Click on that and choose Visual Basic. That will launch what is known as the Visual Basic Editor (VBE). You'll see a sort of project-organized view of things. In the top left part of this view, look for the Modules section and specifically Module2. Double-click on that. The main part of the view now should show the code that enables pulling scores from FootballDB.com. I want you to look about 9 lines down into that macro code (including the blank lines) for where it says, "'THIS_SEGMENT = "reg" followed by "THIS_SEGMENT = "pre"." You'll notice that the "reg" line has a single quote in front of it and the font is green. Adding the single quote in front of it "comments it out" so it doesn't work. I had commented out the "reg" (regular season) line and added a "pre" (preseason) line for testing. You simply need to un-comment out the "reg" line by deleting that leading single quote and comment out or delete the "pre" line. Done! You're a coder now!

All should be right with the world. At least that I know right now.

Sorry for the hassle. Feel free to download a fixed version of the master file if you'd rather not hack around in the code yourself.

Folks, I've completed and released this season's NFL Pick 'Em pool. Like past years, many of you have been diligently pestering me for a few weeks now. The only tweaks I had to make to this year's version from last year's was to 1) change "OAK" to "LV" throughout, since the Raiders have officially made their way to Las Vegas, and 2) update to the 2020-2021 schedule. It also appears that FootballDB.com didn't make any changes to how they display completed games, so the code for automatically pulling scores _should_ still work. The problem is that since the NFL cancelled all of the preseason games, I didn't get the chance to test it. If things end up not working after Week 1, I'll push out an update.

Like years past, there's also a companion "Picks" sheet to distribute to pool participants, so they can simply email back the file for the admins to copy-paste into the master sheet. Just remember to always copy, paste special... values when moving their picks into the master sheet, so as to not jack up formatting or other stuff.

Without further ado, here are the files:

• 2020-21_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool.xlsm
• 2020-21_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_Picks.xlsx

As also happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheet. I remind them that this, like the college bowl pool sheet I do, I do for free. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, 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.

Anyways...please enjoy this year's NFL Pick 'Em. If you encounter a bug or need help with using the sheet, let me know.

Later,

Excel_Geek

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!

2019-20 NFL Pick 'Em Pool Files Are Ready!

UPDATE Sept 9, 2019:

A couple users of the spreadsheet pointed out that it wasn't pulling scores for yesterday's games. Somehow it was only pulling scores seemingly randomly for Denver (who plays tonight) and Atlanta. Well, embarrassingly, this was due to me leaving in one row of code in the macro that I was using to test pulling scores using preseason games. I'll update the master spreadsheet, so you can re-download, but if you've got yours all set up and everyone's picks added and don't want to have to do that again, you can make a simple VBA code change yourself!

The first thing you'll need to do is enable the "Developer" menu in the Ribbon (if you haven't already). Head to File - Home - Options - Customize Ribbon, and then find Developer in the left list of available menus and commands, and Add it over to the right side of selected menus and commands. Click OK.

Now you'll have a new menu for Developer. Click on that and choose Visual Basic. That will launch what is known as the Visual Basic Editor (VBE). You'll see a sort of project-organized view of things. In the top left part of this view, look for the Modules section and specifically Module2. Double-click on that. The main part of the view now should show the code that enables pulling scores from FootballDB.com. I want you to look about 9 lines down into that macro code (including the blank lines) for where it says, "'THIS_SEGMENT = "reg" followed by "THIS_SEGMENT = "pre"." You'll notice that the "reg" line has a single quote in front of it and the font is green. Adding the single quote in front of it "comments it out" so it doesn't work. I had commented out the "reg" (regular season) line and added a "pre" (preseason) line for testing. You simply need to un-comment out the "reg" line by deleting that leading single quote and comment out or delete the "pre" line. Done! You're a coder now!

There was one other issue I found once I fixed this, though. Somehow it wasn't pulling scores from the Colts-Chargers or Lions-Cardinals games. I noticed right away that these were the only overtime games yesterday. FootballDB.com must have changed out they display overtime games since last season, and the regular expression code that matches "final" games wasn't working. I found it right away. In the past the little box score for final games all displayed a "FINAL" in the top right. Now for overtime games, they display "F/OT". So a simple little tweak to that regular expression was needed. If you head to line 40 in that same macro you'll see a comment line that says, "' This identifies only the Final games." The bottom line in that cluster is what we'll need to tweak. Where it says "FINAL" in that long string of gobbleygook, it needs to say "(FINAL|F/OT)". This will make it match either "FINAL" or "F/OT".

All should be right with the world. At least that I know right now. This does highlight one other issue, though. You'll notice that we did have one game end in a tie -- Lions-Cardinals. The way the sheet is designed, no points will be awarded on this game since there was no winner. If that's not how you do it in real life, make a comment and let me know.

Sorry for the hassle. Feel free to download a fixed version of the master file if you'd rather not hack around in the code yourself.

Folks, I've completed and released this season's NFL Pick 'Em pool. Like past years, many of you have been diligently pestering me for a few weeks now. The good news was that we don't (still) have any new team names/cities to deal with this year. Maybe next year? The other good news (for me) was that FootballDB.com didn't decide to change how they display completed games, so the code changes I made last year seem to be working for this year, also. As always, though, if we get into the season, and something doesn't seem to be working right, just let me know. Like years past, I have created a companion "Picks" sheet to distribute to pool participants, so they can simply email back the file for the admins to copy-paste into the master sheet. Just remember to always copy, paste special... values when moving their picks into the master sheet, so as to not jack up formatting or other stuff.

Without further ado, here are the files:

• 2019-20_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool.xlsm
• 2019-20_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_Picks.xlsx

As also happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheet. I remind them that this, like the college bowl pool sheet I do, I do for free. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, 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.

Anyways...please enjoy this year's NFL Pick 'Em. If you encounter a bug or need help with using the sheet, let me know.

Later,

Excel_Geek

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!

2018-19 NFL Pick 'Em Pool Files Are Ready

Folks, I've completed and released this season's NFL Pick 'Em pool. Like past years, many of you have been diligently pestering me for a few weeks now. The good news was that we don't (yet) have any new team names/cities to deal with this year. Maybe next year? The bad news (for me) was that FootballDB.com decided to significantly change how they display completed games, so I had to rewrite much of my automatic score updating code. Oh well, I believe it's ready to go now. As always, if we get into the season, and something doesn't seem to be working right, just let me know. Like years past, I have created a companion "Picks" sheet to distribute to pool participants, so they can simply email back the file for the admins to copy-paste into the master sheet. Just remember to always copy, paste special... values when moving their picks into the master sheet, so as to not jack up formatting or other stuff.

Without further ado, here are the files:

• 2018-19_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool.xlsm
• 2018-19_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_Picks.xlsx

As also happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheet. I remind them that this, like the college bowl pool sheet I do, I do for free. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, 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.

Anyways...please enjoy this year's NFL Pick 'Em. If you encounter a bug or need help with using the sheet, let me know.

Later,

Excel_Geek

NEW THIS YEAR! College Football Pick 'Em Pool!

Hey everyone! I recently had a person approach me to convert my NFL Pick 'Em Pool into a college football pick 'em pool. What a great idea! It was no easy feat, however, since for the college football pool, I had to allow the pool administrator to pick the games each week that he or she wanted to include in the pool, whereas for the NFL pool, the schedule is the schedule. Also, for this particular person, I needed to support the way they handled the bowl season. The result is pretty cool, though.

Here's how the pool works: at the beginning of the season the pool administrator determines the games that will be involved each week -- up to a maximum of 16 games each week -- and sends out the picks sheets for the entire season. All participants make their picks for the entire season at the beginning. They also can optionally have people answer some tie-breaker questions, though no scoring for these is accounted for in the master spreadsheet. Then the participants send their picks sheets in.

I wrote a macro that enables the pool admin to automatically pull in the picks from the participants' sheets, so that they won't have to manually key them in. They simply need to save the unprocessed picks sheets into a user-definable directory and click a button. Once they're processed, the pool administrator can move those picks files to a "processed" directory. What a time saver if you've got a couple hundred participants, right? I'll have ot figure out if I can do something similar for the NFL Pick 'Em...

I also adapted the automatic score updating from FootballDB.com, so as long as you've picked games tracked by that website, you can use that feature. 

Because the system is based off of the old NFL Pick 'Em pool file, you'll still have the choice to go straight picks vs. picking against the spread, and the choice of how to allocate points for correct picks. 

Here are the files:

• College_Football_Season_Pick_em_Pool.xlsm
• College_Football_Season_Pick_em_Entry_Form.xlsx

I can already anticipate, since my readers truly are the nicest, most appreciative people on the planet, that some of you will be offering to pay me or donate to me for the sheet. This, like the college bowl pool and NFL pick 'em sheets I do, I do for free -- because I enjoy them. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, feel free to PayPal me whatever you like. It does help to cover my hosting costs, etc.:

$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.

Anyways...please enjoy this inaugural NCAA Football Pick 'Em pool. We're bound to run into a bug or snag or learning curve or two along the way, so when you do, just let me know, and I'll do my best to help resolve any issues.

Later,

Excel_Geek

2017-18 NFL Pick 'Em Pool Files Are Ready!

Folks, I've completed and release this season's NFL Pick 'Em pool. Like past years, many of you have diligently been pestering me for weeks now. I had to wait a bit into the preseason, however, so that I could see how FootballDB.com was going to treat our now TWO teams from Los Angeles, so that my automatic score updater will work. Again this year, I have created a companion "Picks" sheet to distribute to pool participants, so they can simply email back the file for the admins to copy-paste into the master sheet. Just remember to always copy, paste special... values when moving their picks into the master sheet, so as to not jack up formatting or other stuff.

Without further ado, here are the files:

• 2017-18_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool.xlsm
• Updated with Tampa at Miami moved to Week 11: 2017-18_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_schedulechange.xlsm
• 2017-18_NFL_Weekly_Football_Pool_Picks.xlsx

As also happens each year, several folks, as they were pinging, pestering, checking-in with me offered to pay me or donate to me for the sheet. This, like the college bowl pool sheet I do, I do for free. That said, if you just _have to_ do something for me for my efforts, 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.

Anyways...please enjoy this year's NFL Pick 'Em. If you encounter a bug or need help with using the sheet, let me know.

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

Yes, I'm doing a college bowl pool spreadsheet

Recent MeeboMe inquiry:

[12:25] meeboguest######:Are you going to have a college bowl spreadsheet for this year since there is one extra bowl from last year? The spreadsheet is wonderful.


Yes. Don't worry folks. There will be a new 2010 NCAA Football Bowl pool spreadsheet. Any ideas how to make it cooler than last year's?

Ideas for the College Bowl Pool Sheet for Next Year

Well, folks, it's wrapping up again. Thanks for making this my biggest college bowl pool spreadsheet year ever!



Four remaining games in one of our most beloved sports pool events of the year -- college football bowl game season. This is that point in many of our pools where some age-old questions start to emerge...

• "Do I really have a shot to win this thing?"


• "Do I even have a chance?"


• "Who else is in the running?"


• "Which games are really most important to my chances?"

I intend to give you the power to answer these questions (and maybe more) in next year's pool sheet. Stay tuned...but in the meantime best of luck in this year's pool! (oh, and get ready for March Madness...)

Alternate Requests for College Bowl Pool Pick 'em Sheets

I've been getting flooded for requests for all types of variations on my traditional college football bowl pool pick 'em sheet. For those of you familiar with mine, it's a straight up pick the winner (not picking against the line) and you assign points to each pick between 1 and 34 (each number used only once) depending on how confident you are in your pick.

I cannot possibly keep up with each and every variation people want, but I have gotten a number of requests for a simpler version that is more like my NFL Weekly Pool sheet that I did not that long ago. This version is picking a winner straight up (no line) and one point is assigned for each correct pick. The tie-breaker is the total combined score of the championship game. This version I made with 30 possible games (I know there are 34 bowl games, but you can figure out how to add the rest if you want to.) and is set up for up to 100 participants.

Excel_Geek Insiders subscribers will get this file for free as part of their subscription. Not a subscriber? Sign up. It's cheap and easy and you get copies of all the $50 Projects I complete.

I'll probably do another version of two of pool sheets.

Later,

Excel_Geek

2009-10 College Football Bowl Pool Spreadsheet

Okay folks...it's ready. Well...sort of.

We won't know whether or not it's Army or UCLA vs. Temple in the EagleBank Bowl until Army plays Navy on December 12th. Army has to win that game to become bowl eligible. My money's on Navy, so I'm guessing we'll see UCLA. Whenever we know, you'll have to make that last change for yourself.

Here are the files:

• Click here for the corrected main file.
  
  Note: I just found out that I had a problem with this file. It wouldn't let you select the winner of each game in the "WINNER" column. I've since corrected this and this download now works. If you've already got all your data in the file you previously downloaded don't worry, the fix is simple. Go to Tools --> Protection --> Unprotect Sheet... Then select all of the cells where you determine the winner in the "WINNER" column and go to Format --> Cells... --> Protection tab, and uncheck the "Locked" option. Then go back to Tools --> Protection --> Protect Sheet... and click OK without setting a password.


• Click here for a simply entry form you can pass around to other to make their picks.

Let me know if you have questions. Also, please pass along any great improvements you make. Remember, last year Jonathan chipped in some nice new features.

Later,

Excel_Geek

NFL Weekly Pool Template

The other day I got a request for a simple template for a weekly NFL office pool. After a few more clarifying questions, here's the scenario:

The requester is the organizer for a weekly NFL football office pool. Each person picks the winner of each of the 16 games each week during the regular season -- no scores, no picking against "the line", etc. -- just a straight up pick, and for each correct pick, that person gets a point. The person who has the most correct picks at the end of the week wins. In the event of a tie, each person also predicts the total combined points scored in the Monday night game. Whomever is closest wins.

I whipped together a quick template that can either be printed and used manually or filled out in Excel as actual results come in, automatically calculated scores and tie-breakers, if necessary. I thought it was decent, so I thought I'd share it -- with everyone, not just Excel_Geek Insiders (though, Insiders, I'll be emailing your copy to you personally, and everyone else has to download it on their own.)



Later,

Excel_Geek