The default deadline in NFL Office Pools at PoolHost.com, whether they are Pick’ems, Confidence or Survivor pools is kick-off of the first game of the week. This means that ALL picks must be in by kick-off of the first game included in your pool. Since most weeks have a Thursday game, that leaves just about 3 days from the start of each week on Tuesday mornings to Thursday night to get all your picks in.
But you don’t have to use the default deadline. Instead, you can set a custom (rolling) deadline for any day and time from Thursday through Monday which allows your pool members to continue to make picks for un-played games if they miss some of the earlier games in the week. You just need to set your deadline to the day you’d like later in the week with your deadline being the final cutoff. Any games before your deadline can still be picked up until they kick off. Whenever users make picks, they still must pick ALL games your pool requires, but they can continue to change picks for unplayed games up until your deadline passes.
Keep reading for all the details!
How to enable a Custom/Rolling Deadline in your pool:
Enabling the Custom/Rolling Deadline feature is easy. If you’re the pool admin, go to Pool Setting in the Pool Admin menu and then click the Deadline tab. There, you can set a custom deadline to any time up to Monday at 8PM ET. That custom deadline will be the master deadline by which ALL picks must be in. Users can make picks for games that are earlier than your master deadline but before their scheduled kick-offs. Once a game kicks off, it is locked and can no longer be picked (unless you’re the admin).
Here are some additional details:
- Setting a custom deadline after the kick-off of earlier games means that those earlier games can be picked up until their scheduled kick-off time.
- The “Make Picks” page still requires users to make picks for all the required games that your pool rules are set to. If your pool picks all games each week, then picks must still be chosen for ALL GAMES. This is for insurance… if a player made it to the Make Picks page, they’ll enter picks for all games. If they forget to come back and change their picks, at least they’ll have picks for all games entered.
- After the early games kick off, meaning the games that are earlier than your custom deadline, users can still go back and change picks for the remaining un-played games up until your custom deadline passes.
- If a player forgets to make picks for an early game, like the Thursday game, they can no longer pick it. If your pool requires picking ALL games each week, then that player will be picking from fewer games than others who got their picks in before the early game kick-offs.
- If you play a weighted/confidence pool, and a player misses the early game(s), they can still pick the remaining games and if your pool picks ALL games, then the highest or lowest weight value(s) will be dropped depending on how you’ve set your “Drop Highest” setting in the Pool Settings” page. So in a 16 game week where there’s a Thur. game and a user forgets to pick before it starts, they’ll be picking from the remaining 15 games and their weight values will be from 15 to 1 if Drop Highest is set or from 16 to 2 if Drop Highest is not set.
- The “Weekly Results” page will only reveal user picks for games earlier than your custom deadline as each game kicks off. All user picks will be revealed only after your custom deadline passes.
For Admins:
During the time before your master deadline but after early games have kicked off, if you go to the “Make Picks” page to enter picks for a player, you’ll be able to enter picks as if you are that player with the kicked-off game(s) excluded from being picked. But you can override this by clicking a link on the page that allows you to pick as admin with all games available. This allows you flexibility to assign picks in any way you’d like. The button toggles between user mode and admin mode.
What to do if your pool won’t be using the rolling deadline feature? Here are some pointers:
- If you’re a participant in your pool and missed the Thursday deadline, email your picks to your pool admin. The Pool Admin can enter picks for you even after the deadline has passed.
- If you’re a pool admin, you can enter picks for players even if the deadline has passed in your pool. Simply go to the Make Picks page, choose a player name, and plug in their picks that they’ve sent you. You can also choose to assign random, home or away team picks for those who’ve missed the deadline if you’d like.
- If you’re a pool admin, you can choose to exclude the Thursday game from your pool to allow users to pick up until your custom deadline or first weekend kickoff if not using a custom deadline. This can be set by going to the Pool Settings page in the Pool Admin menu and changing item #11. Changing this will delete any user picks already made but users will have until Sunday to enter picks again. You can reenable Thursday games in subsequent weeks later.
- PoolHost.com cannot enter picks for players who miss the deadline, contact your Pool Admin directly.
Enjoy the NFL season!
PoolHost.com Team
