PM26 begins Aug. 26

Season expands to 20 weeks

Some might call it a gift from the football gods.

Others might see it as the Gates of Hell opening a week early.

In any event, Pigskin Mania 26 kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 26 with four college games before the onslaught of a full schedule the following week.

Registration is underway.

As usual, there are a few tweaks in place for the coming season all intended to make the game more fun and at the same time keep it manageable as the number of players speeds toward 1,000.

Here’s a rundown of the changes we’ve made to the game. We encourage everyone to read this to know why the changes are taking place and how they affect the game. We also encourage everyone, especially newcomers, to read the Rules and History pages for info on playing the game.

Thanks to an added weekend of college games at the front end of the schedule, the PM season will be 20 weeks instead of 19 beginning with the four college games on Aug. 26 and ending the weekend of the NFL Wildcard Playoff games and the championship of the College Football Playoff on Jan. 8. The PM Founding Fathers voted to include the four Aug. 26 games in the season. Since there are only four games, there will be no payout for a perfect week. The added week means the first two weeks of the season are all college games while we wait for the NFL season to kick in.

The most visible change will be in the weekly update. Once the season begins, the PM Twitter feed will replace the weekly narrative. The feed that currently is in the right-hand column under the Asshander will move to the top of this column with commentary, stats and information posted by The Poolmaster throughout each week. Use of the Twitter account will be limited to posts related to the pool.

If an announcement can fit in the 140-character limit of a Twitter post that’s where you’ll find it. If we need more space to explain something like a ruling, a notice will be posted above the feed. You don't need a Twitter account to see the feed on this page. But if you want those notices at the time they are posted you might want to open an account and follow us. Our Twitter ID is @pigskin_mania.

This is an effort to reduce the amount of time spent managing the pool by eliminating the hours it takes to produce the update on Monday nights. We remind everyone that running this pool is a labor of love. The Poolmaster cannot and does not make any profit from operating Pigskin Mania. It remains - in every sense of the term - an office pool that happens to be magnified by the internet.

The PM Facebook Group also will remain active as a place to get information. We usually duplicate Twitter posts on the Facebook page and vice versa. You can request membership in the group here.

The change in the weekly updates does not reduce the amount of stat-keeping that we do. All the pages and stats that we’ve always had will remain updated and on the web site. We’ve revised the layout to make the links to other pages more accessible for your side bets and to track the game and its history. We've also added a column in the Top 100 standings at left where players who make that list can see their total for the last three weeks.

The last-place prize has been eliminated. This is a combination of a time-saver for The Poolmaster and the fact the prize has not achieved its objective, which was to keep all players making picks even when out of contention. We've decided that an opportunity to win $60 with a perfect week each week should be enough reason to keep making picks. The formatting and tracking necessary to award one more $60 prize was also taking up too much of The Poolmaster’s time. This also will eliminate those unsightly gray lines in the standings for people who stop making picks.

The Picks Page will be a little different as the form will now have every player’s name in a drop-down menu. This will require a little effort on every player’s part to make sure picks are recorded correctly.

We’ve spent a lot of time expressing the importance of submitting picks with players’ names exactly as they appear in the standings down to spaces, periods, numbers, etc., so we can match up picks to standings and calculation of results. Unfortunately, we spend quite a bit of time every week making corrections in the names on the submissions. This will eliminate that task. However, it opens up the possibility of players inadvertently making picks using someone else’s name. We also are counting on players to not purposely sabotage the game by making errant picks. Anyone suspected of doing that will be banned for life and any entry fees and winnings will be forfeited. If this becomes an issue, we will go back to the old form. But we are going to give this a try and see if it works.

As a player, it will be important for you to carefully review your confirmation page to make sure you didn’t pick under someone else’s name, and to print or screenshot your confirmation page in case there’s a dispute over your picks when they are posted each weekend.

Players should see their names in the drop-down menu on the Picks Page within a day or two after they register. Other than your registration confirmation page, that is how you will know that we have received your registration. As we approach the start of the season, we will try to keep up and shorten that time so players can register and make picks right away.

Registration info

Once you register, your entry is not official until your entry fee is paid. If you’re someone who mails a check for your entry fee we encourage you to send it out as early as possible. Mailed entry fees have to be postmarked no later than Aug. 26. If your payment is postmarked after the day of the games you picked, your picks will not count.

We have added Venmo as a way to make payments without a fee. The Poolmaster’s Venmo ID is Javier-Gonzales-5. It’s under his personal email address jaygonzales@comcast.net and cell phone 520-444-3883.

PayPal remains an option for immediate payments. The account ID is jaygonzales@comcast.net.

IMPORTANT: Make no mention of anything in the PayPal or Venmo payment notes that would indicate your payment is for a football pool. Especially do not mention Pigskin Mania. We got another warning from PayPal about using their service for gambling purposes during March Mania. Just put the pool name in the notes for all the entries that payment is intended for.

It's "go time"

We’re looking forward to another great season. Jason Hatala is the defending champion after setting a scoring record and being the first player to break the 70-point barrier. He won a total of $4,800 - $4,680 for first place on top of $120 for two perfect weeks.

We’ll say it now that if someone tops his score with the additional week, there will be no asterisk a la Roger Maris. The record is the record.

Good luck to everyone. If you have a question, suggestion or comment you would like us to consider, drop us an email at  poolmaster@pigskinmania.net.