The Cash Zone includes all players who are in position in the standings to earn a season prize. For the 2016 season it will be the top 100 and ties.

Let us begin...for the 25th time

The annual rite that is Pigskin Mania kicks off for the 25^th year with games starting Thursday.

An all-NCAA schedule of 40 games starts at 4 p.m. MST (7 p.m. EDT) for the first of 19 weeks of the season extending through the College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 9, 2017. Week 2 of the season will bring in the NFL and begin a requirement to pick at least two NCAA games and two NFL games.

Registration will continue until players stop signing up. Last year, a few players joined in Week 2 to play the rest of the season. Players can track their registration status by visiting the Accounts page to see if they are paid and eligible to make picks in Week 1. Entry fees need to be in our hands in order to be eligible to make picks.

Anticipating somewhere close to 800 entries this season, the Founding Fathers voted to increase the entry for the first time since the 1995 season, to $60, and at the same time extend prize money deeper into the standings. Players finishing in the top 100 (and ties) will at least earn their entry fee back. A 6.0 perfect week will be worth $60, while a 5.5 and a perfect 5.0 will be worth $30.

We project a first-place prize of more than $5,000.

The champ is back

For the first time in pool history, there is a female defending champion after rookie Kylie Crosland edged out Ryan Harms by 0.5 to win Season 24. Crosland, who collected $4,468.50 for first place and another $75 for perfect weeks, is back in the field for 2016.

This also is the season where we track Mike Feder’s run at the all-time record for consecutive weeks without a perfect week. This is something we track for all players. Feder enters the season with a streak of 181 weeks dating to Week 5 of the 2006 season. He is chasing the record of 190 weeks set by the late Rita Fisher who passed away in the offseason after the 2009 season with her streak still active.

All players, new and old, are encouraged to visit the Rules page to refresh their memories about the rules of the game. We also have put up a new Frequently Asked Questions page for some of the more common inquiries we get.

Getting started

Here are five common mistakes to avoid as you get set to make your Week 1 picks:

1. Make sure the team you pick is playing. You may have a favorite team you want to pick every week no matter what the spread might be, but if they're not playing you can't pick 'em. Sounds obvious? It happens all the time.

2. The only games you can pick from are games with two FBS teams. Those payday games involving an FBS team and an FCS team are not on our schedule. If a game is not on Points Spreads page, you can't pick it.

3. Watch the clock. Once a game begins, it no longer is eligible to be picked. Picks come into our database with a time stamp, so if a game has already started when your picks are made, we know about it and it's a loss. Be aware that the game times on the Point Spreads page can change so it's up to you to know that actual starting time.

4. Check your picks for duplicates and picking both teams in the same game. Both instances result in a loss. It's easy to do and happens all the time.

5. Don't forget to make your picks. But if you do and there's only a few games left on the schedule, you can still pick those games to try to score some points. When you consider that the margin of victory in the pool has been 1.0 or less 11 times, every point matters.

Do your part to keep this game fun and easy

With another expected record number of entries, management of the pool becomes more and more involved, so we are appealing to all players to help us manage the time we spend to keep it fun and exciting for everyone. We ask all players to help us by following these suggestions:

Know your pool name. Our system to run the pool is an elaborate Excel workbook that relies on consistency of the information we enter. It all begins with players submitting their picks under the EXACT name that appears in the standings, including punctuation, spaces, numbers, etc. When you misspell your name, forget the period at the end of Jr., or add a space, we have to fix that when we transfer picks from our database to the spreadsheet. Please take the time to enter your name correctly when you submit your picks. If you make a mistake submitting your picks, just resubmit. We will take the last ones that come in.

Know the spreads. The official point spreads are on our website. Anything else − from a website, a newspaper, or any other source − is not official. We point this out so that when you question the score we post for you, that you check the Point Spreads page first before disputing your score with The Poolmaster. We do make occasional mistakes because we manually enter game scores into our system. But after that, it is unlikely that the error is on our side.

Keep your confirmation. When you make your picks, a confirmation page is generated. If you don’t get a confirmation, your picks didn’t go through. We strongly advise that you save the confirmation every week in some form by printing it or taking a screen shot. This will help us resolve any issues that might arise with your score. Our system of receiving picks is not flawless, but it’s close. If you have your confirmation page, it will go a long way toward settling any issues with your picks.

Pick ‘em early. We like to post all the picks so players can track the game over the course of a weekend. However, since the deadline for picks is whenever a player’s first game kicks off, players theoretically can wait until late Saturday to make their picks. Doing that holds up posting the picks because we don’t want to create the opportunity for players to use other players’ picks to decide on their own. We usually wait until substantially all the picks are in before we post. Don’t be the one to hold it up.

Read our stuff. Over the years we’ve built up a website with a lot of information. Some of it is meant to entertain, but a lot of it is to inform. Our weekly updates usually address issues that might crop up during a given week. We put all of this information out there so we don’t spend hours answering emails about various aspects of the game. If you have a question, it usually can be answered somewhere on the website. The Rules page, the Point Spreads page, and the Submit Picks page all have instructions you need to follow. Look around and see what’s on the site. You’ll have some fun with the amount of record-keeping we’ve done over the years. But you’ll also learn a lot about the game. The Archives are a wealth of historical information and statistics. The History page will tell you how all this began. You’ll also find a few pointers on playing the game and what’s expected of you as a player.

Follow us. We have a private Facebook page for players. You only get access to the page if you are actually playing the game. We’re also on Twitter. Our most recent tweets can be found on the front page. Links to both Facebook and Twitter are at the logos at the top of the front page. We use both to send updates on how things are going in the pool during each weekend, some of it fun, some of it informative.

That’s about it. For the newcomer’s you’re about to embark on something that will drive you crazy at times and will consume you if you're serious about playing. But it will always be fun. For everyone else, welcome back. Let’s get after it.