NCPA Football

Game Overview

NCPA Football is a pick'em game where contestants try to predict the outcome of 25 college football games each week. Depending on the conference type selected contestants are either pitted against an opponent each week and gain a win, loss, or tie based on who has a higher point total for the week (Head-to-Head) or contestants try to get more cumulative points throughout the season (Points). Each contestant will select a school name (fantasy sports style) and compete for a conference championship.

Head-To-Head

A head-to-head conference consists of an even number of contestants between 6 and 16. Since the college schedule can alternate between 13 and 14 weeks the schedule length can change year to year. Typically the season length is 13 weeks in which case there will be 12 regular season games and Week 13 will be a conference championship between the first and second place contestants. In the case of a 14 week schedule there will be 13 regular season games with a conference championship on Week 14.

Commissioner's League

This is the league this game was made for!!! The commissioner's league is a head-to-head league set up for anywhere between 2 and 12 conferences of 10 contestants. Conferences can be organized seperately as a head-to-head conference and then added to the league or individuals can request to join and be placed in a random conference as demand dictates. Each contestant will play every other member of their conference once in a round robin format and like college football the top two contestants at the end of the season based on overall record will play against each other in a conference championship. In addition to nine conference games each contestant will play three (or four in the case of a 14 week year) random contestants from other conferences in the league (distributed randomly throughout the season). These games will determine a ranking of the conferences versus other conferences and also contribute to each individual contestant's rankings. Each contestant will have a rating based on their winning percentage in all games multiplied by their points per week and that rating will be used to determine their league-wide ranking. The top 25 (or half of the total contestants in the league if there are less than 50) will appear on the top 25 list each week. After the conference championship week, the top four contestants using that ranking system will compete in a national championship tournament that takes place in a semifinal and final format by selecting the results of 50 college games over the collegiate conference championship and bowl season (2 seperate games). In addition 40% of the total contestants in the league will be invited to a bowl game taking place during bowl season as well (selecting the results of 25 games). Bowl selection is based on conference vs conference ranking (based on total record for inter-conference games for each conference) and placement within the conference with upper tier conferences earning as many as 5 berths (not including championship berths) and lower tier conferences earning at least 3 berths. A list of all postseason games and the method of qualification for each game will be on the site from the beginning of the season.

Points

Designed for leagues with odd number of contestants, and those who prefer this over head-to-head, this type of league is open to any number of contestants and is played the same as the head-to-head version except a cumulative total of points determines the conference champion with each week during the season (along with bowl season) counted in that total.

Conference Realignment

Twenty-four hours before the beginning of the first game of the ones being used for Week 1 begins, registration for leagues will be closed. At that point conference commissioners will need to contact the site commissioner to make any changes to their conference or add and remove contestants. Likewise anyone who still wants to join a league will need to contact the site commissioner. If a custom created Head-to-Head league has an odd number of contestants at that point it will be treated as a points only league unless the commissioner has a contestant added or removed during that 24 hour period. Likewise custom made conferences that want to be in the Commissioner's League must have exactly 10 contestants at that point or they will be an independant conference playing games only within the conference. Individuals who join but are not joining a Private league will be assigned to a league at that point. If custom made conference commissioner's wish to try to fill their conference with these individuals to get to an even number or gain commissioner league status they can let the site commissioner know and they can be accommodated. Priority for filling conferences will be given to Commissioner League conferences. Keep in mind that this site and game are still in their infancy so this, at this time, is not necessarily a reliable method to getting people in your conference.

Game Selection and Scoring

Each week 25 games will be selected for contestants to pick on. The rules for which games are selected are as follows:

1) All games must be between two Div I BCS teams. No games where either team is from Div I FCS, or Division II or below will be considered.
2) Eligible games involving AP Top 25 teams will be given top priority. As the AP poll typically comes out each Sunday at around 2:00PM ET, NCAA games for the upcoming league game will be published at that point and that is when contestants can begin making their selections for the upcoming week.
3)Real life conference championship games from all 10 divisions are wrapped into the bowl season with the Power 5 conferences given preference. It's likely that Power 5 championships will be used for Commissioner League Bowl Games (and Point Leages) and all 10 conference championships including Group of 5 games will be used for Commissioner League Semifinal games. Conference championship week is combined with bowl games into one week.
4)Quality games between 2 teams from Power 5 (or Notre Dame) conferences are then selected to fill the remaining games based on combined record. If there are still not enough games to fill the schedule then games involving 1 or 2 Group of 5 teams will be considered.

Keep in mind that the site commissioner has discretion when choosing games and although the above formula will be followed as much as possible to avoid bias, ranking release timings or other factors may cause issues that may preclude qualifying games from being included. Regardless, the 25 games selected each week will be set and unchanged once published.

For each game, contestants will select the winner of the game and the number of points they will win by. If the contestant selects the correct winning team they will gain 4 points. Additionally for each point off they are from the actual final score they will lose .1 points. So if a contestant picks Michigan to beat Ohio State as an example by 7 points and they do so but do it by 3 that contestant will get 3.6 points for that game (4 points minus .4). It is possible to get negative points for a game. Contestants are limited to picking a point differential of up to 50 points. Likewise, if an actual game has a final point difference of more than 50 points it will be scored as if the difference was 50 points. Picks for each game are due by the beginning time for that game allowing contestants to change or make picks for later games even when some have already started or been completed. If a contestant misses the pick deadline for a given game they will recieve -3 points for that game.

Tie-Breaking

Ties are allowed during the season in head-to-head conferences. In points conferences teams tied for first will share that position, namely two contestants tied for first will be co-champions. To establish postseason spots and bowl games the tie-breaking procedure is as follows: For conference standings, First win-loss percentage, second points per game for every game so far, third point differential, fourth coin flip. For Top 25 placement, by rating, then following conference standing tie-breakers. Inter-conference Standings ties are also resolved in the same way as conference standings. For commissioner league playoff semifinal and championship games and conference championships that end in a tie (games that need a clear winner) the tie breaker is best single game score and then adding the next highest score and so on until the tie is resolved. Namely if both contestants score a 4 on an individual game (doesn't have to be the same game) and contestant A scores a 3.8 as their next highest individual score while contestant B's next highest score is 3.5 in a semifinal game, contestant A would win and move on to the commissioner's league national championship.

Scheduling Changes

Especially with the modern environment games may be cancelled or reschedule with little to no notice. Games selected at the Sunday selection time are final. If one of those games is cancelled all contestants will score a 0 for that game. If it is rescheduled in a reasonable time frame to be considred part of the same week it will be used but not if it is postponed to a later date outside the current week. Aside from that scores from the week continue the same way and are valid with less than 25 games.