Big Ten Football OTR Survivor Pool - Week 4

He's back!

After two weeks in gloomy Miami, BoilerUp89 is back to captain the Titanic. What's that? We hit an iceberg in week 3?

Week 2 saw just two eliminations from the winner's competition as Big weaz and MnBornAndBred were unfortunate no shows. Nobody bothered to pick UCLA, Michigan, or Iowa. In the 3-person loser's pool WarlockOfWestwood drowned in 5 inches of water after picking Ohio State to lose to Grambling and AutoRecBot failed to participate.

Then came week 3.

UCLA made fools of most of us. Not only did they lose to New Mexico, they were never in the game. 23 of our contestants were eliminated in week 3 following UCLA's defeat to the Lobos. Another 2 were eliminated as no shows in week 3. The survivors now number just 10. Three of which gave their picks for the season in advance of week 1 and thus avoided falling prey to the UCLA trend that wiped out the field.

Big Ten Football OTR Survivor Pool - Week 3

Hey! Everyone survived!

Off Tackle RepublicAlmaOtter

Rules are as follows:

There are 2 brackets, Winners and Losers. Everyone starts in the Winners bracket and continues in the Winners' bracket until you lose. If you are eliminated from the Winners bracket you will have a second chance to continue making picks in the Losers' bracket (more on that later).

The Winners' Bracket rules:

The rules for the game are pretty simple, and follow most standard Survivor/Eliminator pools. You pick one* B1G team each week to win. If that team wins, you move on to the next week, but cannot pick that team again for the rest of the season. If your pick loses, you're out. The goal is to correctly pick each team in the conference once each to win a game over the course of the season. Since there are 15 weeks in the B1G season (including championship week), you´ll have to reserve your presumed champion for week 15 if you wish to complete a perfect season. *And since the Big Ten has expanded to 18 teams, three times during the season you will have to make an additional pick in a week.

You must get both picks correct to advance to the next week.

We will partition these extra picks into thirds of the season. So in weeks 1-5 you will make one pick each week excepting one week of your choosing over that span where you choose to roll the dice and make an extra pick. Same thing in weeks 6-10 and weeks 11-15 (noting there is only one game in week 15). You will again have to make an extra pick during those periods. Please note that if you want to feast on cupcakes, you should make your first additional pick early before conference play starts. If you fail to make a pick in any particular week you will be eliminated.

If you fail to make 6 picks by the end of week 5, or 12 picks by the end of week 10, or 17 picks by the end of week 14 you will be eliminated. You may only pick against any particular team a maximum of 3 times. So as you are picking a team to win each week... those teams you are picking have opponents. Once you have divined that Michigan State would lose to your picks three times, for example, you may not make another pick where your winning pick would once again vanquish the Spartans.

If all remaining players get eliminated the same week, the tiebreaker rules are as follows (same as previous years): 1. Most combined wins of B1G teams you haven't used 2. Strength of Victory (Total combined wins of your picks opponents) If you pick against a team 3 times, that teams season wins count for you 3 times. Non FBS teams' records get converted to 0-for 3. Whomever got their losing pick in first

Please be mindful of dates and kickoff times as the deadline for making your pick is the announced kickoff time of the game you choose to pick.

The Losers' Bracket rules:

If you get knocked out of the Winners' bracket you'll get a second chance, if you wish, to continue making picks in the Losers' bracket. The idea is much the same as the Winners bracket except contestants in the Losers' bracket pick pick a Big Ten team each week* to lose their football game. If your pick wins, you are out. You may not pick any team you have picked before; this includes ALL picks you made in the Winners' bracket. The goal remains to pick each B1G once over the course of the season and championship game (you would need to pick the loser of the conference championship game to get a correct pick in week 15).

No double picks are required in week 4 or week 5. None of you have picked against a Big Ten team yet by my keeping.

Picks for this week already made:
HuskersFirst: Washington
NU'06er: Wisconsin
WhersMyElephant: Washington

No double picks are required in weeks 4 or 5. Nobody has picked against a Big Ten team yet (is that a rule for the loser's bracket?)

Week 4 Games

Friday, September 19

Iowa at Rutgers, 8 PM ET

Saturday, September 20

Maryland at Wisconsin, 12 PM ET

Oregon State at Oregon, 3 PM ET

Purdue at Notre Dame, 3:30 PM ET

Michigan at Nebraska, 3:30 PM ET

Illinois at Indiana, 7:30 PM ET

Washington at Washington State, 7:30 PM ET

Michigan State at USC, 11 PM ET

Good luck! I'll try to release these on Sunday moving forward.