Big Ten Football OTR Survivor Pool - Week 5

A week after the bloodletting that was the majority of the survivor pool competition taking UCLA, the winner's pool reduced by just 1 in number this past weekend as NU'06er jumped around too much and fell over. As the game was winding down, NU'06er got their revenge and persuaded the Badger fanbase to chant "Fire Fickell". No clue how they coordinated that.

Apologies to BobS for leaving them out of last week's article. Let this serve as a reminder to everyone that I'm putting this together quickly and mistakes will be made. Notify me in the comments when it happens and we will get it corrected moving forward.

BobS's inclusion and NU'06er's elimination puts us at 10 finalists.

The loser's pool was less forgiving than the main survivor's pool this week. Four users refused to debase themselves by participating in the loser's pool portion of the competition. Another four picked Michigan to lose, followed by three Hawkeye nonbelievers, a single September Maryland casualty, one Trojan Horse, and the world's least accurate loser's pick with one brave soul taking Indiana to lose to Illinois (their name has been redacted for their protection).

Big Ten Football OTR Survivor Pool - Week 4

Cap’n, we’re taking in water!

Off Tackle RepublicBoilerUp89

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 5.

For your planning purposes, please remember you can only pick against a team 3 times.

Picks for this week already made (can still be changed):
HuskersFirst: UCLA - this is a bold preseason pick
WhersMyElephant: Ohio State

No double picks are required in week 5.

Picks for this week already made:
NU'06er: Oregon

Week 5 Games

Saturday, September 27

USC at Illinois, 12 PM ET

Rutgers at Minnesota, 12 PM ET

Ohio State at Washington, 3:30 PM ET

Indiana at Iowa, 3:30 PM ET

UCLA at Northwestern, 3:30 PM ET

Oregon at Penn State, 7:30 PM ET