Bowl Pick'em Pool: Every Bowl Game, One Board, All Month Long
Bowl season is the best pick'em of the year for one reason: it runs for a month. From the first mid-December bowls through the national title game on January 25, your group has a reason to check the standings almost every day, and a fresh argument about every 6–7 underdog that wins.
A bowl pool is simple: everyone picks the winner of every bowl, usually ranking each pick with confidence points. Pick'em Builder handles the slate, the locks, and live scoring, so you don't have to rebuild a 40-row spreadsheet every night.
📅 When it opens: Bowl pools open here the moment the matchups are set, on Selection Day, Sunday, December 6. Until then, run a weekly college pick'em now and roll the same group straight into bowls.
Free up to 10 players · players join with a link, no app or account · we never touch the pot
How a bowl pick'em pool works
- 1
The matchups drop on Selection Day
On Sunday, December 6, the College Football Playoff bracket and the bowl pairings are announced together. That's when the board fills in, with roughly 40 games running from mid-December into January.
- 2
Players pick every game
Pick the winner of each bowl. Most groups add confidence points: rank your picks from most to least sure, and a correct pick scores its number. Your favorite lock is worth the most, your coin flip the least.
- 3
Each game locks at its own kickoff
There's no single deadline. Picks stay open until each bowl kicks off, so players who get busy in December can still pick the New Year's games after Christmas.
- 4
Standings update all month
Scores come in live and the leaderboard updates as games go final. The pool ends with the national championship on Monday, January 25 in Las Vegas.
Ways to run your bowl pool
The three setups groups actually use. You can run any of them in college football pools here today.
Bowl confidence pool
The classic. Pick every bowl and rank them 1 through N by confidence. It rewards knowing which favorites are real and which ones lost their quarterback to the transfer portal.
Set this up →Straight-up bowl pick'em
Pick every winner, one point each. The friendliest version for mixed groups where half the players don't follow college football until December.
Set this up →Against the spread
Every game graded against the opening line, so taking the big favorite only pays if they cover. Best for groups that already argue about point spreads.
Set this up →Playoff-only pool
Skip the minor bowls and pick just the 11 playoff games. See the College Football Playoff pool page for how to run one round by round.
Set this up →
Why bowl picks are harder than they look
Regular-season picks are about which team is better. Bowl picks are about which team still wants to be there. By late December, rosters change in ways the season's results don't show, and the spread often moves a lot between the opening line and kickoff.
- •Opt-outs: draft-bound stars often sit out non-playoff bowls. A favorite missing its top players can be a very different team.
- •The transfer portal and coaching changes: a team whose coach just left for another job can play flat, or rally around an interim coach.
- •Motivation: a team thrilled to reach its first bowl in a decade often outplays a blue blood disappointed to miss the playoff.
- •Layoffs: some teams haven't played in a month; others are coming off a conference title game. Rust is real.
House rules to settle before Selection Day
Bowl pools run for weeks, so write down the edge cases before the first kickoff and post them in your pool's house rules:
- •Do the playoff games count, and are they worth more than other bowls?
- •What happens to a bowl that's canceled or postponed? Most groups throw it out for everyone.
- •The tiebreaker: total points in the national championship is the standard.
- •Missed picks: an unpicked game scores zero, and confidence points run 1 to however many games are on the board.
Why run your bowl pool here
No 40-row spreadsheet
The slate fills in from the official matchups, scores update themselves, and confidence math is automatic.
Picks lock game by game
No 'everything is due December 13' deadline that half your group misses. Each bowl locks at its own kickoff.
Same link as your season pool
Already running a college pick'em? Your group is already here, so starting the bowl pool is one tap.
Reminders while everyone's traveling
Players get a nudge before games they haven't picked, which matters most during the holidays.
Phones first
Players pick from wherever they are, with no app to download and no account to create.
Free for small groups
Free for up to 10 players. Bigger office pool? Unlimited is $49 a year.
We never touch the pot
Bowl pools are a classic office tradition, often with a buy-in and a payout for first, second, and third. You set the buy-in and the split, collect it yourself by Venmo, Zelle, or cash, and pay the winners. Pick'em Builder shows the pot and who's paid, and never holds a dollar.
Pricing
Free for pools up to 10 players — every format, live scoring, full standings. Bigger group? Unlimited is $49/year (about $4 a month) or $5/month, for as many players and pools as you want. Players always join free.
Questions
- When can I set up a bowl pick'em pool?
- Bowl pools open here when the bowl matchups are announced on Selection Day, Sunday, December 6. You can create your group's college football pick'em today and start the bowl pool with the same players once the matchups are out.
- How many games are in a bowl pool?
- Usually around 40, the full bowl slate plus the College Football Playoff. Some groups trim it to the New Year's Six and playoff games for a shorter pool.
- How do confidence points work in a bowl pool?
- Rank every pick from most to least confident. With 40 games, your surest pick is worth 40 points and your shakiest is worth 1. Correct picks score their number, so one big miss can swing the whole pool.
- Do players have to pick every game before the first bowl?
- No. Each game locks at its own kickoff, so players can make picks a few at a time through the holidays.
- What's a good tiebreaker for a bowl pool?
- Total points scored in the national championship game. It's the last game of the season, so the tiebreaker stays live until the very end.
- Is it free?
- Free for pools up to 10 players. Larger groups can go Unlimited for $49 a year or $5 a month. Players always join free.
Related guides
Bowl season is a month of games. Run it the easy way.
Get your group set up with a college pick'em now, and the bowl pool is one tap away on December 6.
Start a college pick'em now — free