The football pool glossary: every term your pool will use

Every pool develops its own shorthand, and every September someone new pretends to know what a push is. Send them this page. Terms are grouped by where they come up: picking, spreads, formats, and running the pool.

Picking

• •Lock (deadline): the moment a pick can no longer be changed — in good pools, each game's kickoff.
• •Lock (slang): a pick someone considers certain. Historically, it is not.
• •Chalk: the favorites. 'Picking chalk' = taking every favorite on the board.
• •Fade: deliberately picking against — a team, a friend, or the public.
• •Upset pick: taking an underdog straight up. The engine of pool chaos.
• •Unpicked / no-pick: a game left blank at lock. Scores zero — it can't win, and in most pools it just quietly costs you.

Spreads and lines

• •Point spread: the handicap on the favorite (GT -7 must win by more than 7).
• •ATS (against the spread): grading picks with the spread applied.
• •Cover: beating the spread — the favorite winning by more than the number, or the dog staying closer than it.
• •Push: the favorite wins by exactly the spread. Check your pool's rule; many pools grade a push as a loss, which is why half-point lines exist.
• •PK / pick'em: no favorite; graded straight up.
• •Opening line / frozen line: the first posted number. Pools freeze it so everyone picks against the same spread all week.
• •Hook: the half point (laying 7.5 is 'seven and a hook'). It exists to prevent pushes and break hearts.

Formats

• •Pick'em: everyone picks every game; most correct (or most points) wins.
• •Confidence pool: rank your picks; correct picks score their rank.
• •Survivor / eliminator: pick one team a week, no repeats; one wrong pick (or missed week) and you're out.
• •Gauntlet: survivor without elimination — one pick a week, best record wins.
• •Buyback: a survivor rule letting the eliminated re-enter once, for a fee, before a cutoff week.
• •Multi-entry: one person running two or more separate entries. Fine if allowed up front; a scandal if discovered in November.

Running the pool

• •Commissioner: the person who runs it — sets rules, settles disputes, chases the unpaid.
• •Buy-in: the entry fee, collected by the commissioner directly. A proper pool site never touches the money.
• •Pot / payout split: the prize pool and how it divides (e.g. 50/30/20 across the top three).
• •Quarter winners: separate prizes for each quarter of the season — the best retention rule in pool design.
• •Tiebreaker: the pre-agreed decider — season win percentage, a Monday-night points guess, or splitting the prize.
• •House rules: everything above, written down before week 1. The written part is what makes them work.