Running a pool is a small job that feels big the first time. The actual work is a handful of decisions made once, before the season, and then the platform does the repetitive part — deadlines, scoring, standings, reminders. This is the checklist we'd hand a first-time commissioner: seven steps, in order, with the decisions called out explicitly so none of them get made by accident in Week 6.
1. Pick a format
Three to choose from, and the right one depends on your group more than on football:
- Survivor — everyone picks one team a week to win straight up; lose once and you're out; each team usable once all season. Minimal weekly effort, maximum drama, but eliminated members become spectators.
- Pick 5 — everyone picks five games a week against the spread; a card with every non-voided pick correct wins that week's pot, and unclaimed pots roll over. Everyone plays all season.
- Pick All — everyone picks every game against the spread; each correct pick is one point, most points takes the week, ties split it. The most involved, and the best fit for groups who follow the whole league.
If you're torn, we've written a full comparison. And nothing stops you running two pools — a survivor plus a weekly format is a classic combination, because it keeps eliminated survivor players engaged.
2. Set the entry fee — and the payout plan, in writing
Decide three things at once: what each member pays in, who pays out, and how the pot splits. The first two are easy. The third is where pools get awkward in January, so settle it in July.
Be explicit about the edge cases your format can produce:
- Survivor can end with co-champions — if everyone still alive goes down in the same week, they share the win. Decide now: even split? Winner-take-all is not an option the format can promise you.
- Pick 5 pots roll over when nobody goes five-for-five, which means the final week can hold a large pot with no perfect card to claim it. The pool setting offers three rules: split it among the season's best weekly winners, carry it to next season, or leave it to the commissioner's call. Pick one at creation and tell everyone.
- Pick All ties split the week. Say so up front and nobody argues later.
One structural point that shapes everything: the money is yours to handle, never ours. FootballPools never holds entry fees or prize money and never takes a cut of the pot. You collect from your group directly — Venmo, cash, whatever you already use — and you pay out at the end. The platform's job is scorekeeping and record-keeping, which is also your protection: the standings page is the neutral record everyone can see all season, so the payout conversation starts from numbers nobody disputes.
3. Decide the rule options while nobody cares
A few settings deserve a conscious choice at creation, because each one is invisible until the week it decides someone's season:
- Ties in survivor. By default a tied game eliminates you, same as a loss. You can set ties to survive instead. Either is defensible; announcing it in Week 1 is what matters.
- Multiple entries. Survivor pools can allow members to run more than one entry (you set the per-member cap). More entries means a bigger pot and longer survival, but decide whether your group wants that flavor of arms race.
- Entry deadline discipline. Picks lock automatically — game by game, with everything remaining locked when the Sunday afternoon slate starts — and in survivor a missed pick is an elimination. Warn your group once, clearly, in your welcome message.
4. Invite the group
One link. Share it in the group chat, and everyone signs up and joins free — members never pay FootballPools anything. People join in two minutes on their phones; there's no app to install. Send the link at least a week before kickoff so stragglers have runway, and lean on the fact that the first pick deadline is a real, immovable date: the 2026 opener kicks off Wednesday, September 9 at 8:20 PM ET.
5. Track who's paid
The pool page has payment tracking built in: mark each member paid as their entry fee arrives, and everyone can see the state of the pot. Two habits keep this painless. First, set a payment deadline before Week 1 — collecting from someone who's already been eliminated is a conversation nobody enjoys. Second, actually use the tracker rather than your memory; in a twenty-person pool, memory loses.
6. Set expectations in one message
Before the season, send the group a single message covering: the format and its one-sentence rules, the entry fee and where to send it, the payout structure including the tie and rollover cases, and when picks lock. Four sentences of clarity in September prevents every hard conversation in January. The how it works page covers the mechanics if anyone wants the long version.
7. Know what it costs
Pools with up to 5 members are free, full stop. Bigger pools pay a hosting fee of $2 per member, once, for the whole season — a 20-person pool costs $40 total, usually taken out of the pot or absorbed by the commissioner. That's the entire price. No per-week charges, no cut of the money, and your members never pay us anything directly.
The timeline, backwards from kickoff
Work back from Wednesday, September 9, 2026: create the pool and send invites at least a week out; chase entry fees a few days before; make sure everyone has their Week 1 pick in before the opener. After that the season mostly runs itself — scoring, eliminations, standings and reminders are automatic, and your job shrinks to the two things only a commissioner can do: collect, and pay out. Missed the start? Pools can also begin mid-season and simply play from their first week.
Seven steps, one message, and a spreadsheet you never have to build. That's the job.