Experiences Running a Pick'em

Sometime last year, I had the idea that I wanted to run a college football pick'em for my family. Fine, I stole the idea from my new sister-in-law's family. I'll explain the rules for those unfamiliar with such an endeavor. Each week, a selected list of college football games is sent out to participants in the pick'em contest. Each participant selects who they think will win each game. The participant with the most corrects picks at the end is the winner. Seems simple enough, right?

As I am the commissioner of the contest, I am must sort out many things, some of which can be tricky. For instance, what is the most effective way to send people the games they are to pick? Just an email, right? Well, then they'd have to find the email each week and send me an email back with their picks, that I would have to find. But what if they wanted to change the picks and I didn't see the change before kickoff? I decided that sharing a Google Sheet with each picker would be the best solution. That way the picks are presented in an orderly fashion with a clear space for picking the winner, and you can go back to edit your pick any time before kickoff. Some people were unsure how to access the sheet (digital immigrant parents, anyone?) but it has turned out well. I've even tinkered with the sheet to make it more presentable and keep a few stats, nothing I knew how to do in Sheets before the pick'em. At first I sent out each team (my family all pick as couples) a new pick sheet each week. Then I decided to have one pick sheet that would update with a new tab each week with new picks. This cut down on looking through emails for invitations to edit; they could quickly access the same file each week they had used before.

Another aspect of running the pick'em I wanted to include were editorial updates. Basically, short messages about the state of the contest and our favorite football team, the Michigan Wolverines. Basically, it was a blog I sent out only to people in the contest. They are my family, so they aren't the most reliable critics, but they seem to get a kick out of my updates.

Why am I posting about this here? It may seem odd, but I think I lessons I learn from running this pick'em can transcend into educational technology. I've gotten better at using Google Sheets and Gmail to communicate with others and organize an activity. Dollars to doughnuts I end up organizing a competition or activity in my classroom or even extracurricularly at some point that uses elements of this contest. Hopefully my practice as a blogger in the pick'em and this class will lead to entertaining and thoughtful reads for those involved.

FYI I am currently tied for last place in picks, 4 games out of the lead. If I don't win I'm never running this contest again.