GOT BRACKETS?
Click image for 2023 Bread Pool Roster
BREAD POOL 101
RETURNING BREADHEADS
If you have participated in the Bread Pool in the past four years, logging into your RunYourPool (RYP) account (our scoring software) will display your status as DEACTIVATED. Don't sweat it -- it's a strategy we invoked four years ago to get a tighter rein on payments.
Submitting your entry fee(s) will activate your account!
You'll need your account to be active to fill out your bracket(s) starting on Selection Sunday. PLEASE DO NOT start a new account as a work-around. It will be deleted.
GOOD NEWS: When your account becomes active, you'll have the option to update your RYP profile in order to sign in via your social media or email! The traditional USERNAME sign-in is being phased out by RYP because of the difficulty members were having recalling their USERNAME from year-to-year (a huge issue in the Bread Pool). YAY!
ROOKIES
The process for first-time participants is the opposite of the process for returnees; Rookies should register first, then pay (so that we can credit your payment). Starting in 2023, registration options for RunYourPool (our scoring software) include logging in through your Facebook, Twitter, Google or email accounts. Good news: For rookies and returning BreadHeads (who can update their registration after their account is activated through payment), RunYourPool is phasing out its User Name-based login system -- so no need to remember it from year-to-year anymore!
LIFETIME MEMBERSHIp: $20
As of Jan. 1, the Meadow of Shame is registered as a "Social Club" for purposes of filing its own taxes. To make it official, we must collect a membership fee -- but there's no rule about making it a nominal, one-and-done fee: Hence our $20 Lifetime Membership Fee. This is a long overdue status upgrade that allows the Meadow to better vet new members, classifies club activities as recreation- and entertainment-based, and protects winners of big prizes (like those in the Bread Pool and other Shame Games) from PayPal and Venmo reporting (as those two services have long been threatening). Your Lifetime Membership fee must be paid in order to participate in any Shame Game after Jan. 1, 2023. But it's good until you die!
CONSIDER YOUR OPTIONS
Peruse your options for purchasing brackets, lay down your money and get ready to embrace the Madness! Traditionally, about one-third of BreadHeads make additional purchases after their initial one -- you can add brackets, and edit the ones you have, right up until the 27th Annual Bread Pool tips off at 9:15 a.m. Pacific/Noon Eastern on Thursday, March 16.
89 HOURS OF BRACKETING
Assuming your account is active (paid up) when brackets go live on this site at 4 p.m. Pacific on Selection Sunday, March 12, you'll have 89-ish hours -- until 9:15 am Pacific on Thursday, March 16 -- to sort out your bracket(s). You can edit and re-edit to your heart's content, but you can't save an incomplete bracket; you'll have to point-and-click your way through all 65 games to hit the submit/save button. Warning from the watchtower: The digital ease of Bread Pool brackets tends to make you explore way more (seemingly plausible) outcomes than you planned to pursue. You wouldn't be the first to dip into your kid's college fund for 3 more brackets.
WHO'S IN?
Once you've chosen the bracket package that fits you best (you can always add more until March 16) and submitted your payment, please do not email Brian asking to confirm your purchase. Instead, give it a beat and check in later on the WHO'S IN? page, which breaks down official entries by the day they were submitted. If you see your name on that page, you're official. If you made a bulk purchase that earned you a free entry (or two) in our Pick 5 contest, you can scroll to the bottom of the WHO'S IN? page to confirm that, as well.
WHo'S GETTING PAID?
THE ELUSIVE $25K BREAD POOL
From 2010-2014, the Bread Pool smashed through new barriers annually, jumping from a 15,000 pool to one that paid out $24,350. But then, all growth came to a screeching halt. For the past eight Bread Pools (the tourney was canceled in 2020), we've been flirting with, but have never surpassed, the $25K mark. Based on the wild popularity of the new multiple-bracket packages in 2022 -- and the debut of a $1,000 Pick 5 contest to encourage BreadHeads to throw down for 3+brackets this year -- could our eleusive goal be at hand in 2023? We'll know on March 16. If 25K does come to fruition, we'd have 24K for the Top 10 finishers after paying our Pick 5 winner. Here's what that would look like for 1st through 10th place.
PAYMENT: $100 PER SQUARE
PayPal and Venmo: DON'T BE BRAZEN!
Please make your payment at the same time you choose your square(s) -- unpaid squares will be deleted. Use the notation section of PayPal or Venmo only to denote which square(s) you're paying for (and who you're paying for, if necessary). Please DO NOT mention squares, pool or anything else that might suggest gambling. Less is more.
2nd ANNUAL SUPER SQUARES
FRESH NUMBERS EVERY QUARTER
Let's be honest: Super Squares takes the least skill of any of our Meadow of Shame offerings. Your knowledge of football is irrelevant. Your only input comes in the form of which square(s) you choose on a board devoid of numbers. . Still, it's demoralizing to get stuck with bad combos, like 2-2 or 9-5. In Super Squares, shitty numbers are only a temporary setback; you'll get a fresh combination every quarter!
The complete 2023 Super Squares Pool is pictured here: After all 100 squares are filled in 2024, the RYP software will randomly select 400 pairs of numbers -- an NFC and AFC score times four quarters for all 100 entrants!
The Family that plays together, stays together
As the Meadow of Shame approaches its third decade, some of the early adapters of the Bread Pool have added a generation or two to their families since throwing down their first entry fee. Over the years, those elder BreadHeads have made countless attempts to enroll their under-age prodigy in my pools. I am seldom fooled.
For the Super Squares Pool ONLY, I'm ditching our usual protocol and allowing Meadow of Shame members to gift their sub-21 kids, grandkids, or great-grandchildren a seat at the adult table in the form of a square or two in our Feb. 11 pool. Why? Football squares were a huge part of my extended family's autumn weekends when I was growing up in Ohio -- a tradition to which scores of BreadHeads can relate. And nothing excites young, aspiring gamblers more than seeing their name on their very own Super Square!