Every August your group argues about the season. By November nobody remembers who was right. MVPicker is the receipt machine — and the scoring system is what makes it work.
MVPicker is a season-long competition. You set your predictions in August, the season scores them, and you climb a leaderboard from kickoff through bowl season.
Before the season starts, you make your picks across the regular season — 478 in-scope games (Power 4 + Notre Dame) over 14 weeks. You also predict each in-scope team's win-loss record, the conference champions, and the playoff field.
July 1 · Doors open. New signups can start picking.
August 28 · 11:59 PM ET · Preseason lock. Team records and postseason predictions close.
August 29 · Week 1 kickoff. Saturday games begin.
Once the season starts, your master-sheet picks are scored as each game completes. But you can also update individual game picks each week if you change your mind — picks lock Thursday at 5 PM ET, or kickoff for earlier games.
The scoring rules reward different kinds of football knowledge: correct picks, weekly accuracy bonuses, team record predictions, and postseason calls. The whole season is the puzzle — not any single Saturday.
Wed 9 AM ET · This week's picks open. We email you.
Thu 5 PM ET · Picks lock. Previously saved picks auto-fill anything you didn't update.
Sat 12 PM – 11 PM ET · Games. Scoring updates live within 60 seconds of each game ending.
Mon 9 AM ET · Weekly results email. Your week, your rank, your standing.
Every picker auto-joins the global MVP Pool — one leaderboard, every signup, same rules. See where your takes rank against the country.
You can also create a private pool for your friends (or join one if someone shared its name + password with you). Same five rules, separate leaderboard. Invite friends with a link. Up to 100 members per pool, no limit on pools per user. The big global board is for bragging rights against strangers; the private pool is for bragging rights against your roommate.
MVP Pool · Automatic. Every signup joins. The platform-wide leaderboard.
Private Pools · You create one. You share the invite link. Members compete on the same five rules with their own leaderboard.
Tiebreakers · Highest accuracy → most conference locks → most postseason points → earliest preseason commit.
Each rule rewards a different kind of expertise. A volume player wins on Rule 2. A confident SEC picker wins on Rule 1. A trend-spotter wins on Rule 4. The leaderboard rewards whoever assembles the most points across the season — your strategy is yours.
At preseason, lock a Power 4 conference — an opt-in commitment that your picks within it stay put. You can lock it even with a few games unpicked, and in preseason you can freely unlock and re-lock. Keep the lock intact through bowl season and earn +7 points for that conference.
Once the season starts, changing or removing a committed pick in a locked conference breaks it — you forfeit the +7 for that conference (per-game correctness still scores via Rule 2). Filling a game you never picked is fine. Four conferences. Lock all four and never waver: +28.
For each game where your locked pick matches the winner: +1 point. Awarded within an hour of every game ending. 478 games across the regular season — meaning the ceiling on this rule alone is enormous.
Ties and cancelled games award zero. If a game is later vacated by the NCAA, points are retroactively removed (rare, but it happens).
At the end of each week, your accuracy is calculated as correct picks ÷ total locked picks × 100. Your Rule 2 points for that week get multiplied by the bonus band you hit. Hit 100%? +25% bonus. The bands stack the more accurate you are.
Below 60% you get no bonus — the base points only. Bonus calculated to nearest whole point, rounded down.
Your game picks set each in-scope team's projected regular-season record (Power 4 + Notre Dame). At season end: +2 points for an exact win total, +1 point if you're within one win (losses follow from the fixed schedule). More than one game off? Zero.
This rule rewards seeing a team coming. Spot Penn State as a 10-win team in August? +2. Predict Alabama 12-1 when they finish 11-2? +1. Bet the over on Vanderbilt? You're getting laughed at by the leaderboard.
At preseason, you predict the entire postseason: each conference's two title-game finalists and the champion, the 12-team playoff field, and how the bracket plays out to the national champion. It's all scored automatically from the results.
This is where committed pickers separate themselves. A team you ride from the field all the way to the title can be worth well over a dozen points on its own — and the national champion alone is a +7 swing.
The questions that come up first when someone hears about MVPicker. If yours isn't here, email support@mvpicker.com and we'll add it.
No. ESPN's pick'em is weekly-only, ad-laden, and treats every game equally. MVPicker is season-long, ad-free, and rewards preseason commitment with conference lock bonuses. Different category.
You don't. Free to play. No premium tier. No purchase necessary. The only money on MVPicker is the voluntary Booster Club — optional gifts for cosmetic recognition, never points and never prizes.
Five different scoring rules instead of one. Picks locked at preseason. Conference lock bonuses (+7 each). Public global leaderboard. Built for season-long competition, not weekly.
Create a private pool, send the invite link. Takes 90 seconds. Or join the global MVP Pool and compete against strangers who love this stuff as much as you do.
You can still join during the season. You'll miss the conference lock bonuses (Rule 1) and team record predictions (Rule 4), but every week's picks still count for Rules 2 and 3. Picks default to no-pick if you join late.
Make your season-long predictions. Lock every conference for the +7 bonus. Climb the global MVP Pool or build your own private league. Currently free.