Cancelled Game Policy

This page will describe the Cancelled Game Policy that we have put in place for our football pools.


Intro

This section will outline how SimplySportsWare handles cancelled games or weeks during the NFL season. Although extremely rare, there is always the possibility that games get cancelled or moved to another week.

Cancelled Games

In the event that a game is postponed or cancelled, the site will treat that cancellation differently based on the pool type. Before getting to pool-specific policies, here is some general information.
Postponed Games
When the league is uncertain in terms of whether the game will be moved to a different day/time in the same week or cancelling/moving the game to another week, the game status on our site will be Postponed. This status will still allow members in your pools to submit picks for that game.
Cancelled Games
When the league decides to cancel the game completely or move it to another week, the status of the game on our site will remain Postponed. Think of this status as Permanently Postponed. The fact that it plays on a date that is part of a future week does not mean that the game will count towards the originally scheduled week. The picksheet will continue to allow members to make their selections. This avoids the problem that would occur if the game is cancelled and only some people made their selections for the current week.
Games From Future Weeks Moved
When the league shifts the schedule to accommodate postponed/cancelled games, and a game in a future week gets moved to another week, the site will cancel the originally scheduled game. That will result in the game no longer appearing in the picksheet. We strongly suggest pool organizers immediately deactivate those games in Admin...Active Games in order to clear all selections for that game.
Communication
The site will communicate all cancelled/postponed activity in a couple of different ways. First, we will send out emails to notify pool organizers abou canelled games in order to prepare for the current or future weeks.
We will also post Sitewide notifications at the top of all screens for pool organizers. Please ensure you read these before dismissing them as they contain important information.
Activated Games In Your Pool
  • Regardless of the status of the game, the pool organizer can always go into Admin...Active Games and Deactivate any game in the pool. What this will do is remove the game from the picksheet and also clear out all selections for that game in your pool.
  • In cases where postponed games get moved to a different day in the same week (even Tuesday or Wednesday), they will count as a regular game in that week.
  • In no case will the site consider any moved game the default "Sunday Night" or "Monday Night" game. Note that as commish, you can always change the Tie-Breaker game for any week in Admin...Active Games.
Pick'em and Custom Margin Pools
  • For Confidence Rank pools, if you have decided to keep a permanently postponed/cancelled game activated in your pool, any selections for that game will result in members getting points that you define in Admin...Pool Setup, in the Scoring System tab. You have 3 options; No Points, Half the Points or Full Points.
Confidence Rank Pools
  • For Confidence Rank pools, if you have decided to keep a permanently postponed/cancelled game activated in your pool, any selections for that game will result in members getting points that you define in Admin...Pool Setup, in the Scoring System tab. You have 3 options; No Points, Half the Points or Full Points.
  • If you decide to deactivate a game in a Confidence Rank pool, the site will automatically shift the missing ranks upon saving your changes. The automatic shifting of ranks will respect the "Drop Lowest Ranks In Bye Weeks" option, which can be found in Admin...Pool Setup, in the "Pick-Related" tab.
Survivor Pools
  • For Survivor pools that keep cancelled games activated, any member that has selected that game and has not had a chance to select another game will be required to make an additional selection the following week.
  • For Survivor pools that deactivate a cancelled game, all selections for that game will get removed and these members will be required to re-submit their selection for that week. If the deactivation occurs after the pick deadline has passed, these members will have no picks for the current week and the auto-picker will not generate picks. The pool organizer can always navigate to Admin...Make Picks For Members in order to submit picks for any member at any time.

Cancelled Weeks

In the event that an entire week gets cancelled, the week will be considered "disabled". For survivor pools, nobody will be eliminated. For all other pools, everyone will get 0 points and no points deducted.

Cancelled Season

In the event that the football season gets cancelled, the refund policy of the hosting fee for pools being run at www.SimplySportsWare.com will depend on the week that the season gets cancelled. You can view the details in the table below, which is based on how many weeks have been completed in the football season.
Weeks Completed Policy
1 - 3 Our trial period lasts through week 3 of the regular season. If the season gets cancelled within the first 3 weeks of the season, the pool organizer will be entitled to a full refund of any hosting fee that has been paid.
4 If the season gets cancelled after week 4 has completed but before week 5 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 25% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
5 If the season gets cancelled after week 5 has completed but before week 6 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 60% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
6 If the season gets cancelled after week 6 has completed but before week 7 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 75% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
7 If the season gets cancelled after week 7 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 100% of the hosting fee.
In the case where a team has to forfeit a game for any reason, the site will treat the forfeited games as a  permanently postponed/cancelled game.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us.