Covid Policy

First, we hope you are all staying safe during these unforeseen times. This global pandemic has disrupted many industries and we are all affected in some way. Some of us look at sports and friendly office pools as an escape from reality, and for those, we have a policy that we put in place for pools hosted at www.SimplySportsWare.com.

There is one change the NFL has discussed for the 2021/2022 season and that is the potential case where a team has to forfeit a game due to a Covid outbreak. If this indeed does occur, the NFL has indicated that the team that forfeits will get a loss and the other team will get a win. From a site perspective, we will treat forfeited games as cancelled games. To learn more about cancelled games, continue reading as everything is explained in detail on this page.

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. 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.

Moved Games In Future Weeks

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 newsletters up to once a week to either recap the previous week or prepare for the current or future weeks.
We will also continue to 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 week (even Tuesday), they will count as a regular game in that week.
• In no cases 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 Pick'em and Custom Margin pools, if you have decided to keep a cancelled game activated in your pool, any selections for that game will result in members getting half the points placed on the game.

Confidence Rank Pools

• For Confidence Rank pools, if you have decided to keep a cancelled game activated in your pool, any selections for that game will result in members getting half the points placed on the game.
• 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.

In the event that an entire week 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.

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 - 4	We have extended our trial period through week 4 of the regular season. If the season gets cancelled within the first 4 weeks of the season, the pool organizer will be entitled to a full refund of any hosting fee that has been paid.
5	If the season gets cancelled after week 5 has completed but before week 6 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 10% 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 20% 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 but before week 8 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 30% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
8	If the season gets cancelled after week 8 has completed but before week 9 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 40% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
9	If the season gets cancelled after week 9 has completed but before week 10 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 50% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
10	If the season gets cancelled after week 10 has completed but before week 11 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 60% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
11	If the season gets cancelled after week 11 has completed but before week 12 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 70% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
12	If the season gets cancelled after week 12 has completed but before week 13 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 80% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
13	If the season gets cancelled after week 13 has completed but before week 14 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 90% of the hosting fee. The balance of any paid hosting fee will be refunded.
14	If the season gets cancelled after week 14 has completed, the pool organizer will be responsible for 100% of the hosting fee.

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