On Thursday, Sep. 10, the NFL season began with the reigning Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Houston Texans. To spice up this season’s viewing experience, Loyola is engaging in a competitive game of its own–an NFL Survivor Pool.
The premise of the game is that each participant looks at the NFL schedule each week and picks one team that he believes will win its matchup. There is one major caveat that increases the difficulty of the pool. Once a participant picks a team, he or she is not allowed to pick that team for the rest of the year. For instance, if a student picks the Rams to beat the Cowboys during week one, he is not allowed to pick the Rams for the rest of the season. In addition, if a student’s pick loses the game, he is eliminated from the contest.
Chris Walter ’93, Director of Student Activities and overseer of the Survivor Pool, provided data from week one.
Walter said, “It is fun to be competing with both faculty and students. I enjoy hearing my students talk about who they picked and to see them excited that they are still alive.”
A total of 326 people joined the pool, and 130 contestants were eliminated in the first week. Specifically, the Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles, who both lost that week, were the primary teams to blame for disqualifications. 43 people picked the Colts to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars and were eliminated, along with 32 others who picked the Eagles to beat the Washington Football Team.
Senior and Raiders fanatic Nick Padua is in the pool and won week one by selecting the Buffalo Bills to take down the New York Jets.
Asked about the toughest part of winning the survivor pool, Padua responded, “Right now there aren’t too many challenges, but later down the road it will be tough to not be able to pick an already selected team.”
To no one’s surprise, Padua is saving the Las Vegas Raiders pick for this pool to highlight his unquestioned loyalty.
Although only three weeks into the season, the 2020 Loyola NFL Survivor Pool has proven to be a fantastic addition to the Cub community. Nobody knows who will win, as injuries, locker room issues and bad performances can each be the deciding factor in a team’s success or failure in any given week. If somehow a student or faculty/staff member is able to survive to the end, he or she will be rewarded tremendously.
The first place student winner will receive a $250 Amazon gift card, second place will receive a $150 gift card and third place, a $75 gift card. Also the top three Loyola faculty/staff winners will be rewarded with the Amazon gift cards.
