[Picks](https://officepoolstop.com/gameday) | [[Maul of Madison - 2025-2026 Standings]] | [[Maul of Madison - 2025-2026 Competition and Rules]] | [[Maul of Madison - 2025-2026 Notes]] *This page is currently under review and revision* # The Maul of Madison The Maul of Madison is a "friendly" family competition based on picking the winners of NFL football games. It has its roots in family NFL picks done with a #2 pencil on the back of a Green Bay Packers annual yearbook. The current competition is in two parts: - the traditional Maul of Madison - a majestic and very heavy trophy inscribed with the names of the winners of the most recent year and winners of the past; and, - the family NFL playoffs competition - an annual competition based on correctly selecting the results of the NFL playoffs through the Super Bowl. ## The Maul of Madison - Regular Season The Maul of Madison uses OfficePoolStop.com as the foundation for recording the picks. The current standings are here. In each of the seventeen weeks of the regular NFL season, participants pick eight games of their choosing against the spread (as determined by OfficePoolStop). *Note that OfficePoolStop looks very different for the 2025-2026 season.* Four people move on from the regular season to the playoffs to determine the eventual winner of the Maul of Madison. ### Four Contenders for the Maul of Madison There are four contenders for the traditional Maul of Madison: 1. The participant with the best record (most points) in the first eight weeks of the season. 2. The participant with the best record (most points) in weeks 9-16 of the season (who did not have the best record in weeks 1-8). 3. The overall winner of the weeks 1-16 who is not one of the first two. 4. The winner of week 17 who is not one of the first three. These four participants then move on to the family NFL playoffs to determine the eventual winner of the traditional Maul of Madison. ## The Maul of Madison - NFL Playoffs There are six games the first weekend of the NFL playoffs, four games the following week and then the two conference championship games the week after that. With the super Bowl, that means that there are only thirteen games to pick. What makes this pool different is that when you make a pick for one of the games you also assign it a “confidence value” between 1 and 13. The trick is that you can only use each confidence number once during the playoffs. If your pick for the playoff game turns out to be correct, you collect the number of confidence points that you assigned. You can assign any value between 1 and 13, but once you use that number, you can’t use it again. The person who collects the most, cumulative confidence points after the Super Bowl is the winner of the pool. Note that several people might pick the same game correctly but collect different numbers of points - because of the confidence value they assigned when they made the pick. Clearly, some strategy comes into play regarding how you use big confidence values like 10-13. It is possible to have a tie for either first or second place. In that case, a tie-break system is in place using predicted scores of the Super Bowl. Details of the tie-break system will be added to a later version of this page. ### The Winner of the Maul of Madison Of the four contenders for the Maul of Madison, the participant who has the most points after the Super Bowl, and qualified to be a contender for the Maul, becomes the winner of the Maul and the travelling trophy. The previous winner is responsible for ensuring that the Maul faithfully records the current year's winner and any costs of delivering the Maul to the new winner. ### The Winner of the Family NFL Playoffs Competition All participants are eligible to play and win the family NFL Playoffs Competition. The person with the most points after the Super Bowl wins a $50 gift certificate at Amazon. The person who comes in second (second in points after the Super Bowl) wins a $25 gift certificate. *The current rules for the Maul of Madison were modified and agreed at a family gathering in San Diego in June 2025. Any questions about the rules should be directed to the Commissioner for the Maul of Madison.* *This page was last updated on August 20, 2025