Can people sandbag in chess, just as they do in pool?

sure. many players will enter weaker tournaments threw out the year and lose games to get a rating that is lower. then enter a big class tournament, with a big first place price. even if the spend $200 year on losing rating points some class tournaments can have first place prize money around 2,000 bucks. the help of rating floors does take care of some of that but still can have some affect.if you dont know what a USCF rating floor is i will say it like this.if your highest rating is 1700 your floor is 1500 if its 1800 then floor is 1600 you get the idea.so a player can never go below there floor.

I find this very frustrating I love playing with players at my level and in tournaments but. I have averaged a rating of 1250 for the past 6 months. I go into two tournaments with players rated anywhere from 1050 - 1100 and they walk all over me. I check there rating over the past 6 months and they go from 1600 down to 1000 just before the tournament. Is there anything we can do?