Monday, August 27, 2007

Pick Six '07 | by Jay

With the preseason AP Poll on the record, let's roll out this year's Pick Six contest. This is your opportunity to showcase your pigskin prognostication skills and prove to everyone that you just knew ND was going to take the national championship this year. If you've played the last two years, you know how the contest works.

1. We divide the top 25 into 5 groups of 5 based on the AP Poll: 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, etc. For this year's poll, the groups are thus:

A - Southern Cal, LSU, West Virginia, Texas, Michigan
B - Florida, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, Louisville
C - Ohio State, Cal, Georgia, UCLA, Tennessee
D - Rutgers, Penn State, Auburn, Florida State, Nebraska
E - Arkansas, TCU, Hawaii, Boise State, Texas A&M
2. You pick one team from each group, plus one unranked team. You're trying to pick the teams you think will finish highest in the final AP poll.

3. Each week we'll update the standings. You get 25 points for having the #1 team, 24 points for the #2 team, on down to 1 point for the #25 team. Unranked teams get zero points.

4. The winner is the person at the end of the year with the most highly-ranked teams. As an example, here's the final tally from last year.

5. And the grand prize? Usually it's something horribly tacky. This year I've some great suggestions, including a Bo Bobblehead, a Michigan State Santa Claus, a football-playing Jesus or a set of Archie Griffin Nesting Dolls. If you win, rest assured we'll find you something gawd-awful to show off to your friends.

That's it for the Pick Six: short, sweet and simple. Polling closes at the end of Thursday, so get your picks in now. Good luck!

UPDATE: a snapshot of the early returns.