Boy, the eclipse was neat, wasn't it? Yeah, for those of us in the totality. For everyone else, it was probably a lot of hullabaloo about nothing.
But you know what's neat for everyone? The start of football season. It starts this Saturday at 2:30 pm Eastern / 11:30 am Pacific when my Oregon State Beavers take on Colorado State. Seriously, that's everyone's first game, not just the one I care about. There's a very limited slate this weekend, with only five games, and that's likely to be the most competitive game. The only other game in a similar time slot is BYU-Portland State, so this is likely to be the game on everyone's TV for the first game of the year. Assuming, of course, they get CBS Sports Network. (ESPN is carrying BYU-Portland State). And no, I have no idea why two of the three D1 schools in Oregon are playing road games in the mountain time zone in the first two games of the year, it's kind of a weird coincidence.
Anyhoo, there's no College Pick Em this weekend since there are so few games (booo), but it's time to start up the Pickems regardless.
This year's College Pick Em. Amazingly, this is our 11th year doing this. That's incredible. In the next couple of years, this thing's going to grow pubes. Personal grooming aside, as with previous years, you pick ten preassigned games (in previous years, they have always picked only Saturday games, and weighted towards games on the ESPN network), and rank your picks by confidence. The higher the confidence, the more points you'll get when you get it right. End of the year, highest point total wins.
If you played last year, you should be able to click rejoin. If not, here's the info.
League: Orderofthebluegartr
Password: osu#1yeahthatosu
Also appearing in our show, everyone's favorite: the NFL Eliminator. Similar to a suicide pool, pick one winner every week. You can only pick each team once, so by the end of the season you'll have picked 17 of 32 possible teams. This differs from a suicide pool in that you keep picking through the end of the season, and the most winners picked wins. The first tiebreaker is the most wins to start the season, then we'll default to whatever stupid tiebreaker ESPN has if it's still tied. If you played last year, you should just be able to rejoin.
League: Orderofthebluegartr
Password: joshyandthejets
Finally, we have Pigskin PickEm, a.k.a. "We Can't Afford NFL Licensing Fees for this Product" PickEm. We're changing this one up this year, and going against the spread instead of straight up. We've had some demand for this in the past, so we'll try it this year. This means you'll have to join the group from scratch rather than just hit "Rejoin." Sorry, I tried to do it the other way, but it wouldn't let me switch it up since the group already existed. If you really hate this, let me know and if we get enough people griping, we can go back next year.
League: OrderoftheBlueGartrSpread
Password: outofcreativity
Let me know if you have any questions or problems joining. Couple of universal rules: one entry per person per group. No real prize other than bragging rights. If you put your BG name in your team name, that will help me identify you for addition to the list below. If I can't figure out who you are after a cursory search, I'll just plug in your ESPN name until you correct me.
If you're interesting in joining my $35 chip pool where you can pick any Pro or College game against the spread this year, send me a PM. A couple of you (Xami, Boyiee) have tried it before. Winner was gotten about $500 the last couple of years, and starts now and goes through the Super Bowl. $35 is a pretty cheap way to bet on any game you want and satisfy your gambling itch without spending big $$.
The only prize is to get your name on the ever-growing list of self-pretentious jerks:
2006 Bowl Pick Em: Makaveli
2006 BG Fantasy Football: Thuggy
2007 March Madness: Byrd
2007 College Football Pick Em: Ryany
2007 Bowl Pick Em: Akiyama
2008 NFL Gridiron Playoff Challenge: Tyr
2008 March Madness: Snoogans
2008 College Pick Em: Byrd
2008 Eliminator: Byrd
2008 Pigskin Pick Em: Weltall
2008 Bowl Pick Em: Laguna
2009 Gridiron Playoff Challenge: Sekaran
2009 Super (Bowl) Pick Em: Stiker
2009 March Madness: MrW
2009 College Pick Em: Ryany
2009 Eliminator: Stiker
2009 Pigskin Pick Em: Weltall
2009 Bowl Pick Em: Alderon527
2010 Gridiron Playoff Challenge: Driver
2010 March Madness: Biddinger
2010 World Cup Bracket Predictor: Decy
2010 World Cup Pick Em: Plow
2010 College Pick Em: Bregor
2010 Eliminator: Akiyama
2010 Pigskin Pick Em: Byrd
2010 Bowl Pick Em: Byrd
2011 Gridiron Playoff Challenge: Bigrougabagel
2011 March Madness: Titanss
2011 College Pick Em: Byrd
2011 Eliminator: Intrinsic
2011 Pigskin Pick Em: Naafeih
2011 Bowl Mania: Vade
2012 Gridiron Playoff Challenge: Valisk
2012 March Madness: WOMP, ElvFenrir
2012 College Pick Em: Julian
2012 Eliminator: Soa
2012 Pigskin Pick Em: Melena
2012 Primetime Playoff: Cail
2012 Bowl Mania: Izembo
2013 Gridiron Playoff Challenge: Mertron
2013 March Madness: Aaron Borland (user name: ???)
2013 College Pick Em: Ryany
2013 Pigskin Pick Em: Byrd
2013 Eliminator: Byrd
2013 Bowl Mania: Recuperi (?)
2014 March Madness: Nicholai
2014 World Cup PickEm: Tyrath
2014 World Cup Bracket Predictor: Tyrath
2014 College Pick Em: Mertron
2014 Pigskin Pick Em: Azazael
2014 Eliminator: Byrd
2014 Bowl Mania: Laguna
2015 Gridiron Playoff Challenge: Palpatine
2015 March Madness: Biddinger
2015 College Pick Em: Ryany
2015 Eliminator: Valisk
2015 Pigskin Pick Em: Chrius
2015 Bowl Mania: Bregor
2016 March Madness: Xajii
2016 College Pick Em: Serra
2016 Pigskin Pick Em: Akiyama
2016 Eliminator: Melena
2016 Bowl Mania: Chrius
2017 March Madness: Kirin