My Mountain Town 2014 Pick 5 Contest!

Oh yeah, it's that time of year again! I'll be running the Pick 5 again, unless someone else would like to volunteer to post the opening lines, determine the results, and keep track of participants records? Who wants to do the Pick 3 competition ?

Here are the rules, from a previous year .

1) Pick any 5 games each week. We play against the spread according to the following website. We use the "Opening Lines" which never change to keep it simple. www.covers.com/odds/football/nfl-spreads.aspx

2) You must make your choices before the games start. This doesn't mean before the first game of the week, but rather whatever games you pick (ie if picking the Thursday game, do it by Thursday night before kick-off, the Sunday games by 10:59am, 1:59pm, or 8:19pm, or whenever kick off is for each game). The time is recorded on your post when submitted so don't wait too long. Once you post a pick, you are locked into that pick. No changes. Doesn't matter if your whole team comes down with the flu and they don't play, or the starting quarterback gets a hangnail.

3) If you forget to pick until after the games have started, you are out of luck. No picks = nothing added to your score, either for win or loss.

4) Post all picks on this thread. This is the official sheet. Please feel free to quote other participant's picks that you see in order to officially record them (editing to change picks is not allowed so this confirms the choices).

5) Each week we will record a score for each contestant, keeping track of correct/wins, incorrect/losses, and ties. Ties will not matter, except in the case of a tie-breaker needed between 2 contestants after the final pick (which is the Superbowl). In other words, only correct picks matter.

For those new to picking games, here's an example.
The line is Dallas +3 @ NY Giants. If you pick Dallas, you are saying you think Dallas will either win outright, or lose but by less than 3 points. Basically, you add 3 points to the Dallas total score, then compare that to the final game score of the Giants. So if the game ended Dallas 17, Giants 21, you add 3 to the Dallas score, which gives you 20, but you lose because that doesn't beat the Giants score of 21. If, however, the game ended with Dallas 19, Giants 20, then you'd win. If it ended Dallas 17, Giants 20, then you'd have a Tie.

If you see Pickum as the spread, it means that the game is essentially at even 50/50 odds - just pick who you think will win, doesn't matter what the final score is.

Make sense? Feel free to PM me or post on this thread with questions. Prizes: open to suggestion! Would anyone like to donate a gift certificate/product from their local business, or to one of our advertisers that they love? I'll toss in a $25 gift cert to the MMT advertiser of your choice.

Here is this week's Opening Lines for pre-season if you'd like to practice (Renegade, I always seem to mess this up the first time every year getting something backwards, can you check me? Thx!). Good luck everyone!

Thursday 5:30p MST
Pittsburgh +3 @Philadelphia

Friday 5:30p MST
N.Y. Giants PICKUM @ N.Y. Jets
Jacksonville +4.5 @ Detroit
Carolina +4.5 @ New England

Friday 6:00p MST
Oakland +7 @ Green Bay
Chicago +7 @ Seattle

Saturday 2:30p MST
Tampa Bay +3 @ Buffalo

Saturday 5:00p MST
Dallas +3 @ Miami
Tennessee +3 @ Atlanta

Saturday 5:30p MST
Washington +2.5 @ Baltimore

Saturday 6:00pm MST
Minnesota +3 @ Kansas City
St. Louis +2.5 @ Cleveland
New Orleans +1 @ Indianapolis

Saturday 7p MST
Houston +7.5 @ Denver

Sunday 2:00p MST
San Diego +5.5 @ San Francisco

Sunday 6:00p MST
Cincinnati +3 @ Arizona

I have no idea how they can have spreads either, but I thought it might be a good opportunity for those who haven't played before to get warmed up learning how to pick - I know it took me several games to get comfortable with it back when I started. It's definitely NOT for record-keeping purposes.

We have some exciting news to share! Thanks to some generous donations, the winner of this Pick 5 Contest will receive $150 in gift certificates to our Business Partners!

Good luck to you all!

Awesome, it's great to have you on board Rick! Good luck!