Again this season, I’m inviting readers to sign up for a local group in the contest, which will allow you to compete against college football fans in this area. A group of friends and I have participated in this online contest for 10 years now, and there are always a few upsets, controversies and surprises. It will definitely make your college football season a lot more interesting and fun.
Here's how the contest works: Each week during the coming college football season, you'll pick the winners of 10 games for the upcoming college football weekend. Your correct picks will be added up after the weekend's games to give you your total for the week. Whoever gets the most right, wins. If you don’t do so hot one week, don’t worry, the contest runs for 14 weeks. This contest’s a marathon, not a sprint.
To sign up for the game, go online and visit the contest website at http://games.espn.go.com/college-pickem/en/frontpage. Once there, sign in with your ESPN.com member name. If you don't have an ESPN.com account, take about two minutes to sign up for one. It's absolutely free, as is the contest. It's easy, especially for those of you who are Internet savvy enough to find the contest site online.
Once you've got your account and have signed in, create your own contest entry. Click on "Create Entry," and follow the simple instructions. When you get to the “Name Your Entry” part, I ask that you try to use your real name, so that we can post the standings each week.
Once you've created an entry, you can join our local group of football fans, allowing you to compete against other contestants from Conecuh and Monroe County. This is where the real fun comes in.
I've set up a group that all of you can join, so we'll all be able to compete against each other in the contest. Go ahead and click on "Create or Join a Group." That'll take you to another page, where you'll be able to join our local group. The name of our group is called "Conecuh-Monroe FB Pickers." Enter that in the appropriate space (without the quotation marks and period).
Our group is a private group, so you'll have to have a password to join. Our password is "football." Just type it in without the quotation marks and the period. In the end, if you have any trouble signing up, getting started or if you have any other questions, just e-mail me.
Our ninth-annual ESPN College Pick ‘Em contest ended in early December of last year, and many of you will remember that Jonathan Turberville of Excel won that contest. Turberville won by one point on the final day of the season and picked the outcome of 99.1 percent of the 140 games we had to pick from this year. There is little doubt that Jonathan, aka “Mr. Football,” knows his stuff, and I hope that he participates again this year.
Lee, I tried to join the Conecuh-Monroe FB Pickers but it was locked. I picked last week but I didn't join the group. Is is too late now?
ReplyDeleteI've had a couple of other people tell me that they had trouble signing up this year too. Not sure what the cause is, maybe a software glich on ESPN's side. The group may have locked after a certain date and time, like after the opening kick off of the first game. Try again this morning if you get the chance. Maybe it'll let you in. The password is "football."
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