College Football's Smartest Picks Contest.

The wait is over.  It's time to play for the crystal.  From now through January 8th we're disembarking on a tropical theater of bragging rights and technical know how.  Trade your runny nose, stinging ears, and salt slush streets for warm breezes, Zigzag-Moderne palaces, and neon boulevards.  Here's how it goes down:

34 Bowls.  One Champion.

As we hinted, the bowl installment is a comprehensive, winner-take-all format.  Each player will pre-pick the winner and the spread for all 34 bowl games.  Using our patented, regular-season scoring system, we'll routinely tally the totals, and throw them up on the site so you can see where you stand vis-a-vis your peers.

On January 9th, we'll announce which one of you is the The Rivalry, Esq.'s Inaugural Bowl Edition Champion.  The winner will earn, not-insignificantly, a customized Obligatory Predictions Competition Trophy (perfect for the office, study, or -- if you live in Southern Ohio -- front lawn), as well as a feature on the site, and a year's worth of bragging rights on the SBN network.

So you want in?  Here's how.

1. First, download the official Bowl Bracket

The bracket is presented in .doc format.  If you have any problems accessing the document, contact us at GrahamFiller10@gmail.com.

2. Second, fill in your selections.

Type in your predicted winner and spread for each match up.  Additionally, indicate the total number of points you think will be scored in the BCS National Championship Game.  When you're finished, save the document as your SBN member name (i.e. LawBuckeye.doc).  This will allow us to keep track of the entries.

3. Third, e-mail the document to The Rivalry, Esq. (GrahamFiller10@gmail.com) by 12:00 a.m. EST December 17th, 2008.

You'll receive a personalized confirmation from Graham himself.  That means you're in.  You also might be well served to print a copy for your own bookkeeping.

4. Check The Rivalry, Esq. regularly once bowl play commences for leader-board updates.

As a polite reminder, here's how the scoring works:

One (1) point is earned for a correctly picking the winning team.

An additional two (2) points are earned for correctly identifying the winning spread by seven points or less.

Two (2) bonus points are awarded for the "upset pick" -- an upset being defined as predicting: 1. Any BCS Top 25 ranked team to defeat any opponent of higher rank, which in fact does occur, or 2. Any non-ranked BCS Top 25 team to defeat any ranked opponent, which in fact does occur.

Two (2) more points are awarded for picking a perfect spread.

To read our final regular season results, select the "Continue reading this post" link below:

Week 15 Franz v. Filler winner TIE

With the entire season on the line Franz adopted an Evangelical posture, playing the spreads so conservatively even Jim Tressel raised an eyebrow.  Franz's questionable brilliant tactic forced another tie and corresponding point carry over, so the good guy lives to pick another day.  Franz 5*, Filler 8.*

* Because of the gridlock, our first bowl predictions round is worth 3 points (2 carryover + 1 predetermined)

Crystal Ball Call (pick of the week): FLORIDA by 11 (Bama Hawkeye).  I move to certify this at the pick of the season, although I suspect Bama needed a few extra shots of burbon to get through the fourth quarter of this 7-point screamer.  Florida 31, Alabama 20.

Hindsight is 20/20: BOSTON COLLEGE by 10 (Franz).  VT 30, BC 12.