NCAA Week 1 Picks

Week 1 of the NCAA is upon us!

First, one more introduction:

Dusty Miller (Screename: dustman11)
NCAA & NFL
"I am one of the few remaining intelligent football fans in Indianapolis that haven't been brainwashed into being a Colts "fan!




I think his bio is fightin' words! Go Colts!


On to week 1 NCAA games to be picked. These will have an addendum of a few games come tomorrow afternoon after each player adds the 1 game they want to pick this week get submitted. But for Week 1 - I picked 15 to get it started!


TCU v. Baylor


Oregon v. LSU


Boise St. v. Georgia


E. Carolina v. S. Carolina


S. Florida v. Notre Dame


Miami (OH) v. Missouri


Minnesota v. USC


SMU v. Texas A&M


Marshall v. West Virginia


Army v. N. Illinois


Northwestern v. Boston College


BYU v. Mississippi


Ball St. v. Indiana


Colorado v. Hawaii


Miami (FL) v. Maryland

Introductions - Part 1

As the football season fast approaches, and the League of Ordinary Humans begins to pick games, here are some introductions of the participants!


Rachael Eggebeen (Screen name: TBD)
League: Both NCAA and NFL
Bio: This Big Ten Girl hails from WI, which means she is a Packers fan.  Living in Tucson, she learned to love the Pac-12.  Besides sports, Rachael enjoys Islamic and Christian theology. 
Note: She is trying trying to convince her husband Ed to play as well (come join us Ed! It'll be fun!)


Dave Wasson (Screen name: TBD)
League: NFL 
Bio: I'm the rocket scientist of NFL prognostication... if by rocket scientist you mean doing everything without forethought or calculation. 


Dennis Lowe (Screen name: The Other White Meat)
League: Both NCAA and NFL
Bio: I am a police officer with the City of Indianapolis and currently work the "Swamp." Love football but work a crazy shift so I don't really have time to watch but still "attempt" to keep up with it.


Rob McFarren (Screen name: McDeadmeat) 
League: Both NCAA and NFL
Bio: On brave old Army Team, On to the fray! Army football fan and alumn...picking games with bias since 1984ish. 


I really think I should make up the bios for everyone else!

Email on joining Football Picking Competition this Fall

Thanks for stating you are interested in competing in a picks competition this fall. We are still VERY open to adding more people, so if you know anyone interested let me know!

Here is what I'm thinking as far as how we are going to do this - which is a competition but also a comparison and "vocal outlet" for everyone to trash-talk, compare, debate, and track who is doing well and who isn't. 

There will be 2 "leagues" - NFL and NCAA Football. You can do both. I will cover the ground rules now: 

For everyone - please email me a "blurb" (think 140 characters or tweet level) of you for introduction on the blog (friendlystrife.blogspot.com). I will put these up this month as I get them! Also - a screen name/nickname that is EASILY REMEMBERED!

Please note that missing a week is KILLER in competing with everyone else for season records. However, there will be weekly awards as well, so if you miss a week, come on back!

NFL League - we will pick each game every week. Please submit picks to me by Saturday for Sunday games. Once we get to the point in the season where there are Thursday games, we will submit the winner of that game only prior to Kickoff. This includes opening week - I want to give everyone fair shots at injury reports, so we will pick Thursday games prior to Sunday/Monday games. We are just picking a winner, NOT AGAINST THE SPREAD. I will post everyone's picks. You may provide a 1-sentence reasoning for each game if you choose. You do not have to say anything for every game. I will post these on the blog as they arrive.

On Tuesday morning, I will post results from the weekends games in a single entry - ranking the week and overall standings, including against experts. I will also, in a separate post, hand out awards. If you have ideas for awards - submit them to me now! They can be funny, serious, strategic, or something like "Worst injury to key player that killed the outcome of a game"

NCAA League (same goes for awards) - since games will occur almost any night of the week, here is the schedule of things. By Wednesday of each week - please submit 2 games that you would like to pick. Right now there are 7 of us, so that is 14 games. Every person gets to pick 2 games, and I will compile the list and email it back out Wednesday. These games can be from the Thursday of that week to the Tuesday of the next. Please do not pick a Wednesday night game (there are almost none anyway). That gives everyone Thursday to get back to me with their picks. Is that enough turn-around time? If we get more people joining - we will drop this to 1 game a week. But currently, the cap on games to pick will be 16, as I reserve the right to add key Top-25 match-ups that may not have been picked. Scoring is the same as NFL.

Please submit all correspondance to me at this email. Also - PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT, DEBATE, AND TRASH TALK through the comments options on the blog. 

We need more people - so please do some recruiting and let's make this really fun!

To sum up:

NFL - Picks submitted by Saturday night. If Thursday game, that pick only by Kickoff (I see timestamps!!!)

NCAA - 2 games to pick to me by noon Wed. List of all games back out to you Wed. Picks back to me by kickoff of the first game of that weeks picks (Thursday is earliest that can happen.

Hopefully this isn't that complicated...even though the email is a bit lengthy. Please let me know you are still in. I want to make it as easy as possible - and give everyone some blog time!!!

Happy hunting!

ESPN's preseason Power Rankings

I've gotten to be a bit of Power Rankings junky...usually because I find it amusing how people rank things based on perception. For the 2011 example, see Philadelphia Eagles. Anyway, the first preseason power rankings just came out today on ESPN

Take a gander - and just for fun - here are my updated Franchise Rankings. Be warned, my rankings are not "power" in the sense of who I think is the most talented, but rather are based on who I like the best.

1. Indianapolis Colts
2. Arizona Cardinals

3.  Denver Broncos (a swap - guess I've been in AZ long enough now!)
4. New Orleans Saints
5. Buffalo Bills
6. Chicago Bears
7. Detroit Lions
8. San Francisco 49ers

9. Kansas City Chiefs
10. New York Giants
11. Cleveland Browns

12. Green Bay Packers
13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

14. St. Louis Rams

15. Seattle Seahawks

16. Jacksonville Jaguars

17. Atlanta Falcons

18. Houston Texans
19. Tennessee Titans
20. Carolina Panthers
21. Baltimore Ravens

22. Pittsburgh Steelers

23. Dallas Cowboys

24. Minnesota Vikings
25. Cincinnati Bengals
26. Oakland Raiders

27. Miami Dolphins

28. Philadelphia Eagles
29. Washington Redskins
30. San Diego Chargers
31. New York Jets 
32. New England Patriots