This is it kids, the first week of my third annual NCAA Picks contest! I wrote software to run the whole thing this year, which will hopefully make all our lives easier. Consider it alpha quality, which means if something is screwed up, don’t get all huffy… just drop me an email and tell me about it. I’ve tested in IE 6, Firefox and Safari. Beyond those browsers, you’re on your own.

You’ll need to sign up for an account to play. After you register, you’ll receive an e-mail with your user and password which you can use to sign in and enter your picks (which, by the way, are against the spread this year rather than straight up-or-down). The first time you sign in, it’s a good idea to go to the options section and enable automatic e-mail reminders.

There weren’t any opening odds on some of these games. In those cases, the home teams were assigned a 0.5 point advantage. Consider them freebies, because they’re generally games like Western Kentucky at Georgia where Georgia will win 758-0.

First prize is a $50 Amazon gift certificate. Entry is free as in beer.

Need to get in the mood first? Go listen to my SEC East Preview podcast, which was created with loads of help from Orson Swindle of Every Day Should Be Saturday and Joel Hollingsworth of View From Rocky Top and Rocky Top Talk.

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