We're only two weeks out from the first game of the season! Anyone who wants to play, jump on in. Here's your chance to put your money where your mouth is and see how you do in picking some games against other outsporters.

We have games on five days of the opening weekend: Thursday -Sunday. So get your picks in on time.

There are a ton of good games this weekend -- couple with so many unknowns -- that I whittled the list down to 23 -- and couldn't whittle anymore.

As usual I've included a chronological cut-and-paste list at the bottom of the post for everyone to use.

THE RULES

The rules:
1. Pick the winner in each game.

2. Predict how many points the team you pick to win the designated Game of the Week will win by. This will be used for tiebreak purposes. This week it is the California at Tennessee game.

3. The first pick is needed by the kickoff of the first game -- Thursday evening.

4. Picks must be submitted either via the Private Message function or E-mail. My email address is dcbucky2000@hotmail.com -- please do not post your picks here. Include your Outsports nickname with your picks.


THOSE PESKY MID-MAJORS
1. Temple at Buffalo (Thursday)
(Have never met)
'cause someone has to win!

2. Hawaii at Alabama
(Last met in 2003: Hawaii 37 - 'bama 29)
The Rainbow Warriors bring a boffo offensive attack led by Colt Brennan into Tuscaloosa.

3. Memphis at Mississippi (Sunday)
(Last season: Ole Miss 10 - M'phis 6)
Pundits say Memphis may be good enough to win C*USA's Eastern Division. What does that even mean?

MAC VS BIG TEN
[Last season the Big Boys went 11-0 against the MAC.]

4. Northwestern at Miami of Ohio (Thursday)
(Last met in 2003: Miami 44 - NU 13)
NU visits the Cradle of Coaches for the first time ever, minus the late Randy Walker who himself coached there for 9 seasons.

5. Minnesota at Kent State (Thursday)
(Have never met)
Southern Manitoba lost their best RBs (and another one was kicked off the team just yesterday), but still should have enough firepower to win in Kent.

6. Northern Illinois at An Ohio State University
(Have never met)
Northern Illinois is expected to vie for the MAC crown; OSU for the national championship.

7. Western Michigan at Indiana
(Last met in 1998: IU 45 - WMU 30)
Is this going to be the one where the MAC pulls it out?

8. Wisconsin vs. Bowling Green (in Cleveland)
(Last season: UW 56 - BGSU 42)
Don't expect as much of a shoot-out as last season: Omar Jacobs left the Falcons early for bowling greener pastures; UW's QB Stocco might miss the first game -- he'll certainly miss all those RBs, TEs, WRs now gone.

IN STATE RIVALS
9. Marshall at West Virginia
(Last met in 1997: WVU 42 - Marshall 31)
The Coal Bowl for state bragging rights.

10. Kentucky at Louisville (Sunday)
(Last season: L'ville 31 - KY 24)
The Cardinals have won 3 in a row against the Mildcats. Of course KY had overall records of 3-8, 2-9 and 4-8 in those seasons

CONFERENCE PLAY BEGINS ON DAY ONE
11. South Carolina at Mississippi State (Thursday)
(last met in 2002: Cocks 34 - Bulldogs 10)
... And USC has won 3 in a row over this SEC opponent.

12. Nevada at Fresno State (Friday)
(Last season: Nevada 38 - FSU 35)
Nevada tied for their first WAC championship last year, beating FSU along the way.

13. Stanford at Oregon
(Last season: Oregon 44 - Stanford 20)
Last time the Tree won up at Autzen was in 2001 -- costing the Ducks an undefeated season.

14. Florida State at Miami of Florida (Monday)
(Last season: FSU 10 - MoF 7)
The Noles' last win in the Orange Bowl was in 1998.

BIG EAST - ACC CHALLENGE
15. Syracuse at Wake Forest
(Have never played)
This would be a much better hoops match-up!

16. Virginia at Pittsburgh
(Last met in 2003 Continental Tire Bowl: uva 23 - Pitt 16)
Two former NFL coaches, Groh and Wannstedt, meet up at the college level. Groh's Jets swept Wannstedt's Dolphins in the two games they met in 2000.

17. Rutgers at North Carolina
(Last met in 1919: RU 19 - unc 9)
Rutgers is supposedly a program on the rise, coming off a bowl game. We'll see.

18. Notre Dame at Georgia Tech
(Last meet in 1999 Gator Bowl: GaTech 35 - ND 28)
(...I know ....I know ... but since the Irish play most of their other sports in the Big East, I'll put this game here)
This on-again-off-again rivalry dates back to 1922: The Irish are 26-5-1 against GaTech.

PAC TEN'S TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
19.Utah at UCLA
(Last met in 1974: Bruins 27 - Utes 14)
The last 3 seasons Utah has feasted on the PacTen, going 4-0 against Arizona, Cal and Oregon.

20. USC at Arkansas
(Last season: USC 70 - Arkansas 17)
The last time the Razorbacks came off of back-to-back losing seasons (like this year) they went 9-3. Of course, their first opponent that year was U-La-La, not USC.

21. Brigham Young at Arizona
(Last met in 1977: BYU 34 - zona 14)
These teams haven't met since Arizona left the WAC. The PacTen Mildcats have not had a winning season since 1998. BYU since 2001.

22. Washington State at Auburn
(Have never met)
Wazzou hasn't played an SEC team since a 1992 loss at Tennessee.

23. California at Tennessee -- GAME OF THE WEEK
(Last met in 1987: Vols 38 - Bears 12)
Two teams mentioned as dark horse BCS bowl champions.

AND HERE'S THE CUT-AND-PASTE VERSION BY DATE
Thursday, August 31
1. Temple at Buffalo
2. Northwestern at Miami of Ohio
3. Minnesota at Kent State
4. South Carolina at Mississippi State

Friday, September 1
5. Nevada at Fresno State

Saturday, September 2
6. Hawaii at Alabama
7. Rutgers at North Carolina
8. Northern Illinois at Ohio State
9. Marshall at West Virginia
10. Stanford at Oregon
11. Syracuse at Wake Forest
12. Utah at UCLA
13. Western Michigan at Indiana
14. Wisconsin vs. Bowling Green (in Cleveland)
15. Virginia at Pittsburgh
16. Washington State at Auburn
17. Notre Dame at Georgia Tech
18. USC at Arkansas
19. Brigham Young at Arizona

Sunday, September 3
20. Memphis at Mississippi
21. Kentucky at Louisville

Monday, September 4
22. Florida State at Miami of Florida

GAME OF THE WEEK
23. California at Tennessee (Saturday) -- put down by how many points the victor will win.

GOOD LUCK!!

[ August 17, 2006, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

and we have our first contestants:

SCTrojan
SoFlaSpartan
and GymMountainEER

Keep 'em coming.

Man that's early...I saw August 31st so I haven't looked at all the games yet.

Damn teacher's pets!

Now joining the pick'em are:

itsplaytym
High Tyde
MarinerDuckGuy
Filthy Jock

more in:

ClemsonTigah
theodoresdaddy
mdphl
blueraider

azairforce and wvderby are in the mix.

Reminder that we're only one week away from the first game!

im4psu is in.

My picks for the record are:

1. Buffalo
2. Northwestern
3. Minnesota
4. South Carolina
5. Fresno State
6. Alabama
7. North Carolina
8. Ohio State
9. West Virginia
10. Oregon
11. Syracuse
12. UCLA
13. Indiana
14. ON WISCONSIN
15. Pittsburgh
16. Auburn
17. Notre Dame
18. USC
19. Arizona
20. Memphis
21. Louisville
22. Miami of Florida
23. Tennessee by 7

It is "in the air"! We're inundated now with tons of articles and shows on TV, radio and the web -- and I'm loving it. Opened the TV guide that comes with the Post and saw all those games to be broadcast at the end of the week.

Get your picks in now!

I've received more from:

scottpa
wierdblackdog
jerseyguy

Hey...agree with you...

but hate all the c-student journalism majors who seem to inundate the sports media.

Love the media attention... don't believe a word!

xo

P.S. except Kirk Herbstreit, of course...

[ August 28, 2006, 09:45 PM: Message edited by: weirdblackdog ]

Reminder that the first game in the contest is but two days away.

I have more picks in from:

NorCalHusker
Go Monica
meric

First games are tomorrow!

And some more players have joined the pick'em:

Zeno
Ill RepUTE
ugadawgs89
Illini_fan (nice to have another Big Ten fan on board)

Bucky,

In case we forget to say this during the season, thanks so much for doing this again this year! Much appreciated.

Some nine hours and counting 'til kickoff.

Now in are:

Gamecock
TheOtherFSU
Hwkpride
Miamidr
Maddog
CHIAthlete

Thanks -- It's a ton of fun for me too -- at a minimum I now pay some attention to games out there on the Left Coast, since I'm a Big Ten fan and live in the nexus of the ACC and the Little East.

Our predictions thus far are:

17-14
unc over Rutgers

19-12
Wake over 'cuse
Cal over Tennesseee

20-11
Buffalo over Temple
Ole Miss over Memphis

21-10
zona over byu

22-9
IU over Western MI
Pitt over uva

23-8
ucla over utes

25-6
NU over Miami

26-5
The Other Miami over the Other FSU

27-4
ND over GaTech

29-2
USC over Mississippi State
Auburn over Wazzou
The Other USC over Arkansas

30-1
Goofs over Kent State
FSU over Nevada
Louisville over Kentucky
On Wisconsin over Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba

31-0
Crimson Tide over Rainbow Warriors
An Ohio State University over The Northern Illinois University
WVU over Marshall
Oregon over Stanford

Awwwwww...

Thanks for whomever gave the one vote to Bowling Green. This Alum was too chicken to do it.

I hope you are right!

Here's an interesting tidbit of info. OK, at least it's interesting to me.

Game-time temperature for the Fresno State-Nevada game last year in Reno was 28 degrees. Temps continued to drop during the game and the wind chill was at 11 degrees when the scoreboard froze, forcing the final 6 minutes of the game to be played without a running clock. .... contrast that with tomorrow's Fresno State-Nevada game, where the expected game-time temperature is 100 degrees at 5 p.m. local time in Fresno for an ESPN telecast (8 p.m. ET).

Filthy Jock wins Week One of the contest with an impressive 21-2 record. Everyone else did great, scoring well above .500.

Here are the scores:

21-2
FilthyJock

20-3
azairforce
blueraider
GoMonica!
PCC
wierdblackdog
zeno

19
DCBucky
Gamecock
High Tyde
Ill RepUTE
itsplaytym
jerseyguy
NorCalHusker
Purdue Fan
SCTrojan
theosdadddy

18-5
ClemsonTigah
Illini_fan
Maddog
MarinerDuckGuy
ScottPa
SoFlaSpartan
wvderby

17-7
Hwkpride
im4psu
mdphl
TheOtherFSU
ugadawgs89

16-7
CHIAthlete
Gymmountaineer
meric
pat 125
The B Man

15-8
MiamiDr