Football - it's almost here!!

The official countdown to football is on...my calendar says 36 days until that opening THURSDAY.

And as a little bonus, we'll have NFL Football to watch and wager on once again this year.

Not much to discuss today, but here are a couple of quick bits of info for you all in case you haven't been following all the football news of the last couple weeks:

1) Our favorite former head coach/TE coach has found a new job, and shocking to most of us, it's not coaching football. I think TE Timmy has found a much better fit in his new gig as a sideline reporter for FOX SPORTS College Football coverage. Clearly FOX didn't realize the formula for a good sideline reporter...female & hot...Brew fits neither criteria and adds in a nice helping of smug and annoying. This won't go well. But on the bright side, the rest of the country will be able see the incompetance that was running our program the last 4 years and realize, holy crap - MN actually went to 2 bowls with this bozo?!? They must have some talent!

2) Some early lines are out on most games on the NCAA schedule. One that I would be 6 figures on in Vegas right now if I could is this:

ILL at MIN (+15)
Really? Zookers are more than 2 TD's better than us at the Bank? Where is the cash machine and how much cash is inside. Can I take this line as my game of the year 5-star lock right now?

I promise I'll only have 4-5 more games of the year the rest of the way...per week.

Study up - scrounge up your cash - get ready for some Football!

OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP Pool 2011

Major #3 of the year starts on Thursday. Same rules apply as before:

1. $10 per guy to enter (1 entry per guy max)
2. Pick 1 golfer from each tier for a 5 man team
3. Winner is the guy with the 5 man team that makes the most prize money
4. Tiebreaker is the top score for your 5th tier player
5. Get me your picks and $$$ by Wednesday night or early THUR morning. This one starts much earlier on THUR than the Masters or US Open, so the timing will be a little limited for getting your picks in on time.

Here are the tiers:
TIER 1
1 Rory McIlroy
2 Lee Westwood
3 Luke Donald
4 Martin Kaymer
5 Graeme McDowell
6 Sergio Garcia
7 Steve Stricker
8 Jason Day
9 K.J. Choi
10 Nick Watney
11 Charl Schwartzel
12 Dustin Johnson
13 Justin Rose
14 Matt Kuchar
15 Padraig Harrington
16 Phil Mickelson
17 Retief Goosen

TIER 2
18 Adam Scott
19 Angel Cabrera
20 Ernie Els
21 Ian Poulter
22 Paul Casey
23 Francesco Molinari
24 Fredrik Jacobson
25 Henrik Stenson
26 Hunter Mahan
27 Louis Oosthuizen
28 Matteo Manassero
29 Peter Hanson
30 Rickie Fowler
31 Robert Karlsson
32 Ross Fisher
33 Y-E Yang
34 Alvaro Quiros
35 Bubba Watson
36 Geoff Ogilvy
37 Jim Furyk
38 Stewart Cink
39 Zach Johnson
40 Bo Van Pelt
41 Brandt Snedeker
42 Charles Howell III
43 Edoardo Molinari
44 Jeff Overton
45 Martin Laird
46 Robert Allenby
47 Robert Rock
48 Simon Dyson


TIER 3
49 Aaron Baddeley
50 Brian Davis
51 Ryan Moore
52 Alexander Noren
53 Anders Hansen
54 Anthony Kim
55 Ben Crane
56 Ben Curtis
57 Bill Haas
58 Camilo Villegas
59 Darren Clarke
60 Davis Love III
61 J.B. Holmes
62 Jonathan Byrd
63 Miguel Angel Jimenez
64 Nicolas Colsaerts
65 Paul Lawrie
66 Ryan Palmer
67 Ryo Ishikawa
68 Sean O'Hair
69 Steve Marino
70 Thomas Aiken
71 Trevor Immelman
72 Vijay Singh
73 Webb Simpson
74 Chad Campbell
75 Gary Woodland
76 George Coetzee
77 Gregory Bourdy
78 Lucas Glover
79 Mark Wilson
80 Pablo Larrazabal
81 Rhys Davies
82 Richard Green
83 Spencer Levin


TIER 4
84 Charley Hoffman
85 Danny Willett
86 Fredrik Andersson Hed
87 Gregory Havret
88 Jason Dufner
89 Joost Luiten
90 Justin Leonard
91 KT Kim
92 Peter Whiteford
93 Raphael Jacquelin
94 Rory Sabbatini
95 Scott Jamieson
96 Thorbjorn Olesen
97 Tom Lewis
98 Alejandro Canizares
99 Graeme Storm
100 Harrison Frazar
101 Kevin Na
102 Kevin Streelman
103 Kyle Stanley
104 Robert Garrigus
105 Seung-yul Noh
106 Simon Khan
107 Stephen Gallacher
108 Thongchai Jaidee
109 David Duval
110 Gary Boyd
111 Jerry Kelly
112 John Daly
113 Mark Calcavecchia
114 Markus Brier
115 Nathan Green
116 Tetsuji Hiratsuka
117 Todd Hamilton
118 Tom Lehman
119 Tom Watson
120 Yuta Ikeda

TIER 5
121 Bernhard Langer
122 Hiroyuki Fujita
123 Kenneth Ferrie
124 SM Bae
125 Bob Estes
126 Brad Kennedy
127 Bryden Macpherson
128 Francis McGuirk
129 Hiroo Kawai
130 Kurt Barnes
131 Prayad Marksaeng
132 Richard Mcevoy
133 Adam Wootton
134 Andrew Johnston
135 Andy Smith
136 Chih-Bing Lam
137 Chris Tidland
138 Craig Hinton
139 Floris De Vries
140 Jason Knutzon
141 Jung-Gon Hwang
142 Lee Corfield
143 Lucas Bjerregaard
144 Mark Laskey
145 Mark O'Meara
146 Martin Maritz
147 Matthew Millar
148 Neil Schietekat
149 Peter Uihlein
150 Prom Meesawat
151 Rick Kulacz
152 Sandy Lyle
153 Simon Edwards
154 Simon Lilly
155 Tadahiro Takayama
156 Thomas Shadbolt


Questions - let me know. Send me a check, pay me in person, or via paypal to my email address. All options work.

Thanks.

Football Challenge 2011 - Rules

We are at less than 2 months until kick-off, so I figured I would nail down the rule changes for this season and let you all start mentally preparing for what is coming in about 56 days.

So I think we're 12 strong at this point, we continue to grwo every year - I would still be willing to accept any other late comers, but I'm happy at 12 if that's where it ends for 2011.

For those of you that are new - here are the details; and even for those that have been with the Football Challenge for past seasons, we have some modifications that should only improve the league as a whole.

ENTRY FEE = $100/guy
(this is higher than past years, but will be better in the end as you'll see in later points)

PICKS = 15 games per week, 5 must be college and 5 must be NFL...but the other 5 are floaters that can be any combination of the 2. This of course is different in Week 1 when it's only NCAA games and in December where it's only NFL games, and we'll be picking 10 and not 15 in DEC.

TIES = Losses - In the past we have had ties=wins which overinflates our winning % by a bit each year...I will be counting these as losses going forward because you're not winning money on them so you're behind the guys that are winning.

WEEKLY WINNERS = $30 per week to the weekly winner, and if it's a tie we move the $30 as a carry-over to the next week, so that is worth $60. This will add a lot more week to week drama and keep everyone engaged even if you hit a 2-13 stinker early on.

TOTAL WINNERS = These are assuming we stick with 12 guys, here will be the other payouts after the 18 weekly $30 prizes...

REG SEASON = $300 - 1st in regular season, $100 - 2nd in regular season
POST SEASON = $60 Bowl Champion, $200 Total Post Season Champion

Get me your cash or check before we start play, which is the 1st week of September. I believe 9/1 is the opening Thursday, so you have almost 2 months to scrounge up $100, which will provide you about 5 months of entertainment and with any luck a nice ROI.

Games will be due to me by NOON on THURSDAY each week, and I will send out all lines on MONDAY each week. We use the opening lines posted on the USA TODAY website for all games, and lines don't change from what I send out on Monday.

Questions? Concerns? Comments? I take them all - let me know.

I'm excited for the biggest and best year of the Football Challenge ever - hope you all are ready as well.

Stroke The Post, Let's Go!