As autumn approaches, there’s something special that occurs during this time of year. It’s as predictable as the leaves turning colors. It’s the arrival of College Football. It’s the time of year where the Hall Family, and a few additions, begins their annual Hall Family Pick’ems contest. It’s the time of year where we madly watch college football all day hoping that our team and our picks win each Saturday. Autumn Saturdays mean that we can wear our favorite team’s shirt or jersey with pride even if it goes unwashed for a few weeks but continue to wear it anyway. Yeah, you know who you are.
However, college football is evolving. No longer is college football an amateur sport. Athletes are being paid, the transfer portal is out of control, and conference realignment continues shuffling teams to other conferences.
Beginning this season, the ACC added Cal, SMU, and Stanford to the fold. Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC have joined the Big Ten Conference. The Big 12 is going to look different with Arizona State, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah joining. BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF already jumped in last season. The SEC welcomes Oklahoma and Texas and the PAC-12 only has two teams left in Oregon State and Washington State. The American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and Sun Belt Conference also had some changes which we won’t get into.
So, how will conference realignment impact the 2024 Pick’ems Contest? Well, we’re going to get more exciting conference matchups with additional teams joining the four major conferences. We’ll also get to watch games that would have normally been seen in bowl matchups. More and more teams are also playing home and home series with opponents which make for exciting game day atmospheres compared to neutral site settings. And most importantly, there’s a 12-team playoff beginning this year which will add to the excitement during the regular season.
During the 2024 Pick’ems contest, we’ll continue the $10 weekly prizes for the highest points obtained each week since that was a huge success…at least for some. Like last year, any ties between participants means the weekly prize will not be awarded but will instead roll over into the following week with even larger money on the line.
After each week, an article dubbed "The Previous Play is Under Review” will be published which can be viewed on the website. Each article will be a wrap-up of the weekend games and a section, that I can state with a high degree of confidence, will poke fun of our picks or place in the standings. In addition, a line graph can be viewed after each week to determine how you’re trending in the contest.
As usual, the top three finishers at the end of the regular season will win cash prizes. Below is a breakdown for the top 3 finishers.
1st place - $126
2nd Place - $63
3rd Place - $21
If you’re new to the contest, you’re encouraged to get familiar with game play rules. You can do that by going to the website www.secfootball.net/picks and hovering your curser over the Group Score Sheet tab and clicking on "How to Play.”
We’re looking forward to another great College Football season!
-Admins
