Some people would rather be lucky than good. While Bridgeport’s Kevin Carbacio’s luck may not be as strong as he would like, his skill can’t be questioned. For the seventh time in 12 weeks, Carbacio finds himself at the top of the leader board in the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em contest.

 

The city resident has either tied for the top spot or been all by himself in those seven weeks. The only bad thing is that Carbacio hasn’t won any blind draws when he’s tied. This week proved to be the same, but he’s not walking away empty handed.

 

The winner of week 12 is Bridgeport’s Ryan Chandler. Chandler, Carbacio and Scott Price all finished the week at 29-2. Chandler won the first blind draw and Carbacio won the second draw.

 

Both Chandler and Carbacio need to contact Hannah Edwards at hannah@connect-bridgeport.com. They are asked to include their address so she can mail their prizes to them.

 

Chandler will have his choice of a gift certificate from Buffalo Wild Wings or a certificate from Almost Heaven Desserts for a free small cheesecake. Carbacio will be given the certificate not chosen by Chandler.

 

After the top three, the rest of the field was bunched up in two ties. Eight individuals finished tied for the fourth spot as Chuck Cain, Jason Hartman, Ron Huffman, Jason McCall, Hugh Gainer, Nancy Romano, Doug Marquette, and Chris Cleghorn all went 27-4.

 

Rounding out the top 25 is a 14-way tie for the No. 12 position. Dustin Vincent, Chuck Miller, Matt Ash, Aaron Mann, Ryan Riley, Curt Burner, Robert Marra, Andrew Banko, Michael Harki, Patsy Sabatelli, Chris Oliverio, James Hayes, II, Mike Ridgway, and Pete Curry all went 26-5.

 

In the overall standings, Kevin Carbacio is still firmly in control. Carbacio has an impressive 301-50 (85.75 percent) mark, while Jason Hartman is in second place with a record of 273-78 (77.78 percent). Jason McCall, Bill Montgomery and Adam Holbert round out the top five with records of 270-81 (76.92 percent).

 

In sixth place is Ryan Chandler at 269-82 (76.64 percent), while Mark Trippett and Aaron Mann are even at No. 7 thanks to an overall showing of 268-83 (76.35 percent). Jimmy Stutler comes in at ninth at 267-84 (76.07 percent) and Jeff Muller rounds out the top 10 at No. 10 thanks to his mark of 266-85 (75.78 percent).

 

At No. 11, Clayce Spurlock is holding things down at 265-86 (75.5 percent) and Andrew Banko is next at No. 12 with a record at 264-87 (75.21 percent). There is a three-way tie at No. 13 as Chris Oliverio, Chris Byrd and Frank Blake are all even at 263-88 (74.93 percent).

 

A three-way tie is in place at No. 16 with Patsy Sabatelli, Dustin Vincent and Michael Ferrari at 262-89 (74.64 percent). Another three-way deadlock in play at No. 19 with Amber Gaines, Pete Curry, and Mike Alastanos at 261-90 (74.36 percent). Then again at No. 22 three more are even with Scott Price, Eric Allen and Steven Hastings standing at 260-91 (74.07 percent).

 

The biggest logjam in the overall top 25 comes in at No. 25 with five individuals even. Chris Nutter, Gary Griffith, Hugh Gainer, Nancy Romano and Chris Johnson are all 259-92 (73.79 percent).

 

Those individuals are currently the frontrunners for the grand prizes. The prize packages are still being put together for the year. However, one of the top prizes include a $500 gift certificate from the Meadowbrook Mall. The top three pickers will be awarded prizes at the end of the contest, which goes well into December. The overall winner has their choice of the three prizes, while the second place winner will have their choice then of the final two remaining prizes.

 

For those thinking the contest is over because they’ve had a couple of bad weeks, don’t fret. What makes the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff competition unique is that once the contest is over you don’t necessarily know who the winner is even though you will see your weekly overall ranking and Connect-Bridgeport will post the weekly and overall top 25 throughout the contest. At the end of the year, everyone that competes has their two worst weeks dropped and then the winner is announced based on the highest winning percentage.

 

While it would be impossible to win the overall prizes if you’ve not entered, you can still compete and win the weekly prizes. And it’s easy to do.

 

If you are a registered member of Connect-Bridgeport's Web site, all you have to do is make sure you're signed in and the click the Playoff Payoff icon on the home page that can be found by scrolling down to the left. If you're not registered, go to the top of the home page and register. It takes less than a minute.

 

Another unique aspect of the competition is that you can make changes to your picks leading up to games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Individuals can make their picks for Friday’s games and can change them until 6 p.m. Friday. Games that are listed on Saturday and Sunday can be entered and changed as many times as necessary until 11 a.m. each day of the picks.

 

Unfortunately, there are occasional schedule changes - usually on the prep football side - that staff does not catch; usually games moved to Thursday or a time change bumped up. There are also occasional mistakes with the proper teams playing each other. As has been the case in the past, each person will either be given a win for those games when there are schedule changes we miss or a mistake on our end or a or they will simply not be counted for the weekly and final standings.

 

This week, the Texas Tech and Baylor game was listed as a neutral site contest. That contest was deleted.

 

You must use your actual name to compete. Nicknames or aliases will not be recognized for weekly or overall prizes.