A former champion came through with a strong week and a little bit of luck to claim the top spot in Week 6 of the Dyer Group Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em Contest. Jason Hartman did the honors this week as he sported a 26-5 record to get the win.

 

Hartman needs to contact Ben Queen at ben@benqueenphotography.com and select his choice of prizes between a gift certificate to Buffalo Wild Wings and a small cheesecake from Almost Heaven Desserts. Hartman will also need to provide contact information, most notably an address, to Queen.

 

Where Hartman got lucky was that he won the blind draw for his choice of prizes. He was joined at the top of the weekly standings by Chris Bowman. Bowman will receive the prize not taken by Hartman and will also need to email Queen as well.

 

After that, there was a three-way tie for third place. Eric Allen, Kalie Kossar, and Joe Koreski finished the week at 24-7. Eleven individuals then finished tied at No. 6. The group of Bart Spearen, Jeremy Cook, Michael Perry, Jason Jimmie, Larry Snider, Aaron Glines, Pat Boyles, Michael Wilhelm Brian Martin, Tom Surock, and Chuck Cain were all 23-8.

 

Fifteen individuals rounded out the top 25 by finishing even at the No. 17 position. Aaron Williams, John Pulice, Eddie Huffman, Andrew Roush, Louis Aragona, Michael Ferrari, Frank Blake, Ryan Riley, Jayson Nicewarner, Julie Nelson, Jared Chapman, Chris Moore, Peter Jougras, Jason McDaniel, and Stacy Greely went 22-9 for the week.

 

The strong week by Hartman did more than win him top honors. It also moved him into first place in the overall standings by two games. Hartman currently stands at 141-29, while Aaron Williams is in second place at 139-31. Louis Aragona rounds out the top three with a 137-33 mark.

 

Tied for fourth place are Brian Martin and Joe Teter at 136-34. That is followed by seven individuals all even at No. 6 as Adam Holbert, Dan McNamee, Michael Mann, Jimmy Stutler, Hugh Gainer, Timmy Thompson and Jason Young have a six-week record of 135-35.

 

At No. 13, there are five individuals in play. James Burton II, Clayce Spurlock, Lenora Montgomery, Pat Boyles, and Tom Surock come in at 134-36. The group is followed by a six-way tie at No. 18 with Jeff Muller, James Hayes II, David Gillot, Chad Reppert, Aaron Mann, and Stacy Greely showing records of 133-37.

 

Rounding out the top 25 is a three-way for No. 24 with Gary Romano, Amber Gaines and Chris Skidmore all at 132-38.

 

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 usually goes 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.

 

What makes the Dyer Group 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.

 

If you haven’t entered at this point, you won’t be able to win any of the grand prizes. However, you can still enter and be eligible for weekly prizes and bragging rights with friends.

 

If you are a registered member of Connect-Bridgeport's Web site, all you must 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.

 

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