EDITOR'S NOTE: The picks can be found beginning at noon, Tuesday, August 22, by scrolling down to the right of the home page and the sports page and click on the icon that's shown near the top of this story.

 

There are those who know football. And then there are those who think they know football. For the sixth straight year, you have a chance to prove to one and all what camp you belong in.

 

It’s time to get started with year number six of the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em competition. Not only is it a chance to have fun and see who amongst your own social circle knows all levels of football the best, but it’s a chance to win some serious prizes and look to upend the most recent and past defending champions.

 

So what’s the catch? There is none as it’s free and simple to enter.

 

If you are registered on Connect-Bridgeport.com, you can pick immediately by clicking the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff logo that is on the right side of the home page and the sports page. If you are not registered go to the top of the page at www.connect-bridgeport.com and click on the "Sign Up" icon on the top right hand side of the home page. Once registered, you are free to pick. Registering, and you must be 13-years-old or older to compete, generally takes less than a minute.

 

There is one other key rule. You must use your real name to compete. No nicknames or aliases are allowed and will not be counted in the event that the person picking using a nickname wins the weekly or even overall competition.

 

You don’t have to be from Bridgeport to pick, Harrison County or even West Virginia for that matter. The defending champion is Jason Hartman, who lives in Oakland, MD. The past champions include Jamie Guy, Bridgeport’s Kevin Carbacio and fellow city resident Hugh Gainer, a two-time winner and one-time runner-up.

 

Those individuals, or anyone that can beat them, are in line for significant prizes. The prize packages are still being put together for the year. However, one of the top prizes is 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. The winner will have a week to make their pick and if not, then the runner-up can make their pick.

 

There will also once again be weekly winners. This year, the top weekly finisher will receive their choice of a $25 gift certificates from Buffalo Wild Wings in Bridgeport or a free small cheese cake from Almost Heaven Desserts in downtown Bridgeport. In the event of a tie for the weekly competition – or even in the event it happens at the end of the competition – the winner is chosen by a blind draw of staff of the Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Department.

 

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.

 

That also means you can register now or you can register two weeks from now and it won’t impact you. For those registering after the first two weeks, you will have those two weeks eliminated and still can be in the running for the overall prizes as long as you pick the remainder of the weeks.

 

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.

 

This week, only high school games are featured for Friday night. A statewide assortment of games are included to choose from, including Bridgeport’s opener at Lewis County. In the upcoming weeks, most of the prep games will be local games.

 

College games will include the Big 12 contests, key top 25 games, other games of local interest and local games from the Mountain East Conference. NFL games will only include those games that are played on Sunday. There will be no Monday night contests listed.

 

Unfortunately, there are occasional schedule changes - usually on the prep football side - that staff does not catch; usually games moved to Thursday. 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.

 

Good luck and show that you just don’t talk about knowing football, that you can prove it.