Welcome to the HOW TO PLAY section of the 7^th Annual Football Picks Challenge.

Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the rules of the game and how to navigate the website once you are enrolled. We hope to have as many friends and family participate as possible to enhance our
2009 - 2010 football season.

The rules are pretty straightforward. Do your best to keep your selection confidential from all other participants until all picks have been submitted. This will make it a fair contest for everyone.

All picks must be received 1 hour prior to the start of the first game of the week.

The scoring system is more than just correctly picking the winner of each game each week. For those of you already in other gambling pools, the format should be the same.

Each week you will select which team you think will win each game. Once you have made these selections, you will then be asked to assign a point value to each game based on how confident you are that you have made the correct choice. For example…if there are 15 games to be played in a given week you will assign your point for 1 to 15, the 15 point game being the game you are most confident you will get right, the 14 point game being your second most confident pick, and so on, with your 1 point game being the game that you are most unsure about.

If you choose the correct team, you win the points that you assigned to that game. At the end of the week, all of the points for the games that you chose correctly will be added together to give you a weekly point total. The player with the highest point total will be the winner of the week.

You are also asked each week to predict the total number of points that will be scored (by both teams) on Monday Night Football. In the event of a tie in weekly points, this number will be used as a tiebreaker.

Each weeks point totals will then be added together to give you a yearly to date total. At the end of the NFL season, the participant who has accumulated the most points will be crowned CHAMPION.

Once you have enrolled and logged into your personalized control panel, you will have a few basic areas to become familiar with to view information and results, and to make your weekly picks. Below is a brief explanation of each area:

PROFILES: From this area you will be able to view personal and contact information about other participants. You must be logged in to view player profiles. Information contained with each profile is meant for the use of participants only and will not be shared with outside parties.

PLAYER PICKS: From this area you will be able to see how you match up each week with the other participants. You can either view everyone's picks by looking at a week, or you can select individual participants to see how you match up against them. Keep in mind you can only view picks in weeks that you have submitted picks for.

CONTROL PANEL: From this area you will be able to view how many points you accumulated last week and your total points for the season. More importantly, this is from where you will make your weekly picks. You can make your picks as many weeks in advance as you wish. However, picks for a week must be received at least 1 hour prior to kickoff for the first game of the week. You will also be able to edit your personal information that is displayed in your profile.

That's basically it. If you have any questions regarding HOW TO PLAY or you haven't received an invitation or the enrollment password and would like to participate, please contact the commissioner at mhetland@cox.net.

Have a great NFL season and GOOD LUCK!