It's College Football Pick'em Time In SoWal

On August 27, 2007, a new thread was started on the SoWal Forum titled “SoWal NCAA Pick’em”. It was created by long-time local SoWaller known as "30A Skunkape", a.k.a.”Skunky”. He is elusive and yet well-known, and his legend grows just like the real Skunkape, a.k.a Sasquatch, a.k.a. Bigfoot.

Skunky wrote, “I would like to organize a friendly little football contest as I know there is at least a modest amount of interest regarding this topic. All you have to do is pick the winners of the week's upcoming games that I post. Each correct pick earns one point; there is no penalty for incorrect guesses. I will keep a tally of everyone's points as the season progresses.”

It was a smashing success and that original pick'em thread has more than 126,000 views and more than 5,000 responses!

Everyone is welcome to participate in our 2013-14 pick'em season that starts this week. To join in the fun, CLICK HERE to go to the 2013 SoWal College Football Pick'em thread in the Sports and Recreation forum.

Also be sure to check the NCAA Battlezone thread which has over 30,000 views and over 1,000 posts. It's a fun place to brag about your team or find out about others. And yes you can give your rival a bit of grief.

Eighteen forum members bought into 30A Skunkape's idea during the first week back in 2007: 30A Skunkape, Arkiehawg, BeachSiO2,cp, Greenroomsurfer, JB, kathydwells, Kimmifunn, Miss Kitty, Ocean Lover, Rapunzel, Sandflea, Seacrestkristi, seaside2, ShallowsNole, skippertoo, Smiling Joe, and whiteyfunn.

Game players picked who they thought would win the first week’s slate of games which were LSU at Mississippi State, Georgia Tech at Notre Dame, Tennessee at California, Kansas State at Auburn, and Florida State at Clemson. There was a ten-way tie for first place that week!

Since that first week there have been a ton of picks and a ton of fun. Pickers pick games and sometimes pick on each other in a good-natured competition. Most of the players are fans of an SEC or other southern team.

People who aren’t even football fans read the posts and make funny or razzing posts on the thread. Basically the posts are a mixture of social banter and football rivalry. Skunky’s clever comments to the pickers when he posted the winners for each week made the original thread even more fun.

Just during that first week, ninety picks were made. That’s a lot of data to keep up with, especially considering that there were just five games.

Skunky says, “the first year or two I just kept track of things on paper, literally an envelope back in the first year.”

Another SoWaller, cnestg8r, started keeping track of the picks in Excel after his wife joined the pick’ems in season two. He saw that the amount of data was going to become large, so he offered to be the statistician for the picks after the second season.

There were 2,722 picks made during that first season, excluding the bowl season. Miss Kitty was the regular season winner, tied for the bowl season win, and the overall season winner.

Skunky says, “Miss Kitty was awarded the ‘Kitty Cup’ which I anticipated going to a new winner every year à la the Stanley Cup. I made the thing out of a terra cotta urn and a box I got at Michaels, spray painted the whole thing silver so it kind of looked like a loving cup. I can't recall why, but the plan was to display it at Amore' pizzeria. Between seasons one and two, Amory and Olive sold the place, and the cup disappeared to never be seen again.”

There have been a total of 29,057 picks made in six years that the SoWal Pick’ems have existed, with an average of 26 players. Thanks, Skunky, for all of the “funn.”

The 2013-14 season starts this week. To participate in the fun, CLICK HERE to go to the 2013 SoWal College Football Pick'em thread in the Sports and Recreation forum. Lady D, one of the original pickers, has volunteered to be the moderator this season. The slate of picks and the statistics will be done by cnestg8r and his wife Beachrunner (author of this article), with help from Lady D and whoever else wants to make suggestions.

Now get those picks in!
- Beachrunner