If you haven't already, make sure you sign up for the College Pick 'Em game on ESPN and get your picks in for this Saturday. I think you have until Friday night to get your picks in. We'll give away a T-shirt or something to the overall winner on the season.

Group Name: Black Shoe Diaries

Password: joepa

Back by popular demand, I'm pleased to announce the third annual BSD College Pick 'Em game hosted on ESPN. Here's what you do. Go to ESPN and sign up for an account if you don't have one already. It's completely free to do so.

Then log in and join the following group.

Group Name: Black Shoe Diaries
Password: joepa

If you're not familiar with the ESPN format, there is a pretty neat twist to the game. Each week they give you ten games to pick from. You pick your ten winners, and then you rank your picks based on how confident you are in them. You get ten points for getting your most confident pick correct, and one point for getting your least confident pick correct. They have a feature where you can sign up for a reminder email every week so you don't forget to submit your picks. I recommend you use it, because if you miss one week your chances are pretty much shot.

We always manage to come up with some kind of prize. Last year I gave away a copy of the Sports Illustrated College Football history book. In years past I've given away $50 gift cards. I'm not sure what we'll do this year, but we'll come up with something. We also invite the winner of each week to offer up a post previewing the games on the ballot the following week which we will put on the front page.

The other thing you need to know is we're all competing for second place, because CoolHandLucky wins. Every. Single. Time. So go sign up and make your picks.

So I'm a few days late in this, but gradulations to pmm156 for winning the BSD NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge and absolutely smoking the next best challenger by 140 points. He not only picked MSU and UNC in the final with UNC winning, he also predicted all the Final Four teams, seven of the Elite Eight teams, and 14 of the Sweet Sixteen teams. Great picks.

Please email me (blackshoediaries at gmail dot com) to claim your prize, one T-shirt from the BSD Store. Be sure to include your selection and mailing address in the email.

As for your humble bloggers, RUTS finished tied for 21st while I finished alone in 27th and Kevin finished tied for 28th. So those of you who finished higher can talk your smack. The rest of you suck.

Congratulations to our bowl game pick 'em winner, inappropriately named Eye Never Wynn. I guess next year he'll have to change his name to Eye One Wontz.

He's lucky I don't disqualify him for picking against the Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl. With a confidence rating of 21(!) no less. How dare you, sir. You are a disgrace to this blog and an embarassment to its patrons. Hell shall have a special place for you.

But even if I take away the 21 points he still wins by five. So you win this time, evildoer. Please email me at blackshoediaries (at) gmail (dot) com to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone for playing. And congratulations to everyone else who finished in the top five. Well done. We'll do another contest for the NCAA basketball tournament so watch for that.

Bowl season is here, so it's time to set up another Pick 'Em game. I've set up a group on ESPN's College Bowl Mania.  So go there and set yourself up for an account if you haven't already. It's completely free and I'm pretty sure it's spam free. You will have to elect to make your picks based on confidence. Then join the group.

Group Name: Black Shoe Diaries
Password: joepa

I have another copy of Sports Illustrated's "The College Football Book" to give away to the winner. It has lots of pictures so you don't have to think too hard. I know that's important to many of you.

It'll take you at least ten minutes to fill out your ballot and rank the teams, and the first bowl game is coming quickly (12/20/08) so make sure you get your picks in on time. Last year we had several people sign up and never come back to make their picks. Once the first bowl game starts you're S-O-L.

It was another fun season of College Pick 'Em. This was one of my worst years in the game as I came in a disappointing 63rd place. It didn't help that I completely forgot to submit my picks in week 10, but I was well out of the running by that point anyway. It was an all around disappointing effort by your humble blogger. I promise to step it up next time.

As for the winner, though the seasons change and players come and go, the results are always the same. CoolHandLucky won the contest once again. The dude is unreal. I think he's a lurker that doesn't comment on BSD, but I picture him just living the dream out in Las Vegas making a living at betting on the games and spending his winnings on hookers and cheap wine. He's my hero.

Here are how the top five standings ended up.

So to CoolHandLucky, if you would kindly send me an email at blackshoediaries (at) gmail (dot) com we can make arrangements for me to ship your bounty, a copy of Sports Illustrated's College Football Book which will look fine sitting on your coffee table. It also doubles as a very nice coaster for your ice tea, soda (pop if you're from Western Pennsylvania), or alternative adult beverage of choice.

Though the contest was over the minute CoolHandLucky signed up, it was still a lot of fun playing with you all. If you missed out on joining the game or you missed a week like me and you're kicking yourself because you finished less than 50 points behind, you'll get another chance as we always have another pick 'em game for the bowl season. I have another copy of the book to give away so watch for details on how to join in the coming days.

PSU4ever11 relinquishes the overall lead after suffering a dismal 20 point week. That makes Ackiewicz our overall leader even though he suffered a very average 35 point week. But he made some bold picks like Fresno State over UCLA as his highest confidence pick so he earned it.

The high score for the week goes to RUSHRUSHRUSH who only nailed 7-out-of-10 of the picks, but he nailed all of his six highest confidence picks. That's how the game is won, people.

This week ESPN offers us another set of challenging games to predict. Here is the lineup.

Any thoughts?

Once again we had three players pick all ten games correctly. Congratulations to nits ie lions, gdev, and Johnnyrad10. May your cow bells forever ring sharp and true.

PSU4ever11 takes the overall lead, but Coolhandlucky is coming on strong just one point behind. So it's just a matter of time, people. It's almost not fair.

Make sure to get your picks in for this week. Once again ESPN has provided us a challenging set of games.