RotB's 2009 Pick'em Primer

It's the calm before the storm. 

What better time to present the RotB Pick'em 2009 League!

RotB's Pick'em is an opportunity for members of the RotB community to pick winners for a week's worth of NFL games on a weekly basis.  The results of those predictions are compiled for each participant and a Pick'em leader board is posted each Tuesday.  The goal is to be at the top of that leader board after the last whistle blows in Week 17.  The winner will receive some Cardinals gear, just as Red Reign did for winning the inaugural league. 

RotB Pick'em sounds pretty straight forward but expect a few twists and turns towards that ultimate goal.  Call your Rules Lawyer and keep the following guidelines in mind after the jump.

• Thursday games happen regularly in today's NFL, be sure to have your Thursday game pick posted to RotB before kick-off; you can post just the Thursday game and pick the Sunday games later, just do it as a "reply" to your Thursday pick.
• Picks must be posted before kick-off time for those repsective games; if you wanted you could post your picks for Thursday, Saturday, early Sunday, late Sunday, and Monday all separately just before their kick-offs.  You must post these continuing picks as replies to the original post. We  will have a lot more than the dozen or so participants we had last year,  so the easier it is for me to find your picks, the better it is for you.
• There will be no slack on omitting a pick.  If you forget to pick one of Sunday's games the entire week's picks are thrown out.  So double check your picks versus the schedule.

2)  To qualify for the Pick'em championship a total of nine weeks of the NFL regular season must be picked; it is mandatory that picks are made for Week 16 and 17.

• Here is where the Pick'em strategy can come into play as weeks with tough match-ups can be skipped entirely.
• The last two weeks of the season must be picked to create an interesting finish to the league.  It is conceivable that someone can jump to a commanding lead after nine weeks of picks and just ride out the rest of the season with that winning percentage.  Picking the last two weeks of the season when starters are potentially getting rested on a playoff run gives the greatest potential to "mix it up" on the Pick'em leader board.
• Those that participate for the entire 17 week season will receive a bonus "thank you" to the extent that my prize budget will allow.  Irishcardinal received some playoff swag last year including a pennant, hat, and some Cardinals M&Ms.

3)  Individuals' rankings are based on a correct vs. wrong percentage with the leader having the highest percentage correctly picked.

• For example, hevchv picks twelve winners correctly for Week 1.  Twelve of sixteen gives him a 0.750 winning percentage which would be a great start to the season for anyone.  Bezekira gets six victories correct, he would have a 0.375 winning percentage and would have an uphill battle to catch up with the leaders, but certainly not insurmountable.
• In case of winning percentage ties, the tie breakers are Weeks Picked followed by number of times the Cardinals were picked, with the last being SBNation tenure.  Hopefully a tied doesn't go that far
• Speaking of ties, in case the NFL has a tie (like the Bengals and Eagles last year) unless you predicted a tie, it counts as an incorrect pick.  If you predict a tie and one actually happens, you'll win two tickets to the UFL Championship Game in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 27.  No, really.