Join the Anchor of Gold Bowl Pick’em!

Christmas season is nearly upon us, and you know what’s going to get you through that four hour layover at the O’Hare Airport Chili’s? Three skillets of queso and the Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl.

We’ve got something to make the games you’re hate watching over your $15 Bud Lights a little more interesting -- the annual Anchor of Gold Bowl Pick’em. We’d like to invite our loyal readership to join us in a battle of college football knowledge by picking the winners of all 40 of our bowl games this winter.

Here’s the link to our league. It is, unsurprisingly, named “Anchor of Gold.” It’s also a public league, so you won’t need a password — though you will need to create an account on Sofa Champs to make your picks.

http://sofachamps.com/bowl-pickem/2017/league/54/join?rid=22

But why Sofa Champs, this site literally no one has heard of?

a) Shut up, you’ve heard of Sofa Champs, we do every Pick’em there.

b) We use Sofa Champs because it was created by two Vandy alumni who are constant presences in Vandyville. Since I live 10 hours away in Wisconsin I don’t really remember what the name of their tent is, but I imagine it’s some kind of Freije-based pun. They’re also the tent where two young ginger children play beer pong, seemingly with no adult supervision whatsoever.

They’re pretty good, too.

Do I win anything by playing?

We don’t have any prizes lined up yet, but that could change. This is more a “love of the game” pool, and also an opportunity to dismiss my analysis with prejudice after you see me go 13-27 with my picks.

When do I need to submit my picks?

Picksets lock at 11am CST on Saturday — the scheduled kickoff time of our first bowl of the season — North Carolina A&T vs. Grambling State.

Wait, why is the Celebration Bowl in the picksets?

I...I don’t know. I guess because 40 is a round number. Or maybe the guys behind Sofa Champs really, really appreciate good marching bands.

I’ve made my picks, now what?

We’re using confidence points to sort out this year’s winners, which means that each pick will get a value assigned to it by its picker. If you’re positive a team is going to win, drag it to the top of the list for a maximum of 40 points. If you’re totally unsure about a choice, drag it to the bottom to mitigate any loss you might take. Pretty simple.

So again, here’s the link to sign up. Create an account (or log in to the one you used last year) and let’s see if we can get the entire commentariat on board.

http://sofachamps.com/bowl-pickem/2017/league/54/join?rid=22