Is This Heaven? No, its College Football and Busch Light... NA.

  

 Welcome gentlemen to the Wide Right Buschwood Light (NA) headquarters! This glorious name derives from my dabbling in the dark arts of being a kicker earning a bachelors in all things Specialist (its the only bachelors I have) while also paying homage to the Midwest's "nectar of the god's  (in Non Alcoholic (NA) form since Luke and Ethan are young children who have never had an  are not allowed to have beer) as well as honoring the greatest Golf Course in Buchanan Michigan who's bowels are those in which this news letter is to be written for the next nine weeks. This will be the home of a weekly satirical piece highlighting the past game weeks results as well as standings, future week matchups, G-rated jabs at Nebraska and Lane Kiffin aka Joey Freshwater, as well as other goings-ons around the Big Ten Conference, the MAC, and Notre Dame. I hate to already be playing the Notre Dame card but it's always and Notre Dame. It's as if Irish fans think the rest of the college football universe forgets about their existence therefore making it necessary to remind us all of their unequivocal importance to the very fabric of the game. You play on NBC every damn week! We see you! Hell, they've even began to turn me against the all powerful Mike Turico now! The College Football Playoff structure is currently a four team field chosen from the power 5 conferences (Sorry Dee the days of Western Michigan rowing the boat to victory have been long over ever since PJ Fleck climbed aboard his canoe and paddled across Lake Michigan to lead the "Gilded Rodents") and Notre Dame. Notre Dame is not located in South Bend, its South Bend and Notre Dame. Go to a restaurant in South Bend and people order burgers like "I'll have lettuce, onion, pickle, mustard, ketchup... oh and Notre Dame on an artisanal brioche bun." But I digress. All insults will from now on be aimed at Nebraska and whatever SEC school Luke is deciding to cheer for that week.

    In all seriousness though this is going to be one wild ride of a season and as such the league rules are important. Here is how we will do battle this year!

1. Each week on Sunday night I will release the opening lines of all that weeks games. It is your job to send me your picks (with an assigned confidence point 1-10 next to each pick (more on this later) by text by Friday night of game week. Remember, you are not picking who you think will win the game straight up, you are picking who you think will win the spread. 

2. Confidence Points: The winner of the league will be the person to accumulate the most confidence points at the end of nine weeks with a tie breaker being decided by who has the higher winning percentage at the end of the season. The way you will designate confidence points goes as follows...

1. Choose who you think wins the spread.
2. Assign a number 1-10 with 1 being least confident about a pick and 10 being most confident about a pick.
3. You can only use a number one time. if you assign 10 points to Ohio State because you think they are going to cover the -21.5 line against Nebraska this week, you cannot also assign 10 points to Notre Dame to cover the -9.5 line against Pitt this week. The highest number you could give ND would be 9. That continues all the way down to the pick you really have no idea about in that it could go either way. This game is the matchup you want to assign your 1 confidence point to. Remember, you win by having the most points gathered from correct picks so you want to be getting games you have given higher confidence points to correct.

Example of How to Text me your Picks (Follow my Columns Formatting):

3. With COVID-19 most likely affecting a star player or matchup at some point during the season, I will send a text to the group chat notifying you that you can send me your changed pick if you see the absence of a player affecting your previous pick. Only players that I deem as being important enough to possibly dramatically alter an outcome will allow for this process to happen. I follow college football religiously so I will be on top of it. The line will not change either. Things will get to confusing if we have to start altering lines and have everybody pick again so whatever the line opens at on Sunday is what it will stay at.

 With that, I once again welcome you to the Wide Right Buschwood Light (NA) College Football Pick'em challenge! I'm excited to get things kicked off after it was thought that the game we all crave may not happen this season. With that being said, soak up all the football you can, have as many frosty brews or (muddled berry, martinis with mint leaves) as you can, and have fun reading the weekly news letters with friends and family. Oh... and Notre Dame.