We're going to run a season-long Guess The Score contest for prizes. Here's how it works (no matter how many times I've explained the scoring system to my USC audience there are some who still don't understand it, but I promise it's very easy.)

Weekly contest

This is simple. Whoever is closest to the final score gets two free months tacked on their subscription. If anybody hits the score exactly, we throw in a $50 Amazon gift card. (Limited to the first two people who submit a correct guess in the weekly thread). So how is "closest to the final score" calculated? Very simple -- total of how many points off you are from both teams' score. For example, if you guess 31-14 Cal over UC Davis and the actual score is 24-10, then you were 7 off on Cal and 4 off on Davis, which equals 11. Your score is 11 for that week. Like golf, lowest number wins. Whoever is closest, wins the week.

Season contest

Same scoring system but averaged out over the course of the season. I will start the season standings after Week 3 or 4 when there is enough data to form meaningful rankings. But let's say your weekly scores were 20-24-21-23, then obviously your score for the standings is 22 (the average of those four). Except there's a wrinkle, everyone gets to write off two weeks of the season. So that will either be two weeks you forgot to submit a guess or your two worst scores. If you play every week, your two worst scores drop from your average. If you miss more than two weeks, you're no longer eligible for the season prize, but you can still compete for the weekly contest.

I'll warn you now, especially after a handful of weeks it becomes a BEAR to calculate the standings, and I cannot promise when they'll post each week. It just comes down to when I have time, and obviously the priority is on stories/reporting. So just brace yourself now, the standings could come on Sunday night, or Friday night or anywhere in between.

Prizes for season contest:

First place -- $100 Amazon gift card, 6 free months subscription

Second place -- $50 Amazon gift card, 4 free months subscription

Third-fifth places -- 4 free months subscription

Questions, thoughts?

Feel free to use this thread for the Week 1 predictions. You can change your guess at any point during the week. I will lock the thread before kickoff, though.

Right here:

last minute change of plans.

2 bench back seats, level c, section f

email me: lanway@gmail.com

go bears!!

It’s about bloody time. No more evaluations, assessments, opinions, hopes, or dreads based on thin evidence. This has felt like the longest offseason ever. It’s finally time for some real hitting and some real football. Finally!

Go Bears!

A weekly feature we'll run every Friday

“With all due respect to the Aggies teams of the past, I think this is the best Aggie team in the history of Aggie football,” Hawkins said in a media session on campus as his club prepares for its opener at Cal on Saturday. “We have more quality players up and down our roster than we’ve had here in the Division I era.

8th in the pac-12. This includes transfers.

Fan bases of College Programs

Just below Arizona!?!? We suck with young people so the sucking of our FB team over the last decade has not endeared them to the Cal Student base! Hopefully our location and academic prestige carry to us to the Big10 promise land. Yes, we will take a starting 50% payout increasing over 5 years! Where do we sign!

Jesse will be out there tomorrow as Cal gets going.

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A Cal player made the list: https://portal.rivals.com/news/ranking-the-pac-12-s-top-transfer-portal-additions-for-2022

In case anyone missed any or wants to refer back to any of Jesse's camp previews ...

QBs
RBs
WRs/TEs
OL
DL/OLBs
ILBs
DBs

He seems pretty positive while dispelling some media rumors. If anyone is connected it’s the presidents and chancellors. I would hope that we’d hear more from a few others in his position but I realize they are technically reassessing their media contract so they’ll likely play their cards closely. But this info is better than the ridiculous tweets that tell us nothing. And it also shows that the people who count are heavily involved in working on moving forward.

I've had a couple requests to post and pin some general guidelines for the board. I've also had a couple complaints about various posts. So here goes ...

Strong opinions are welcomed and drive entertaining dialogue, disagreement is the spirit of debate, all of that is good. Let's just be respectful and friendly through it all. There's no need to attack another poster for an opinion or make anything person. Disagree and debate it out!

I generally do not like to censor or delete posts, and I don't expect we'll ever have to do much of that here. You guys have built a really good community, and I've really enjoyed the banter and dialogue. All I ask is that nothing ever gets personal on here. No taking shots at others or over-the-line character attacks on players or coaches. Criticism is totally fine -- I think you know the difference and what I'm saying.

If a thread goes way off track to the point that it's no longer enjoyable for the majority, that would be the cause for locking it. If it's drawing complaints, I'll do what is best for the group, but again, I don't like to be overly authoritative.

If anybody has anything else they'd like me to address here, let me know! Like I said, from my vantage point, it's pretty simple and straightforward. Let's just all have a good time here.