College Football Pick’em is back

With the Olympics behind us, it’s officially time to turn our attention to college football and the start of the Bronco Mendenhall era! This could be one of the most exciting seasons in recent memory for Virginia fans, with both UVA and VT getting new head coaches and effectively a reset on the programs.

Just like last year, we’re hosting the pick'em challenge on Yahoo!, and we're picking against the spread each week. We’re covering both ACC games and Top 25 games, so you’ll get anywhere from 20-25 games to pick from each week, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on he schedule.

What does "against the spread" mean? It means you're not just picking who wins straight up. You're taking the spread into account. For example, if Vegas odds predict that Virginia is favored by 21 points over Richmond (e.g., UVA -21 vs. Richmond), then if you pick UVA, they would need to win by more than 21 points in order for them to "cover" the spread. If Virginia wins, but only by 14 points, it means you did not pick correctly.

Another way to think about this is like a handicap. If it's UVA -21, then it means you take the final score of the two teams, and you subtract 21 points from UVA’s total. If UVA is still the winner, then you win, assuming you picked UVA. If you subtract 21 points from UVA’s final score, and it results in Richmond being the winner, then you lose. You sometimes also see this written as Richmond +21 instead of Virginia -21. The minus sign means they're the favorite.

It looks like Yahoo! will give you updates Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, before finalizing the spread for pick'em purposes on Thursday.

Ready to sign up? Go to Yahoo! and enter in the group ID 4131, with the password "bronco". Full details are below. Good luck!