Mountain West Connection Pick 'Em Contest: Week 1

I think we can all agree that MWC Connection is one of the better college sports blogs (props to Jeremy Mauss and co.), and it has a very vibrant and active community of commentators and posters. With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to have a community Pick 'Em contest, where we'd all pick in games involving MWC teams, future MWC teams (BSU, Nevada, Fresno St.), and big games with either ranked teams or relatively even match-ups.

The rules I'm thinking we should play by are as follows:

1.) Picks will be due every week by the kickoff of the first game played - thankfully there is a time stamp on posts here. Since this is already Thursday afternoon, Week 1 may have to be counted differently compared to other weeks, but we can probably agree as to how to do this in the comments section of this post. My personal vote is to make tonight's Utah/Pitt game and Nevada/EWU game be some sort of 'bonus/tiebreaker' points, with the rest of Week 1 counting in full. However, I'm open to the possibility of all of Week 1 either counting as half-points or only 'bonus/tiebreaker' points.

2.) Because we all have lives, it may be difficult for everyone to post every week. As such, I propose a rule (again: debate in the comments section) that 1 week may be dropped from everyone's final score. It can either be their worst week (say, you go 4-11), or a week where you simply couldn't get your picks in on time.

3.) There will be a regular season (the college football regualar season) and a playoff (bowl season). The playoff will consist of either the top 4 or top 8 contestants (depending on how many people play), and all picks will be due before the designated period (bowl season will be broken down into weeks: think like NCAA on the PS3/X-Box). The playoffs will be single-elimination head-to-head match-ups, with tiebreakers determined by the score of that week's top match-up, as determined by the league commissioner (yours truly).

4.) There will be two major awards at season's end, which will be of equal value: The Premiership and the Cup Championship. There will also be a Plate Championship for those who don't make the Cup playoffs, or who simply want to play along in a Bowl Pick 'Em without the wear and tear of the regular season.
The Premiership will go to the person who has the highest score throughout the regular season *and* the playoffs. This is unlike premierships in sporting leagues, which generally encompass only the regular season.
The Cup Championship will go to the person who wins the playoff, which is a single-elimination head-to-head match-up.
The Plate Championship will go the person with the best overall bowl season record who did not make the playoffs. Plate Championship eligibility is open to anyone who wants to play: they don't have to be a part of the regular season.

5.) There will be 15 games per week. Why? Well, for one, in non-conference play we have 12 teams to track here, and I want to leave room for some major match-ups (such as LSU v. North Carolina). Once conference play begins, the number of games involving MWC teams or future MWC teams will obviously dwindle, but there will be good match-ups to pick from elsewhere (instead of the cupcake-heavy schedule at season's beginning). Alternatively, we could vote to pick only in MWC-affiliated games + the top 3 non-MWC match-ups, but this would make the weight 'score' from week to week fluctuate. At that point, we'd either have to give out points based on each week's standing (individual record for the week), or accept that some weeks may have 8 games and some weeks may have 15.

6.) We can decide on alternative ways to decide minor championships. Maybe a minor award for having the best record in MWC games? Or a minor award for having the best record in games involving only MWC and future MWC teams?

7.) The league commissioner will decide all disputes that may arise from a lack of clarity in the rulebooks, and will issue final verdicts based on the debating of the rules in the comments section. Verdicts may be overturned by a 2/3rds majority of voters in a poll.

So.... what do y'all think?

These are the match-ups I'm looking at for Week 1:
*indicates non MWC-affiliated game

Thursday:
Pittsburgh @ Utah
Eastern Washington @ Nevada

Saturday:
Colorado vs. Colorado State
Northwestern State @ Air Force
New Mexico @ Oregon
*Connecticut @ Michigan
*UCLA @ Kansas State
Washington @ BYU
Oregon State vs. TCU
*LSU vs. North Carolina
Nicholls State @ San Diego State
Southern Utah @ Wyoming
Cincinnati @ Fresno State
Wisconsin @ UNLV

Monday:
Boise State vs. Virginia Tech

Week 1 Bonus/Tiebreaker: Score in the BSU-VT game.