I almost forgot to look up the Final Standings of the Free I-Phone Pick Em Contest (mainly because I forgot to make my picks last week). Thanks again to Lijit for hooking AA up with the phone and thanks to everyone who participated. You're winner is....

MIKE PRADA of Bullets Forever!!!

Congrats to Mike and his team name of "Thanks4ThePhoneAA" worked out for him pretty well. Good things happen when you intern at the Blog Show. You can click below for the final standings, and thanks again for such a fun contest. Here were your top 5.....

1. Thanx 4 the phone AA , M. Paradis- 147
2. Ealy Entry1, N. Ealy- 142
3. Shoe In , D. Manning- 141
4. VegasB2K , g. schueler- 137
5. Odessa Steps , M. Coale- 136

Final Pick Em Standings (ESPN)

Nothing's really going on today in Sports besides Andy Pettitte admitting to HGH usage (who really cares?), so I'm throwing up a post on the Lijit NFL Pick 'Em Contest. The IPhone for the winner is still in my possession and is just waiting to be mailed out.

1. Ealy Entry1, N. Ealy- 122
2. Thanx 4 the phone AA , M. Paradis- 121
3. stovis , B. McMahon- 119
4. Miller 1 , B. Miller- 115
4. One More Dying Quail , B. Moynahan- 115
6. Jaberwocky Picks , J. McAra- 114
6. MooseCocks , T. Mariano- 114
6. Shoe In , D. Manning- 114
9. Bad Choice Milk! , c. smith- 112
10. VegasB2K , g. schueler- 111
10. Odessa Steps , M. Coale- 111
12. This is my hairstyle , E. DuBois- 110
12. Who are the Chefs? , J. McAninch- 110
14. Marv! , S. Osborne- 109
14. SmittyPeppers , D. C.- 109
14. Signal to Noise , C. Seiler- 109
14. Sanborn 2 , M. Sanborn- 109
14. Awful AtThisThing , J. Sederquist- 109
20. St. Durant Catholic , M. Duron- 108
20. Barry Duffman, OH YE , K. Miller- 108
20. Tieds Entry , S. Tiedemann- 108
20. Hofstra , M. Pankowski- 108
20. Sportsocracy , J. Shireman- 108
25. Announcing Entry1, A. Announcing- 107

I thought Ealy was going to run away with this thing but there are still a few in the hunt with 3 weeks left to go in the Season. Good luck the rest of the way everyone.

Just wanted to take the time to update everyone on the AA Pigskin Pick Em' contest for the I-Phone given to me by Ligit. It's been awhile, so if you're new to the site the great company that runs the pretty search engine on the right sent me an I-Phone and I made it into the prize for the winner of the first ever AA Pigskin Pick Em' contest.

Here are the standings after 7 weeks of the NFL Season.....

1) Ealy Entry1, N. Ealy - 64
2) Jaberwocky Picks , J. McAra - 63
3) Thanx 4 the phone AA , M. Paradis - 58
4) This is my hairstyle , E. DuBois - 57
4) MooseCocks , T. Mariano - 57
6) St. Durant Catholic , M. Duron - 56
6) Miller 1 , B. Miller - 56
8) Announcing Entry1, A. Announcing - 55
8) Meats of Evil , S. Whitcomb - 55
8) One More Dying Quail , B. Moynahan - 55
8) stovis , B. McMahon - 55
8) Jeanne Creamer , B. Sonnet - 55
8) Hofstra , M. Pankowski - 55

It appears Mr. Ealy and Mr. McAra are running away with this thing, but I want everyone to know that I'm coming on strong and I'm keeping that damn phone if I win (not really). Also, the Awful Girlfriend is sitting in 14th place and if I finish behind her I'm going to never hear the end of it. Does anyone have Tonya Harding's phone number?

Come one, come all, and join the AA Elimination League for the upcoming NFL Season! I'm not quite sure of the prize(s), but they'll definitely be something cool. Here's how it's going down.....

Head to the Eliminator Challenge Page Of ESPN.com (Yes ESPN...everywhere else had a cap on the number entrants. Sorry.) Sign into your ESPN Account (register if you don't have one), and click on Create Your Entry.

Once you have a clever team name, go to Create or Join a Group in the top left corner. Search for Awful Announcing and the group should come up. The password is "nfl" in all lower case. Hit Join this Group, and head to the message board to post your blog.

RULES:

Elimination Factor
You must select which team you believe will be the winner. If you are correct, you will advance to the next week's game. If you are incorrect, it will greatly decrease your chances of competing for the grand prize or second place prize (unless there are no other perfect entries present at the end of the promotion). You may not pick the same team to win twice during the season, and the game will continue each week until the end of the season.

Accumulating Points
The object of the game is simple: Correctly predict one winning team each week from all regularly scheduled games. Remember, you may not pick the same team to win twice during the season. So, choose wisely!

So I don't want to hear that I finished in 53rd place you punks. For those of you who picked all chalk....shame on you. Way NOT to go out on a limb.

Just kidding. It was fun times all-around, and the Awful GF didn't finish in last place! (Ahem Extra P!) Thanks for everyone who took place and here are your winners....

1. The Sports Dad ( thesportsdad_djr)- 153 points
2. Sean's Cell phone ( billpcarr)- 150
3. CHEESE DOODLES ( ehamme32)- 150
4. Governs ( baverell01)- 150
5. Tantrums Galore ( fasicad)- 145

Sooze's Orange Roundies just missed out on that fifth spot, but it was the Sports Dad who takes home the 1st Annual AA Bracket Contest. Bravo Pops!

For the 5 winners I need your email addresses, and I'll contact each of you with which prize you can choose from. Feel free to hit me up whenever....awfulannouncing@gmail.com

Thanks to everyone who participated.....it was a blast!

So every year I attempt to bat a thousand when picking the Bowl Games. I've gotten relatively close a few times. 5 games off and 7 games off, and during the 5 loss year I was even given the moniker of Picky McPickerson. I have a really good feeling though that this is the year.

So my challenge to you AA readers.......try and beat me.

We're going to have an open thread during each of the bowl games with a preview and my prediction. I will most likely have a live(ish)-blog for each of the games and we'll be able to talk trash to each other and about each of the 7,000 Announcers ESPN will trot out there over the next few weeks.

Before each game just email me your pick (using the spread) at AwfulAnnouncing@Gmail.com and/or post a comment in the open thread. You can also just email me your entire pick list before tonight's game as well (if the spread changes I'll email you back for the new pick). I'll keep a running tally and the winner will be dubbed champion with the prizes listed below.

We start tonight.......Pointsettia Bowl......Northern Illinois and Garrett Wolfe's 1900 Yards VS. The #25 TCU Horned Frogs........8pm from Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. The AA posted spread is TCU by 12...it won't change so get your picks to me before 8pm.

The Prize: You've seen it before....you've always wanted to buy it....but it IS a tad expensive........













Yep....your very own Free Harold! Shirt. You also get a free post on the site of whatever you want to talk about.

Free Harold Shirt: $20
Free AA Post: $Priceless

Let's have some fun this Holiday Season.