The 2026 BGO NFL Pickem Contest is HERE!

Our 2026 Pickem contest will be our 18th annual epic battle!

In 2025, Neophyte beat out runnerups China and Kel Varnsen to seize the title and coveted winner's avatar.
For this year's contest, we will continue to use our own BGO Pickem software. That means you'll access our contest here on the site by clicking the 'Pickem' tab at the top of any page. You'll join the contest here, make your picks, see your results, compete with other members, and talk smack right here on the site.

We are no longer using the 'auto-pick' setting so If you forget to make your picks, you'll take a hit (as you should). However, since it's likely that most of us will have it happen to us during the course of a season, it will not end your season if it happens to you.

Some other things to remember and be aware of in regards to our 2026 contest:

• You must click the 'Join Contest' button if you want to play the 2026 contest.
• As always, top 3 finishers will receive a prize.
• Remember that you'll have to pick each week's winners. I have built the first 4 week's schedules so you can make your picks for the first quarter of the NFL season.
• You will be able to make a pick for any game up until the start of the game, so if you miss a Thursday night game, you can still make the remainder of that week's picks.
• You'll get a weekly reminder via PM to make your picks.
• You'll get almost real-time results as we'll update game results as they happen and you'll be able to see updated weekly and overall standings right here on the site.
• The tie-breaker each week will be the combined team's score in the first Monday night football game each week.
• If you decide to play (and we hope you will!), we expect you to remain active and making picks for the entire season. A couple of good weeks can turn anyone's season around, so you are never really out of it, even if you aren't having a great season or missed making some picks. Keep playing - that's an expectation

As previously, we're keeping the contest simple. Final results will be based on total # of correctly predicted wins.

We encourage you to go ahead and join the contest by visiting the 'Pickem' page, clicking on this year's contest, and the 'Join Contest' button.

Please chime in here if you have questions about this year's contest or the software! We look forward to another great, competitive contest in 2026

I'm in. Already made my week1 picks.

Not brave enough to go further than that.

i am joined . . . hopefully i don't forget to make picks this year. just curious, why don't we use yahoo to manage this? then we get reminders (i'm old, reminders are necessary)

You get reminders here - but you have to read them

Boone said:

You get reminders here - but you have to read them

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lol . . . having to come and look for something means i have to remember already . . . a reminder is a popup notification on my phone 3 days before, then 2 days before, then the day before. lol i work 50 to 60 hours a week, coach two youth football teams with 4 days of 2 hour practices and a game . . . and parent two teenage boys by myself . . . reminders are definitely necessary!!

You can set your preferences to get emails when you receive a PM. There are limitations to the software we use. You do get reminders twice prior to Sundays via PM.

We used to have auto pick enabled which would choose all the road teams if a member forgot to make their picks but given how often road teams now win in the NFL it didn’t seem fair to reward folks who forgot to make picks. Remembering to make picks is sort of part of the competition.

I appreciate the feedback. I will consider this and see if there’s anything else I can do…

SkinsGuru said:

lol . . . having to come and look for something means i have to remember already . . . a reminder is a popup notification on my phone 3 days before, then 2 days before, then the day before. lol i work 50 to 60 hours a week, coach two youth football teams with 4 days of 2 hour practices and a game . . . and parent two teenage boys by myself . . . reminders are definitely necessary!!

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do you have an Apple phone?