We have a winner! Who could possibly have foreseen that our three time defending champion, Buckminster Fuller, would come out on top in the Shakedown Week of the 2020 Pickem? But he did, picking 7 of the 10 games that weren't postponed correctly. He also led in the Confidence Points category, with a +7 score (meaning he would have won money if we had actually been wagering).

Shannon Panther came in second in both categories, with 6 correct picks and +6 confidence points (thanks to a strong finish in the evening games with 7 points in the last two games on the card).

And then there were a bunch of 5-5 records, listed in order of their confidence point totals. First among equals was zibby, the only other player with a positive confidence score (+4), followed by Texan Mark (0 pts), copycat (-2), ChrisLords (-8), and Kaplony, who did not allocate points.

Next week, the "real" season will start. You did not have to play this week to be eligible to play in the season contest, and this week will not count as a skipped week for newcomers. We are starting over. In the season contest, we will not be allocating confidence points. But, since picking against the spread means we will probably be bunched up around .500 each week, we will need tiebreakers.

So, one game each week will be the Tiebreak Game. First tiebreak is: Did you pick the winner of that game. Second tiebreak is: Was your guess of the total points scored by both teams combined closest to the actual points scored. If we're still tied, each player will get the same number of rep points.

I'll probably wait until Monday evening to post the slate of games for each week in order to reduce the chances that one or more games on the card will be postponed or cancelled (we had 2 out of 12 this week).

Congratulations to our winners this week, and good luck to all as the regular season begins in Week 3.