NWC Pick 'em: Week 1

The Northwest Pick 'Em Contest is back! Our good friend "Cawcdad" is once again running the NWC pick 'em contest on the D3boards.com. If you want to join you have to be registered on D3boards.com. It only takes a second to register. Old Wildcat11 finished around the 4th spot last year as my early season misses were too much to overcome.

This year I'm back and ready to take the NWC pick 'em crown. However, this year I wanted to up the ante so I brought into the fold two huge Wildcat fans...Mack and Maddy. If you want to know who Mack and Maddy are...well...they are my dogs. Mack is our hound mix/lazy mutt and Maddy is a smart as a whip but crazy Border Collie. I wanted to find out if there is any true science in picking games or if it's mostly just dumb luck. I guess we'll find out.

Wildcat 11's week 1 picks:

Occidental over Menlo. I know that Oxy lost a lot of offense and Menlo play a ton of close games with a young roster last year but Menlo's head man has moved on and you never know how that will impact a team. I like Oxy's depth as a program and look for them to bring home a solid win.

Hardin Simmons over Rats. Whitworth is going to be a very solid squad this season but HSU is going to be too much for Whitworth on the road in WEST TEXAS. Feaster feasts on the Rats DBs.

Willamette over Concordia. This is not a given. I know Willamette is coming off a big year but I'm curious to see just how much they are going to miss Woo and the passing of Leslie. I know Speckman has huge hopes for QB Whitcomb but he's a running QB coming off an ACL and I think it will take some time for him to get back all the way. Concordia at home might just be able to get it done but I'll give WU the benefit
of the doubt.

West Region Game of the Week:

Wartburg over St. Norberts. Go by this rule of thumb. IIAC teams over MWC teams.

National Game of the Week:

Wesley over Christopher Newport University. Both are established programs and I don't know much about either. I'll take the home team (Wesley) to defend their turf.

Mack and Maddy's Pick.

Works like this...Two pieces of paper with each team's name on it, two scoop chips, and one dog. The first chip Mack or Maddy picks up and eat is the team they're picking for the "W"

Mack's Picks: Wesley over CNU, St. Norberts over Wartburg, Oxy over Menlo, Rats over HSU, and Willamette over Concordia

Maddy's Picks: CNU over Wesley, Wartburg over St. Norberts, Menlo over Oxy, HSU over Rats, and Willamette over Concordia