2017 College World Series Contest

It's that time again! It is time for my eighth annual College World Series Contest.

Today, the NCAA announced the 64 teams that will be competing for the 2017 College World Series championship. To commemorate it, I am holding the eighth annual College World Series contest here at Autographed Cards. It is going to be a couple of weeks before the main phase of the contest starts, but you can earn some bonus points here that could make a difference when the main portion gets going. All you have to do right now is pick the eight teams that are going to be playing in Omaha. Here are the teams to choose from.

Slot One
1. Oregon State
1. Clemson
2. Nebraska
2. Vanderbilt
3. Yale
3. St. Johns
4. Holy Cross
4. UNC-Greensboro

Slot Two
1. Long Beach State
1. Stanford
2. Texas
2. Cal State Fullerton
3. UCLA
3. BYU
4. San Diego State
4. Sacramento State

Slot Three
1. Texas Tech
1. Florida State
2. Arizona
2. Central Florida
3. Auburn
3. Sam Houston State
4. Tennessee Tech
4. Delaware

Slot Four
1. Southern Miss
1. LSU
2. Mississippi State
2. Southeastern Louisiana
3. South Alabama
3. Rice
4. Illinois-Chicago
4. Texas Southern

Slot Five
1. North Carolina
1. Houston
2. Florida Gulf Coast
2. Baylor
3. Michigan
3. Texas A&M
4. Davidson
4. Iowa

Slot Six
1. Kentucky
1. Louisville
2. Indiana
2. Oklahoma
3. North Carolina State
3. Xavier
4. Ohio
4. Radford

Slot Seven
1. TCU
1. Arkansas
2. Virginia
2. Missouri State
3. Dallas Baptist
3. Oklahoma State
4. Central Connecticut State
4. Oral Roberts

Slot Eight
1. Wake Forest
1. Florida
2. West Virginia
2. South Florida
3. Maryland
3. Bethune-Cookman
4. Maryland-Baltimore County
4. Marist

All you have to do is pick one team from each slot for a total of eight teams. In the past, for every team that you picked that made it into the College World Series, you got one point. I mixed it up a bit a few years ago and I am going to stick with that format. Now, any team you pick that makes it to Omaha gets as many points as their seed. So, if you make the safe bet and pick the one seed correctly, you get one point. But, if you pick the dark horse four seed and get lucky, you get four points for that pick. If you don't feel like participating right now, that's fine. You can enter the second phase without participating in the first, but you will have some ground to make up.

This blog has been in the doldrums of late since I am lucky to post a card twice a week. So, to get a few extra contestants in the contest, you can get one bonus point just by pimping this contest on your blog and by retweeting my link on Twitter (@zmills40). Just leave a link in the comments and I will chalk you up a point. Yes, you can get two free points just by pimping and retweeting.

Here is the format that your entry (comment) should look like

1. Yale
2. Texas
3. Arizona
4. LSU
5. Baylor
6. Indiana
7. TCU
8. Florida
Link to your blog (which can be left on a separate comment, but must be submitted by Wednesday night)

Keep in mind that the main portion of this contest is filling out a College World Series bracket when that field is determined in a couple of weeks. Every year, there are a couple of people that enter the first phase of the contest that never end up filling out a bracket. Those people have yet to win this contest.

As for the contest winnings, I will be bring back some signed 8x10s from Omaha. Some of the ones that I have given out in the past include Bruce Sutter, Steve Carlton, Dennis Eckersly, Barry Larkin, Rollie Fingers, Jim Palmer, John Smoltz, and Frank Thomas. Who will be there this year is anyone's guess.

All entries have to be left as a comment on this blog. Also, all entrants need to have a blogger profile to enter. No anonymous entries.

If you have any questions, ask in the comments or email me at zman40 at hotmail dot com. The deadline to enter the first phase of this contest is 3:00 pm (central) Thursday and the retweet and link must be posted by midnight Wednesday. Good luck and thanks for playing.