College World Series Contest TIme!!

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

Yesterday, the NCAA announced the 64 teams that will be competing for the 2016 College World Series championship. To commemorate it, I am holding the seventh 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. Florida
1. Florida St
2. Georgia Tech
2. Southern Miss
3. Connecticut
3. South Alabama
4. Bethune-Cookman
4. Alabama St

Slot Two
1. NC State
1. LSU
2. Coastal Carolina
2. Rice
3. St. Marys (CA)
3. Southeastern Louisiana
4. Navy
4. Utah Valley

Slot Three
1. Texas Tech
1. Virginia
2. Dallas Baptist
2. Bryant
3. New Mexico
3. East Carolina
4. Fairfield
4. William & Mary

Slot Four
1. TCU
1. Texas A&M
2. Arizona St
2. Minnesota
3. Gonzaga
3. Wake Forest
4. Oral Roberts
4. Binghamton

Slot Five
1. Louisville
1. Vanderbilt
2. Ohio St
2. UC Santa Barbara
3. Wright St
3. Washington
4. Western Michigan
4. Xavier

Slot Six
1. South Carolina
1. Clemson
2. UNC Wilmington
2. Oklahoma St
3. Duke
3. Nebraska
4. Rhode Island
4. Western Carolina

Slot Seven
1. Mississippi St
1. Louisiana-Lafayette
2. Cal St Fullerton
2. Arizona
3. Louisiana Tech
3. Sam Houston St
4. Southeast Missouri St
4. Princeton

Slot Eight
1. Mississippi
1. Miami (FL)
2. Tulane
2. Florida Atlantic
3. Boston College
3. Long Beach St
4. Utah
4. Stetson


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 two 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 might 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. Just leave a link in the comments and I will chalk you up a point.

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

1. Southern Miss
2. Rice
3. Dallas Baptist
4. Minnesota
5. Louisville
6. Nebraska
7. Cal St Fullerton
8. Utah
Link to your blog (which can be left on a separate comment, but must be submitted by Thursday 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.

Normally, the prizes for this contest are whichever autographs I am able to snag in Omaha for the opening weekend. This year, my son has a tournament that weekend and we are not going to be able to make it up there until Monday. So, I am going to miss out on getting those autographs for prizes. Luckily, I have a little stockpile from previous CWS trips, so here is what the prizes are going to be.

Those are 8x10s signed by Jim Palmer, Dennis Eckersly, Curt Schilling, and Frank Thomas and an unsigned 2015 CWS ball. Some of you may have won one of the 8x10s in previous years, but there should be something new there for all of the past winners.

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 11:00 am (central) Friday and the link must be posted twelve hours prior to that. Good luck and thanks for playing.