It begins with excitement heading into the 2nd weekend of Sepember. The college teams have already kicked off and now it's time for the pros. Seems like a great idea to get involved with a sports contest! Then come the games played in Europe...at 830 AM CT on Sunday. Then there are those Thanksgiving Day games, Christmas Day games and then there's the 18 weeks of making picks and late Monday night games and then the playoffs with two weeks until the Super Bowl. Add it all up and what to you have? Six months of your life is what you have, but what a great way to spend 6 months, right? Especially if your name is Teddy Overton or you are a member of BoomerBacks. But we will get to that in a minute!

How many of you had Seattle and New England on your dance cards for the Super Bowl in September? If the NFL futures set by the wise guys are any indication, I'm going to say not many of you. New England was +550 to win their division, which was 2nd best, but Seattle was +525 to win their division and dead last (although it was close odds with the other teams). Thanks to covers.com for that info! By the time the Super Bowl Blowout arrived, though, more of you were on board. Sixty dirty-dawgers picked Seattle to win it all (confidence: 14) and 36 had a 13 or 14 on New England. There were 17 players that had either a 13 or 14 on BOTH Seattle and NE and 11 actually had 13 on NE and 14 on Seattle. The dirty-dawg directors tip our hats to you!

Now on to seasonal greatness! After the aforementioned grueling 19 week marathon of picks and ever-changing deadlines, Teddy Overton of Claremore, OK is the one to successfully navigate all of the landmines and submit stellar week after stellar week to take home the 2025 PFCC crown! Teddy led the contest for 10 of the 19 weeks, never was lower than 32 and took command Week 9 and only fell out of the lead once, when he dropped to 2nd place after Week 16. Teddy finished with 1388 points with a record of 172-81 to secure the championship. Again, it would be nice if we gave away a new car or something, but Teddy will have to be satisfied with the adoration of dirty-dawgs everywhere instead. Just 11 points back we had John Zittel from Golden, CO. This is the 2nd Silver Bone for John, who also was our 2016 runner-up. John's 1377 came with a 166-87 record. And the Bronze bone goes to Nick Greenawalt from Parma Heights, OH with 1360 points, which was 28 off the championship pace. Nick was up 8 spots with the Super Bowl Blowout finishing 8th with 373 points! Congratulations to our Top 3 PFCC dawgers for the 2025 season!!

Just out of the bones were several excellent scores as well. Steve Listemaa from Newnan, GA finished 4th, just 16 points behind our Bronze bone winner. Amanda Fanning from Pembroke Pines, FL was 5th, followed by Jeff Raberding (2023 Bronze), Jason Runyen, Linda Ashford, Jeffrey Overton (2023 Silver) and dirty-dawg veteran Krissy Hurley rounding out the Top 10. We also like to give a shout-out to the record for the season and this year we had 3 tie for that honor. Matthew Brady, Robert Stonefield and Gregory Forrester finished with 175 victories, good for 13th, 15th and 86th places respectively. 

While the final top spots were in question heading into the Super Bowl Blowout, the Group Play champion was decided long ago. Perennial group powerhouse, BoomerBacks, absolutely destroyed the competition and led group play for the majority of the contest. The 8 members of BoomerBacks, powered by the Overton Clan (Teddy, Jeffrey and Carol) had an average player score of 1286.25, which was an incredible 62.05 points ahead of runner-up No Mistakes by this Great Lake. Six of the eight members finished in the Top 50 and all were in the Top 100 players for the season. Great season, BoomerBacks! Hurricane Elvis finished 3rd, Tulsa Twisters 4th and Padookie Quack Attack was 5th. 

We had a tie for the Super Bowl Blowout itself. Jared Lee from Broomfield, CO and Pat Spoden from Foley, AL finished up locked at 377 points. Jared was one of the players with 14 on Seattle and 13 on New England. Pat also had 14 on Seattle, but 12 on New England. Great job, dawgs! Alex Fehr from Delaware, OH finished tied for 3rd with Christianburg, Virginia's Robert Stonefield with 376 points. Linda Ashford with 5th just 2 points behind the champs with 375 points.

And that wraps up another football season here at dirty-dawg.com! We sure hope you all enjoyed the contest(s) and hope to see you back in 2026 for what awaits on both the college and pro football fronts. We've been hard at work all season getting ready to bring you a new and improved experience in 2026 with more features, a modern responsive framework and the same witty and insightful (we like to think) weekly summaries you have grown to expect from us. Make sure to come back in March for the College Basketball Confidence Contest which will feature a new easy-to-complete game form and a 2nd chance Sweet 16 tournament. We will be in touch on all of that here in a couple of weeks. Until then, enjoy the warm months of the year and get ready for the best time of the year, otherwise known as football season! 

Every dawger knew going into the CFP this year that Indiana was going to be hard to beat. Not so many thought Miami would be last team the Hoosiers would have to contend with, though. And contend, the Hurricanes did, right up until Indiana's defensive unit, probably the best in college football this year, snatched a game saving interception just when it looked like Miami was going to shock the college football world. In the end though, Indiana became the first college football team to go 16-0 since some Yale team did it way back when photography was in black and white. After Indiana easily knocked off Oregon earlier in the season, I wrote in this column that Curt Cignetti famously quipped at his introductory press conference when asked why he thought he could turn around the Hoosier football program he said something like, "Simple, I win. Google me." Well, Google is no longer necessary as Coach Cignetti proved you can turn around a very bad program and win the Natty in two years. It's a whole new world out there in college football land and those teams that can hire the best coaches, pay the best players and develop their recruits will be the new powerhouses in the sport. I'm not saying that the days of the blue bloods are over, since they obviously have resources, but the days of the blue bloods are certainly over this year.

And we have a new member of the dirty-dawg blue blood crowd, as long-time dirty-dawger Jeff Zoltowski, from Gaylord, MI, bested 410 other players to take home the College Football Confidence Contest crown for 2025! Jeff finished with 1233 points giving him an 8 point cushion. Jeff's victory was propelled by his 273 point CFP Blowout performance, third best of the field. Jeff had 12 on Indiana, but his best pick was slapping 6 on Miami, a solid 1.9 confidence points better than the field consensus. He also had 8 on Ole Miss (+2) and 10 on Oregon (+1.9). Jeff was in the Top 75 players all season and busted into the Top 10 for good after Week 9, jumped into 2nd place after Week 13 and sealed the deal with his stellar CFP Blowout score. Congratulations, Jeff! It sure would be nice if this crown came with a new car, or perhaps a trip to Hawaii to escape the brutal Michigan winter, but you will have to settle for the admiration of dirty-dawgers everywhere forever, instead. Awesome season.

Our runner-up for 2025 is Gary Petti, from Weeki Wachee, FL. Gary led the contest from Week 10 into the CFP Blowout and had a stellar season totalling 1225 points and a record of 152-58. He did have 12 on Indiana, but the 3 on Miami and 6 on Oregon ultimately hurt him down the stretch. While these are the first bones for Jeff and Gary, it is the 2nd bone for our 2025 third place finisher, Dean Moseley of High Point, FL. Dean finished with 1198 points, which was 35 off the championship number. Dean also finished 3rd place in 2019 and veteran players may recognize him as part of the vaunted Florida Dummies powerhouse group team.  

But of course, that's not all of the stellar performances for 2025. The CFCC went 15 weeks this year and just out of the money were players like dirty-dawg overlord Mike Coyne, from Mansfield, TX who finished with 1190 points, only 43 points back tied for 4th place with another of the Moseley clan named Howie, strangely enough also from High Point, FL. Jonathan Frazier from Justin, TX finished up in 6th place, while our 2024 champion, Courtney Carpenter from Roseville, CA wound up in 7th. Lynn Bobay of Kitty Hawk, NC (really!!) finished in 8th, perennial power Brett Williams from Lees Summit, MO finished 9th, tied with dirty-dawg veteran Tim Oram from Keller, TX. Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10 this season. It ain't easy!!

Even though it doesn't matter, it's always fun to take a look at the best record for the season and the very best record for 2025 belongs to Manuel Rodriguez from Beckley, WV. Manuel went 155-55 to take home best record honors, which doesn't get you anything other than this shoddy mention. Manuel's performance was impressive from a shear picking winners standpoint, which IS important, but unfortunately only good for 80th place in this case. Great job Manuel. Sorry you joined the wrong contest! Like we like to say, "winners are important, but the confidence factors rule!" Several players had second-best records with 153 wins and those dawgs would be Nancy Hamill, Bryan Tilley (our only triple-boner dawg!), Candise Ryder and Scott Kahn.

Now, we mentioned last article that the only dawgers to successfully nail the CFP Final was Todd Barron, from Madison, AL and since we can do basic math most of the time, Todd did go on to win the CFP Blowout with 295 points. Todd had 12 on Indiana and 11 on Miami. This Red Raider fan also appreciates Todd's 10 on Texas Tech, but thankfully the rest of his picks worked out pretty well. Tyler Castillo of Pelham, AL was the CFP 2025 runner-up with 274 points. Tyler had 12 on Indiana and 7 on the Hurricanes. Ken Gribek was tied for third with Mr. Zoltowski with 273 points, along with Jonathan Marcus to round out the Top 5. Great job with the CFP Blowout, gentlemen!

And for the always-popular group competition, it was Stratus-Faction Guaranteed taking home the glory for the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Shreveport, LA! Stratus-Faction was powered by 6th place overall Jonathan Frazier and 14th place overall Chris Nuttall. They survived a stiff challenge from The Border War Still Lives in KC by an average player score of 6.17 points. Does anyone every check our math?? Border War was a force in group play all season and held first place for much of it. BoomerBacks, who are absolutely destroying group play over in the PFCC finished third here, followed by The Florida Dummies - Legacy, who did their old patriarch proud we would say. Water Warriors finished 5th. Congratulations to Stratus-Faction and we hope you all enjoyed another season of group play for the 2025 CFCC. We have heard from many of you about the group standings smack-talking and lack of productivity in the work place thanks to dirty-dawg.com. You're welcome!

And that's a wrap on another stellar CFCC season here at dirty-dawg.com. We were on-line in the 20th century and will continue to provide you with the best free sports contests on the web as we head into the 2nd quarter of the 21st century! We have been hard at work this season with a complete site redesign along with more features and a mobile phone friendly experience. Many of you have had a peek at that work and we will be rolling it out with the College Basketbal Confidence Contest in March, so make sure to take part in that when the time comes. We promise an easier confidence form for the 64 Big Dance teams. Until then, the PFCCers among you still have 3 games to get through before we crown that champion and then it is on to the best event in the sporting world, the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Otherwise, we will see you all right back here in August. Thanks for playing this year and thanks for being a dirty-dawg!!

All of the dirty-dawg picks are in for the 2025 football season. All that's left now is to kick back and watch those points roll in with no threat of negative ticks in the CFP or Super Bowl Blowouts! Next up are the Divisional Rounds for the NFL this weekend, followed by the CFP Final on Monday evening, featuring juggernaut Indiana and resurgent Miami. Hoosiers versus Convicts won't sell any shirts, but we are looking forward to an entertaining final.

After the six NFL Wildcard games, Teddy Overton from Claremore, OK continues to lead the PFCC field with 1072 points. Hot on Teddy's heals are 5 bone earners in the form of John Zittel (2016 Silver), Mark Plate (2024 Bronze), Jane Banks (2019 Champion) and another of the Overton Clan named Jeffrey (2023 Silver). The only player in the Top 6 without a bone (besides Teddy) is dirty-dawg powerhouse Matthew Brady who is in 5th place 20 points off the mark. 

For the Super Bowl Blowout itself, David Lemmons from Jefferson City, MO is the early leader with 65 points out of the gate. His 10 (Jacksonville) and 9 (Philadelphia) didn't work out, but he nailed the other winners to take the early advantage. Dirty-dawg director Dick Wagenmaker is in 2nd place with 63 points, tied with veteran dawger Keith Ventimiglia. Steve Friend and Benjamin Lott are tied for 4th heading into the Divisional Round.

And has been having for most of the season, BoomerBacks is completely embarrassing the PFCC Group hopefuls with a ridiculous 61.72 average score lead over the closet competitors No Mistakes by this Great Lake. Tulsa Twisters are 70.79 back and Hurricane Elvis is 81.92 off the pace.

That's a quick wrap of the latest and greatest performances from the blowouts! We will be back early next week to wrap up the CFCC and crown the 2025 Champion as well as catch-up with the PFCC after the Divisional Round games!