Over the past few years, we here at the blog have done a weekly "Football Friday" post, where we belly up with our weekly picks.  That's all well and good, and yes, we'll keep doing it this year (next week already!), but we thought we would shake things up a bit. 

Think you know more than the average Joe on picking games?  Then this year, you can prove it.  That's right, we want YOU to pick games with us.  And we'll reward you if you are good enough to finish at the top of the standings.  That's right, lucky guy or gal, you pick games well this year, then you get one of these fantastic t-shirts!  And yes, in case you were wondering I purposely chose the long-haired, unshaven model for the t-shirt. 

So if you want one of these, it's simple, really.  Just sign up for our Yahoo pick'em contest for the 2010 season, and if you are the reader who finishes the highest in the standings, then we will ship you one of these (A quick note - this is just a sample.  If you win, you can pick the style of shirt, the size and position of the logo, etc.  It's all customizable to your liking.) 

Or heck, pick something else if you like.  We will use Zazzle.com, where they have all sorts of stuff. 

And no, it won't just be the top score.  Instead, we'll go with the top three finishers in the final standings who can choose something from Zazzle.  First place will pick between a t-shirt, beer mug or coffee mug.  Second place gets to pick what's left after first place makes their pick, and third place gets stuck with whatever's left.....sorry.

To join in the fun, just do the following:

NOTE - THIS INFORMATION IS FOR A SECOND GROUP!  Our first group filled up, as Yahoo places a limit at 50 members.  So, this is for the second group.  Please know that even though you will be in the second group, you will still be included in the overall standings with group #1.  It may not look like it from the Yahoo website, but we will keep a tally and make sure both groups are counted equally.

Here is the second group information:

1)  Go here, to the Yahoo Sports Fantasy College Football Pick 'em.
2)  Click Join a Group.
3)  Enter the following information: 

Group: 16079
Password: wazzufbblog

If you are part of the first group, here's the login information:

Group: 14767
Password: gocougs

That's it, you're in!  The picks will be available next week, and all you have to do is go back to the site and make your selections.  I think you have up until five minutes before the first game next week to make your selections, so, that would mean a week from today would be the deadline for week one.  The selections will be Pac 10 games, plus some national games of interest. The first selections for week one will be available Monday, August 30th. We hope you can join in, and it should be fun (and a few of you have already joined in).

Now, read on for today's points of interest and such.....

Great shot of the new Martin Stadium logo, isn't it?  The new logo was painted on a week or so ago, and if you look really close, you can see the smaller screaming Coug head logo on the 30-yard line.  Pretty cool......but where's my CRIMSON endzones!??  Truth be told, I have this thing about painted endzones.  They look fan-flippin-tastic, no matter the venue, and you are seeing more and more paint in the paydirt area among teams with Field Turf.  And once UW went to gold endzones last year, well, that put me over the edge.  What's odd though is that I have been asking about this kind of thing since 2002, but the cost to do it has been quite a bit of money, several thousands of dollars just to paint that real estate.  Apparently it's a special paint that takes to the Field Turf and holds up well over time, and yeah, you need a lot of it (40 yards wide, 10 yards deep for each endzone).  Someday, maybe.  Hey, at least we have crimson endzones on the practice field??


Once small step for Coug-dom, I guess.  Where did these photos come from?  Thanks to our own Longball and his big-time camera skills at last week's practices, he was able to snap off a few good ones.  Check out his photo gallery from last week right here (note - you can get the photo galleries by clicking "gallery" along the top of the site).

Moving on, you can tell by the title of this post that it's time once again for this year's blog poll.  That's right, we are participating again with the biggest, baddest, most reputable top 25 on the planet.....outside of, you know, all the real top 25 that the major media pays attention to.  Every week in this space, we will post our top 25 ballot, and you can pat us on the back where we got it right, and fire away where we missed wildly.  With that, read more for the first ballot of the season, the entire top 25 blog poll as it looks right now, and of course, the usual links and such around the WSU universe.....

Hello Followers.  Hope you are gearing up for a great week.

Before we get to our Cougar pleasantries, I would like first to echo the sentiments of SeanHawk last week regarding our dear friend, Sir Vincent Grippi.  As we know, Sir Vincent has had a really tough go as of late.  First, he suffered a myriad of health problems in the late spring and summer.  Now, he has hit a rough spot with his father's health.

On top of that, as noted in a Sportslink post two weeks back, Vince let us all know that it was important for his page views to increase.  The subtext of that message:  The welfare of that site, his job, or the paper, may be in jeopardy.

So, with that in mind, can we all make a commitment to do what we can to make sure that Sportslink in general, and Vince, in particular, doesn’t follow the path of the now defunct Seattle PI?

As for me, I pledge to go ahead and hit his articles AT LEAST five times a day.  And, I hope that you all will do the same.  Vince is the best source for all things Cougar out there.  Let’s make sure that his service to Cougar Nation continues.

Now, read on as we move on to Cougar Football......