Welcome to the 2018 version of the MVFC pick 'em game! I volunteered to take my turn this year in taking the virtual punishment of running and tracking scores.

I pitched this in the MVFC megathread but I thought it might be fun this year to pick against the 5dimes point spread since it would allow for a little more movement in the mid to late season standings and helps satisfy the inner gambling degenerate in us all since you can claim that you're smarter than the bookies if you do well.

That said I know some still prefer the traditional straight pick 'em so I'll allow one or the other or both and I'll post two separate leaderboards each week, one for the pick 'ems against the spread and one for straight up.

I want to be as rule-free as possible to encourage the most people to participate so just posting your picks on each week's thread is fine. Of course there's the natural rule that you need to have your picks in before the first game each week kicks off. But beyond that if you want to include a thought blurb with each pick indicating who you think will win or bold each pick that's fine with me.

One suggestion is if you decide to pick both against the spread and straight up make sure you note it (something like "I'm picking NDSU to win but for Cal Poly to cover") or put your straight up winners in bold and then underline your winners against the spread. Or just have two separate sections in your post one with just the games and the other with the games including the point spread behind the favorite. Remember that the point spread will move for some games as the week goes on but anyone picking against the spread will use the opening spread that'll be in the first post of this thread each week. Also, if you change your picks put up a new post rather than editing your original post since I won't be going back through the whole thread to check for edits.

That said here's the week one slate:

Away Team Home Team Favorite Day Time (CT) TV
Qunicy (D2) Indiana State InSU by 34 Thu 8/30 6PM ESPN3
Southern Illinois Murray State SIU by 14.5 Thu 8/30 6PM
Missouri State Oklahoma State OSU by 35.5 Thu 8/30 7PM FS1
Western Illinois Montana State WIU by 3 Thu 8/30 8PM
Butler Youngstown State YSU by 34.5 Sat 9/1 1PM ESPN+
Cal Poly North Dakota State NDSU by 32.5 Sat 9/1 2:30PM ESPN+
South Dakota Kansas State KSU by 22.5 Sat 9/1 6PM ESPN3
St Xavier (IL) (NAIA) Illinois State IlSU by 40.5 Sat 9/1 6:30PM ESPN+
South Dakota State Iowa State Iowa St by 14 Sat 9/1 7PM
Northern Iowa Montana UM by 2.5 Sat 9/1 8PM

Here's the copyable list with the point spreads:

Quincy at Indiana State (-34)
Southern Illinois (-14.5) at Murray State
Missouri State at Oklahoma State (-35.5)
Western Illinois (-3) at Montana State
Butler at Youngstown State (-34.5)
Cal Poly at North Dakota State (-32.5)
South Dakota at Kansas State (-22.5)
St Xavier (IL) at Illinois State (-40.5)
South Dakota State at Iowa State (-14)
Northern Iowa at Montana (-2.5)

Going forward I'll try to have this up as early on Monday as possible but I'll wait until 5dimes puts up the point spreads for the week so those picking against the spread (or both) don't have to post twice so be patient since I think that sometimes doesn't happen until later in the day on Monday each week.