Tomorrow night the 2011 NFL season kicks off with the Packers and the Saints on NBC. The rest of week 1 gets going on Sunday, culminating with a pair of Monday Night battles. Accordingly, it is time once again for the annual prediction contest hosted here at Niners Nation.

The contest remains more or less the same as last year, with bignerd handling the scoring each week. For those who have never been involved, I will pick six games each week and you will predict the final score of each game. The games will include the 49ers game, any SNF and MNF games, and then a couple others to round things out. Aside from the playoffs we won't use any Thursday or Saturday games for the most part.

I've posted the formatting rules required for posting your results. Please read over that (it's fairly short) so we can have consistency in the posting. All times are pacific and you are not required to predict every game, but obviously it helps your chances of winning to predict all the games. If you forget to pick the Sunday morning games, you can always predict whatever games remain on the slate.

Once again, please review the formatting rules after the jump before posting your results. The 49ers game will be the only game where the home team might appear first.

49ers vs. Seattle - Sunday 9/11 1:15pm

New England @ Miami - MNF 9/12 4:00pm

Oakland @ Denver - MNF 9/12 7:15pm

Dallas @ NY Jets - SNF 9/11 5:20pm

Philadelphia @ St. Louis - Sunday 9/11 10:00am

Detroit @ Tampa Bay - Sunday 9/11 10:00am

IMPORTANT RULE
We implemented this rule last season and it seemed to make things easier for us. Previously, folks had just posted their scores in any particular fashion, although howtheyscored had made requests for a specific format.  Given the amount of time and effort howtheyscored has to put into determining the final results, I am implementing a requirement for how to format your scores (based on the spreadsheet howtheyscored has created).  If you fail to follow this format, any incorrectly formatted scores for the week will be disqualified.  The format is "Team A @ Team B: A score - B score."  That basically is visitor @ home: visitor score - home score."  Here's an example of how to do it:

Using Oakland @ Denver below, if you think Denver will win 24-14, here's how it needs to appear:

Oakland @ Denver: 14 - 24

If you think Oakland will win 24-14, it needs to appear as this:

Oakland @ Denver: 24 - 14

If you'd like you can bold the winner (Oakland @ Denver: 14 - 24), but that is not required (although probably a good backup in case you reversed the score by accident.

If you make a mistake in the formatting I'll reply to your score reminding you to correct it.  To correct it, simply reply to your picks and post them in the correct format.  Do not post your scores again at the bottom of the thread.  I'll make sure and include these directions each week so people do not forgot and lose out on points.

If anybody has any questions at all about this, or anything related to the contest, let me know (ninersnation@gmail.com) and I'll answer them.