Welcome back everybody to the always popular Niners Nation Prediction Contest. If you are new here or just want to refresh your memory, bignerd has broken down all the rules and regulations for this year's contest. For returning people, we've tweaked a couple rules, so I'd recommend checking them out.

I mentioned this last week, but I want to mention it again in case you missed it. We will have prizes to give out to the person with the highest point total each quarter. So, after weeks 5, 9, 13 and 17, we'll have a prize. The prize is a copy of Best of Rivals by Adam Lazarus. The book details the history of the Joe Montana-Steve Young relationship. I'm almost finished with it and am finding it to be a fun, easy read. I got four copies to use for prizes, so we'll use it for this. It is not the overall leader at each point. Rather, it is the person with the highest point total for that set of four weeks.

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. Detroit - Sunday 9/16 5:20pm (post in this vs. format as opposed to Detroit @ SF like we do with the other games)

Denver @ Atlanta - MNF 9/17 5:30pm

Minnesota @ Indianapolis - Sunday 9/16 10:00am

Arizona @ New England - Sunday 9/16 10:00am

Dallas @ Seattle - Sunday 9/9 1:05pm

NY Jets @ Pittsburgh - Sunday 9/9 1:25pm

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

Dallas @ Seattle: 14 - 24

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

Dallas @ Seattle: 24 - 14

If you'd like you can bold the winner (Dallas @ Seattle: 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.