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.

For new and old participants, this year we are going to have some prizes. I recently received a promotional copy of Best of Rivals by Adam Lazarus. The book details the history of the Joe Montana-Steve Young relationship. I'm about 80 pages in and really enjoying it.

The publisher has agreed to send me some additional copies of the book to use for contests and the like. The plan this year is to give out four copies over the course of the regular season, breaking it down by quarter. Starting in week two, every four weeks, the top scorer for that four week span will win a copy of the book. Since the NFL rolls out 17 weeks, we are throwing out week 1. This first week will still count towards the overall standings, but we will keep a separate tally of the quarterly standings. So, after weeks 5, 9, 13 and 17, I'll mail out a copy of the book to the leader.

In terms of picking the games, I generally include the 49ers game, MNF, SNF and three others. Although there are two MNF games this week, I decided to go with just one of them. The other games are picked based on those I find interesting, or open to potentially varied scoring.

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 @ Green Bay - Sunday 9/9 1:25pm

San Diego @ Oakland - MNF 9/10 7:15pm

PIttsburgh @ Denver - SNF 9/9 5:20pm

Atlanta @ Kansas City - Sunday 9/9 10:00am

Philadelphia @ Cleveland - Sunday 9/9 10:00am

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

Seattle @ Arizona: 14 - 24

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

Seattle @ Arizonar: 24 - 14

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