2021 Niners Nation Prediction Contest - Rules and Guidelines, and Week 1 predictions

For the 15th year, the Niners Nation prediction contest is back. Steve Chavez did a great job running it last year. Unfortunately, he is no longer running the contest this year. I can help keep track of the results for Week 1, but I don’t have the time to do this weekly.

If anyone in the comments wants to volunteer to run the prediction contest this year, that would be much appreciated. I thought we had somebody to replace Steve, but that fell through at the last minute.

For those of you that have never played, we pick six games each week: the 49ers game, Sunday, and Monday Night football (if either game is going to be a blowout, I’ll select a different game from Sunday), with three random games on the rest of the schedule. I’ll usually post this on either Wednesday or Thursday night. We used to do the Thursday Night games, but those were either one-sided or didn’t give some folks enough time to get their picks in.

You predict the score of the games, and those closest to the final score accrue points for the week and cumulative points throughout the season.

At the end of the season, we take the Top 16 contestants and run a Top 16 Playoff contest to determine the season's individual Champion. For those missing the cut, we’ll do a separate open tournament.

Please take the time to read the rules and ask any questions you might have. Good luck to everyone this season.

All times below are Pacific Standard time.

San Francisco 49ers @ Detroit Lions - Sunday, September 12, 10:00 a.m.

Seattle Seahawks @ Indianapolis Colts — Sunday, September 12, 10:00 a.m.

Arizona Cardinals @ Tennessee Titans — Sunday, September 12, 10:00 a.m.

Los Angeles Chargers @ Washington Football Team — Sunday, September 12, 10:00 a.m.

Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots — Sunday, September 12, 1:25 p.m.

Green Bay Packers @ New Orleans Saints — Sunday, September 12, 1:25 p.m.

Green Bay Packers @ New Orleans Saints — Sunday, September 12, 1:25 p.m.

Example of Prediction Score Format

To make the scoring easier to record and avoid potential discrepancies with scoring posts, a scoring post format must be followed. If you fail to follow this format, your scores may be disqualified at our discretion. Therefore, please review the formatting rules before posting your results.

The format is “Team A @ Team B: A score - B score.” The Visiting Team is always listed first, and the Home team listed second:

Visiting Team @ Home Team: Visiting Team score - Home Team score

Using the 49ers @ Lions Week 1 game as an example, if you think San Francisco will win 24-14, the required format is:

San Francisco @ Detroit: 24 - 14

If you think Detriot will win 24-14, the required format is:

San Francisco @ Detriot: 14-24

If provided, a bold highlight of the winning team will override a conflicting score format. A bold highlight of the intended winning team is not necessary but helps clarify the winning team in case of an error in the scoring format, for example:

San Francisco @ Detriot: 14-24 would be scored as San Francisco winning 24 - 14 based on the bold highlight of San Francisco as the intended winning team. Likewise, San Francisco @ Detroit: 24-14 would be scored as Detriot winning 24 - 14 based on the bold highlight of Detriot as the intended winning team.

A bold highlight of the team’s individual score is unnecessary (and could complicate things anyway) and won’t be considered in the scoring, such as San Francisco @ Detriot 24-14 (no need to bold the score).

You can post scoring predictions at any time up until the start of the official game time. You can even change your scoring predictions multiple times if needed. If you make a mistake in the formatting, we’ll try to reply to your score, reminding you to correct it or clarify. Changes must be made as a reply to your original post. Scores must post by the start of the official game time or will be considered late and not counted in the scoring totals.

In case Scores are posted past the scheduled game start time, we will resolve any disputes using ESPN’s game summary. The box score summary will have the actual and official game start times.