CONTEST: 100th Grey Cup game

[GA Russell]

It's that time of year again! It's time for the annual Grey Cup contest.

(Past winners have included Noj (twice), indestructible, Bright Moments, brownie and paul secor.)

Here are the rules:

1) Pick the winning team.

2) Pick the number of total points scored by both teams (aka the tiebreaker).

Since approximately half of us will pick the winning team, picking the total points is necessary to win the contest. Your total points prediction must be a number which is a multiple of five (5).

The winning tiebreaker will be the one closest to the correct answer. If two are equally close, the winner will be the lower pick.

If two people pick the same thing, the first to make the pick will be the winner.

THE PRIZE: A $17.00 Mosaic Records Gift Certificate, good for both Mosaic and True Blue records. The $17.00 represents one CD of a Mosaic box set.

Deadline: kickoff, Sunday Nov. 25, 6:00 pm eastern.

*****

The Grey Cup game: The Grey Cup is awarded to the world champion of what I think is the greatest game in the world, Canadian rules football. That is to say, the champion of the Canadian Football League.

The Grey Cup was first awarded in 1909. They have played for it every year since then except three years during World War One. Therefore, this year's will be the 100th Grey Cup game. Fans from throughout Canada will attend the game. The game sold out within 48 hours of tickets going on sale back in June. Therefore, neither team is expected to have an obvious majority of the fans rooting for them.

This year's game will see the Eastern champion Toronto Argonauts host the Western champion Calgary Stampeders. This is a surprise because both teams finished second during the regular season, and had to defeat the first place team on the road to win their conference championships.

The location of the game is chosen years in advance. This year's game will be played in Toronto because the league felt that Canada's largest city should host the festivities for the hundredth Grey Cup game.

Calgary's starting quarterback was injured fairly early in the season. He was replaced by back-up Kevin Glenn, who has spent much of his career as a starter. The Stampeders had a good year. The Argos had a mediocre year because both their offensive and defensive lines are suspect. Their quarterback is Ricky Ray, who twice won the Grey Cup with the Edmonton Eskimos. Ray is a future Hall of Famer who came to the Argos in a major trade last winter.

The game will be carried live on the NBC sports cable TV channel.

The halftime show will feature Canadians Gordon Lightfoot and Justin Bieber.

You can listen to the game here:

http://tunein.com/radio/Team-1410-s31148/

http://tunein.com/radio/AM-770-s31172/

(To listen to the game, you will need Windows Media Player which you can download for free. So you might want to plan ahead if you don't already have it.)

You can study articles analyzing the upcoming game as well as articles about the season as it unfolded in the CFL thread, which I will be updating during the course of this week.

Good luck everyone!

Here's my pick:

(My heart says Argos, but my head says Stampeders.)

Calgary - 50 points

PS - It looks like CJOB will not carry the Grey Cup game this year, so I have substituted the URLs of the Vancouver and Calgary stations above.

Edited November 25, 2012 by GA Russell

[Soulstation1]

Tor - 55 pts

[John Tapscott]

What the heck - go with my heart.

Toronto - 50 points

Edited November 19, 2012 by John Tapscott

[jeffcrom]

Might as well get in early this year.

Toronto - 40 points.

[vajerzy]

_{Calgary- 55}

[GA Russell]

LOL! vajerzy, I remember last year that paul secor won by picking my team with a tiebreaker 5 points above mine; and there were a number of comments that that would be the plan next time. So congrats! If that plan works, you'll be the winner!

[sidewinder]

Calgary 45 points for me !

(This is the first year I have had chance to make a half-decent prediction.. )

Edited November 19, 2012 by sidewinder

[brownie]

Calgary - 30 points

Still don't know anything about this Grey Cup competition!

Have rather fond memories of a stay in Calgary. The team gets my vote...

Edited November 20, 2012 by brownie

[JohnJ]

Calgary - 40 points.

[Jazzmoose]

Calgary-65

I think this is the first time I got in before the choices for points were 15 or 80...

Edited November 19, 2012 by Jazzmoose

[paul secor]

Toronto - 60

[Bright Moments]

Calgary - 60

Edited November 19, 2012 by Bright Moments

[GregK]

Calgary-35

(never could pick any Toronto team for anything after suffering with the Maple Leafs and the Blue Jays in the early 80s)

[Big Al]

Toronto 45

[kh1958]

Calgary 75

[GA Russell]

Here's something I didn't know, tweeted by Hall of Famer Matt Dunigan:

TOR 2-0 vs CGY this season, have won 5 straight vs CGY dating back to 2010.

*****

Calgary - 50 points

Still don't know anything about this Grey Cup competition!

Have rather fond memories of a stay in Calgary. The team gets my vote...

brownie, I already have Calgary and 50, so you'll have to pick them with a different tiebreaker!

Edited November 19, 2012 by GA Russell

[GA Russell]

If my notes are correct, available for

...Toronto - everything below 40 and above 60

...Calgary - everything below 35 and above 65 except 75.

[brownie]

Here's something I didn't know, tweeted by Hall of Famer Matt Dunigan:

TOR 2-0 vs CGY this season, have won 5 straight vs CGY dating back to 2010.

*****

Calgary - 50 points

Still don't know anything about this Grey Cup competition!

Have rather fond memories of a stay in Calgary. The team gets my vote...

brownie, I already have Calgary and 50, so you'll have to pick them with a different tiebreaker!

I have downgraded my Calgary rating to 30

[danasgoodstuff]

Calgary 70

[T.D.]

For my annual clueless guess...Toronto 65.

[B. Clugston]

Toronto 35.

[king ubu]

Toronto 70 (still totally clueless here, but thanks for the invite, GA!)

[medjuck]

Toronto- 30 (which would be a very boring game)

[BFrank]

Calgary 25

And the winner IS ...

[GA Russell]

My notes say that the following are available:

Calgary - everything under 25 and over 75.

Toronto - everything under 30 and over 70.