Contest tough in Week 4

If it had not been Oklahoma State nipping Texas Tech, Michigan remembering who they are to beat Penn State, Virginia downing Georgia Tech, Georgia beating Alabama, Kentucky coming from behind to defeat Arkansas and the Dallas Cowboys again assuming the role of America's Team, Week 4 of the Leader-News Football Contest would have been a cinch.

However, Week 4 turned out to be the toughest so far this year as the vast majority of entries missed six or more games.

Good news for contestants is both high school games were eliminated from judging, and will be replaced for the rest of the season by an additional college game and one more pro game. Reason being college and pro teams can be easily researched, whereas it's not so easy with high school teams.

No contestant scored a perfect ballot last week, but Arthur Washington and Robert Abelas both missed only two games. Breaking the deadlock was Tiebreaker 1. The combined score of the Texans 30-24 loss to the Colts was 54. By virtue of his guessing 48 points Washington wins $25 cash and a $25 dine-in credit at Pizza Hut.

Abelas's 42 points in the tiebreaker gave him second place and $15.

Two contestants also missed only three games - former jocks John Paul Appling and J.C. Franz. Appling's 45 points in Tiebreaker 1 edged out Franz's 44 for the $10 third place prize. Had it gone down to Tiebreaker 2 (total offense was 616 yards), Appling's guess of 600 would have still put him in the money. Franz guessed 690. Tiebreaker 2 would also have kept Washington in first place with 550 yards compared to Abelas's guess of 525.

This week's contest was so difficult that Leader-News Editor Chris Barbee and Sports Editor Kris Bagley both missed six games. By virtue of Tiebreaker 1, Bagley's 48 points was closer to being correct than Barbee's 42. Bagley and Barbee are not eligible to win prizes, but are entering this year to see how they stack up against the readership.

Checks and Pizza Hut coupon will be mailed to the winners.

Entry forms for the contest can be found in each Wednesday's Leader-News, or can be downloaded at www.leader-news.com.

The contest and prizes are made possible by the sponsors advertising on the contest page.