Anyone can pick a loser, but can you pick the best loser?

kcgregory sure can, and last year he picked his way to a thrilling victory that came down to free throws. Unfortunately, he entered his ballot late, so he is ineligible to receive the Duel of the Underdogs Official Trophy. If such a thing existed, it would be for grabs again, because it's pickin' time.

Here's how to play:

1. Pick 11 teams, one from each of the 11 major and upper mid sorta major conferences.

Those conferences are:

1. A10, a 14-team conference with an Atlantic flair.
2. AAC, the most American of the athletic conferences.
3. ACC, a surf 'n' turf conference. "Who will retire first?" wonders Gregg Marshall from his Koch-pit.
4. B12, a conference that includes West Virginia, which is a real state and not just part of Virginia.
5. B1G, the lardy white center of the American Twinkie
6. BE, it's like a party after all the fun people have left and only the insufferable turds remain
7. MVC, aka The Val', a brutal proving ground for KU nemeses. Future home of Kansas State.
8. MWC, not so much a conference as a pile of animal skulls and bolo ties.
9. P12, a pretty cool conference with nothing to prove + sports are dumb.
10. SEC, weird how the crappiest states all formed one conference, I wonder what that's about, historically.
11. WCC, where St. Mary's and BYU invented the fight for second place, son.

2. Comment here with your picks *before* Baylor @KU tipoff Saturday Jan 2nd

If your picks are the same as someone else's who came before you, you'll have to change enough to be unique.

3. Watch your picks lose their way to victory.

For each game one of your picks wins, you get one point.

However, if your team wins the conference, aka they get the most wins, or tie for most wins, then they GO BUST, and you get ZERO points for them. All their wins are gone, and the skies are gray.

The contest winner is the one with the most points. Ties will be broken by average FT% of all your picks.

4. Collect your prize

The lord/lady high champion, picker of losers, has a choice between two prizes:

• A "#2" face tattoo, the size of a pepperoni, applied in any participating Solano County, CA, tattoo shop, or
  
• Nothing at all.