AUDL Pick’em is back for the 2nd season, and this time you’ll be picking against the spread! We had a lot of successful contestants last year with multiple perfect weeks, but it’s a whole new ballgame picking against a spread, a much bigger challenge. And the spreads themselves, let alone how well the favored teams cover those spreads this season, should make for passionate discussion as the season wears on.
The first week has a minimum spread of 1.5 and a max of 4.5 points — the latter twice, for host Atlanta over Nashville and visiting San Francisco over San Diego. The Flamethrowers showed up #2 in the preseason Power Rankings compared to San Diego’s #2 rank, so SF may be a good bet to cover those 4.5 points. Perhaps the most interesting matchup is Detroit at Cincinnati, where the home team is favored by only 1.5 points. Cincy comes in at #24 and Detroit at #26, but then Detroit’s ranking is based on 29 consecutive regular season losses as much as its 2016 prospects. And then of course there are brand new, expansion Dallas Roughnecks who arrive on the scene ranked #1 in their first ever Power Rankings without ever touching the disc in regulation. Wow. They host fellow expansion team Austin who show up at a respectful #15 and will enjoy a 4.5 point cushion on the books. Dallas would certainly be expected to cover that at home in front of their fans for the first time ever, but you never know — Austin doesn’t have the attention, but they have some very impressive talent.
We can’t wait to see what these spreads will be for DC’s first two match ups — vs Ottawa next weekend, and then the big showdown at home vs Toronto 4/23. But in the meantime, sign up for Picke’m before 7pm tomorrow (Saturday), and let the games begin!