It is time once again to start a new season of B1G Survivor as the 2023 football campaign approaches.

Congratulations again to last year's champion, riclang, who emerged victorious in the Winners bracket over 93 other entrants, winning out right in the last week of the regular season.

Please be mindful of dates and kickoff times as the deadline for making your pick is the announced kickoff time of the game you choose to pick.

There will once again be 2 brackets, Winners and Losers. Everyone starts in the Winners bracket and continues in the Winners' bracket until you lose. But if you are eliminated from the Winners bracket you will have a second chance to continue making picks in the Losers' bracket (more on that later).

The Winners' Bracket rules:

The rules for the game are pretty simple, and follow most standard Survivor/Eliminator pools. You pick one B1G team each week to win. If that team wins, you move on to the next week, but cannot pick that team again for the rest of the season. If your pick loses, youŕe out. Since there are 14 weeks in the B1G season (including championship week), you´ll have to reserve Michigan your presumed champion for week 14 if you wish to complete a perfect season.

If all remaining players get eliminated the same week, the tiebreaker rules are as follows (same as previous years):

1. Best combined winning %age of B1G teams you haven´t used

2. Strength of Victory (non FBS teams´ records get converted to 0-for)

3. Whomever got their losing pick in first

You may only pick against any particular team a maximum of 3 times.

Once you've been eliminated from the Winners' bracket you'll get a second chance, if you wish, to continue making picks in the Losers' bracket. The idea is much the same as the Winners bracket except contestants in the Losers' bracket pick pick a Big Ten team each week to lose their football game. If your pick wins, you are out. You may not pick any team you have picked before; this includes all picks you made in the Winners' bracket. The goal remains to pick each B1G once over the course of the season and championship game (you would need to pick the loser of the conference championship game to get a correct pick in week 14).

You may only have a team win for you a maximum 3 times in both brackets. Any team you successfully picked in the winners bracket will count as having won for you once; you will only be allowed to use those teams 2 more times to do the dirty work of winning over the teams you pick to lose. The team that got you eliminated from the winners' pool as well as any team you had not yet picked in the winners' bracket will still have three wins (picks against) remaining for you to utilize if you wish.

Tie breakers in the Losers bracket are:

1. Average season win% (higher to lower) of B1G teams not picked when eliminated from the Winners' bracket.
2. If still tied, average season win% (lower to higher) of B1G teams not picked when eliminated from the Losers' bracket
3. Whomever got their losing losing pick in first.

And now, here are games. All times are Eastern. Good luck!

Week 1:

Thursday August 31, 2023 8:00 PM Nebraska @ Minnesota

Friday September 1, 2023 7:00 PM Central Michigan @ Michigan State

Saturday September 2, 2023 12:00 PM East Carolina @ Michigan

Saturday September 2, 2023 12:00 PM Utah State @ Iowa

Saturday September 2, 2023 12:00 PM Fresno State @ Purdue

Saturday September 2, 2023 3:30 PM Ohio State @ Indiana

Saturday September 2, 2023 3:30 PM Buffalo @ Wisconsin

Saturday September 2, 2023 3:30 PM Towson @ Maryland

Saturday September 2, 2023 7:30 PM West Virginia @ Penn State

Saturday September 2, 2023 7:30 PM Toledo @ Illinois

Sunday September 3, 2023 7:30 PM Northwestern @ Rutgers

My week 1 pick: Illinois to win over Toledo. I have no idea which teams will be good or bad this year, so I'm going with the Illini as historically it's been a good idea to get them out of the way early. Fair warning, I was ousted from the winners' bracket in week 2 last year and got bounced from the losers' pool the very next week, so I am not an expert by any means.

Good luck to everyone!