r/CFBAnalysis • u/BlueSCar Michigan Wolverines • Dayton Flyers • Aug 24 '26
Announcement 2026 CFBD Model Pick’em Contest is live: New site + API submissions
The annual CFBD Model Pick’em Contest is back for the 2026 season.
For anyone unfamiliar with it, this is a free contest where you submit projected scoring margins for upcoming college football games and compare your model against the field. Elo, regression, machine learning, EPA-based systems, power ratings, spreadsheets... anything goes. You can enter as many or as few games as you want and it’s fine to join after the season has started.
The biggest change this year is a full revamp of the site. Along with a redesigned pick-submission workbench, the new version includes:
- Pick submission through the site, CSV import, or API
- API keys for retrieving your slate and submitting picks programmatically
- Official leaderboards scored relative to the Vegas closing line, plus raw leaderboards
- Public model profiles and a directory of active models
- Head-to-head comparisons and crowd-wisdom analysis
The API should be especially useful if you would like to send predictions directly from a notebook, script, or automated model pipeline. After signing in, the dashboard will provide you an API key, authentication instructions, and a ready-to-copy submission payload.
Results are tracked across straight-up and ATS performance, absolute error, mean squared error, bias, and the composite leaderboard. The goal is simply to have fun and give model builders of all levels a shared slate and a public benchmark for seeing what works over the course of a season.
Contest site: https://predictions.collegefootballdata.com
All experience levels are welcome. If you have feedback on the rebuilt site, API workflow, scoring, or features you’d like to see, please share it here.
Good luck. And happy modeling!
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u/CFB_Unaware Aug 29 '26
It's been a while since I got into the Pick-Em contest. I don't remember where the link is to make your choices.