The return of THE CHALLENGE - with a twist

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Last year witnessed the introduction of the most thrilling contest the sports world has ever known:
THE KNOWLEDGE CHALLENGE
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yes
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Unfortunately THE CHALLENGE did not complete its entire course due to the highly irregular discontinuity in the spatio-temporal continuum of this universe, as THE KNOWLEDGE pointed out in one of his posts last year
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this year, THE CHALLENGE has made its appearance again, and will through the course of the football season, notwithstanding any unexpected discontinuities
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once the season starts, THE CHALLENGE will assume its usual form wherein the competitors will pick the score of the Michigan game, and the one(s) to predict the correct or closest score will be anointed as THE KNOWLEDGE's PROTEGE OF THE WEEK
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as usual, THE KNOWLEDGE will only provide pointers to each game in order to aid in appropriate score selection (except, of course, for the first game where THE KNOWLEDGE will reveal the score himself, thus eliminating THE CHALLENGE for Week 1
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at the end of the season, the person that has earned the POTW honors the highest number of times, or who has predicted the best overall will earn the greatest honor on this very blog:
TOP FRIEND OF THE KNOWLEDGE
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as everyone knows, these honors are extraordinary in nature and the attainment of the ultimate honor of TOP FRIEND will instantly lend credibility and celebrity to the winner
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as an addition for the year, THE CHALLENGE debuts RIGHT NOW (with this very post) in a different form
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in this version of THE CHALLENGE, the reader is asked to predict the participants in the BSC title game in Jan 2012, and the winner of that game (the mythical national champion)
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there is no need to predict the score of that game, as that is beyond the scope of other individuals on this board. any attempt to predict the score will automatically disqualify that person
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the winner of this edition of THE CHALLENGE will be honored at the end of the season along with the TOP FRIEND as CO-SOARER OF THE KNOWLEDGE
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as a pointer to significantly increase everyone's chances of winning,  THE KNOWLEDGE would like to reveal that the title game participants will come from the following pool:
Baylor, LSU, Wisconsin, Oregon, Michigan, Oklahoma, Boise State, Western Michigan and TCU
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since the results of this will not be known until the end of the year, THE KNOWLEDGE is also posting a smaller CHALLENGE, titled THE QUESTION
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THE QUESTION is how many bowl games will OSU, Columbus be banned from playing in (other than the ones for which they don't qualify)
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competitors are encouraged to predict the answers to both THE QUESTION and THE CHALLENGE
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