Congratulations to myrick55 for winning this week’s 5-Spot Challenge. It was his first win this season, but he won once or twice last season as well. For his win, he gets a $20 gift card to The M Den. It was a truly remarkable performance, despite Michigan’s performance on the field. Myrick55 had a deviation of just 111, besting Jim Mackiewicz by 73 points. His largest differential on a single question was 33 (Denard and Devin’s total combined yards), while he was just one off the longest kick or punt return, four away from the total combines passing yards by both teams, and 18 away from Braxton Miller’s total yards.

Jim Mackiewicz was just four away from Miller’s total yards, as was JustJeepGear.com, and he was just seven short of Roy Roundtree’s receiving yards. Season leader crp12qb came in third. He was also just four off of Miller’s total yards and seven away from Roundtree’s. He also nearly predicted the final score. His prediction of 26-23 Ohio State was just two off. Freezer566 had a good week, finishing fourth, while new contestant DRock finished fifth. Along with myrick55, DRock was just four off of the total combined passing yard total. He was also the closest to predicting the longest touchdown of the game, just seven away.

Altogether, the 14 contestants this week picked Michigan to win by an average score of 35-30. Only two contestants picked Ohio State to win.

Thanks to all who have participated this season. We still have one game left – the bowl game – so make sure to check back the week before New Years. Altogether, we had 10 different winners in 12 weeks, so it has been pretty competitive. Below are the season-long standings to date. You can find the weekly results here or on the right sidebar.

Michigan received the 4-seed and will face THE Ohio University on Friday in Nashville. At first glance, it’s a great draw for Michigan, getting to face either Temple, California, or South Florida in Round 3 and then the most beatable of the 1-seeds, North Carolina, in the Sweet 16.

We’ll have more evaluation of the Bobcats to come, but in the spirit of competition, we would like to announce the Maize and Go Blue Bracket Challenge. It will be be hosted on Yahoo Sports, so please click here to register and join. The group ID number is 72625 and password is mgoblue.

It’s free to enter and there will be a prize for the winner.

Good luck and Go Blue!

Today is the first day of March and therefore, we would like to introduce the Maize and Go Blue March Photo Challenge. You have probably seen this before on Facebook or friend’s blog, but we’re putting our own Michigan twist on it. The goal is to take a photo of something based on a different key word each day for the month of March. The catch is, it has to relate to Michigan in some way, whether it be Michigan football, basketball, hockey or lacrosse or even the university itself.

Some of these will be hard to relate to Michigan, but we know you’re the most creative fans in the country. Your photos can be taken with a camera or just with your cell phone. If you post to Twitter, please make sure to tag @maizeandgoblue or if you post to Facebook, please tag us in your photo. We will be posting our own photos each day as well as featuring a collection of the top photos from you each week.

Get creative, have some fun with it and show some Michigan pride.

The best part is anyone who completes the entire month will receive a $5 gift card to Moe’s!

In order to be eligible for the gift card, you have to tag us either on Twitter or Facebook, you have to post one picture for every day of the month following that day’s theme, and each photo has to relate to Michigan.

You can start at any time during the month, but you have to follow all of the rules listed above. Other than that, have some fun with it and Go Blue!

Just like the Sugar Bowl game itself, the Michigan Man 5-Spot Challenge came right down to wire. Hazel Parker continued his late season rally with his third win, but in the end, he fell one point short of the season-long prize. That goes to the Week 1 winner, umichfan1, who went wire-to-wire to capture the inaugural crown.

Before we get to the season-long prize, let’s recap the Sugar Bowl results. Hazel Parker was the closest to predicting the total combined yardage (just 50 away) and also the combined rushing yards by Fitzgerald Toussaint and David Wilson (57 away). He was only three points off the total score and 13.7 off the quarterback rating difference.

In second place was a new contestant, summersg, who was the only one to predict Virginia Tech’s longest touchdown to be in the single digits. Summersg predicted five yards and the correct answer was one. The next closest contestant in that category was KleinoRhino, who predicted 18 yards. Summersg was also the closest to correctly picking the difference in quarterback ratings between Denard and Logan Thomas. He predicted 15 and the real answer was 13.3.

In third place was chris12qb, who also finished in third place in the overall standings. He was just one point off the total score and was the second closest to predicting Toussaint and Wilson’s combined rushing yardage.

TrueBlue88 got the total combined sack yardage and turnover return yardage exactly correct. The result was 36 yards and the next closest contestant in that category was bomoho, who was just four away.

As mentioned above, the season-long winner was umichfan1. He won Week 1 and was consistent throughout the entire season. He participated every single week and made it fun at the end by turning in his worst performance of the season, coming in second to last for the week. For taking the season-long crown, umichfan1 wins a pair of tickets to Michigan’s home opener against Air Force next season.

The acclaimed Hazel Parker also competed each and every week throughout the season and won more weeks than any other contestant (three). By winning the Sugar Bowl week, he nearly passed umichfan1, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.

Chris12qb finished third. He didn’t win any weeks, but was perhaps the most consistent participant throughout the season. He missed Week 8, which could have propelled him into the lead. Similarly, bomoho, who finished fourth, missed Week 4. He was a two-time winner during the season.

The rest of our weekly winners were myrick55, the1tab, bluwolf77, KleinoRhino, hottiebobottie, squashman, and deucebig. We had five contestants participate every single week and four others who missed just one week. We also had 35 one-time participants throughout the season. Not surprisingly, the weeks that had the most contestants were the first game of the season and the Michigan State game.

You can click here for the weekly results and here for the overall standings.

Overall, it was a successful season and we thank everyone for participating. We hope it was an enjoyable contest that provided a fun and thought-provoking fantasy football-type experience each week as you rooted on your beloved Wolverines. Look for a similar contest for the rest of the Michigan basketball season and we look forward to re-launching the challenge next season with some bigger and better prizes!