Rodney Lynch grabs first win in Week 9, overall Top 3 gapping the field

The ninth week of action in the Tri-City Record’s Armchair Quarterback Contest has reached its verdict. As always, we continued the tradition of challenging our ‘superfans’ with daunting gridiron matchups, as our knowledgeable fanatics tried to pick the winners of three high school, four collegiate, and three professional football games appearing on our week nine calendar. We’ve reached the end of October, so continue to enjoy those game days while they are with us!

Looking back at last week’s final records, we can report that five of our six accomplished scholars passed their weekly examination of pigskin intellect, even though red ink came out more often.

Recapping our weekly games, most of our favorite local teams took the field, with our high school football players wrapping up their seasons at all three schools. If you had an opportunity to catch the action, you’ll know the Bears, Huskies, or Lions were winners in their games on a disappointing weekend for others. As a new week dawns, it comes with a fresh opportunity for fans to sit back and hope for the best.

When the final seconds counted down and the scores were deemed official, there was one panelist who stood above the rest, earning the top step of the podium on their merit. Rodney Lynch walked away with a 9-1 record, securing his first weekly victory of the season. One of only two former champions on this year’s panel, he is beginning to dream of a three-peat in overall titles, with his lone loss in the stretch coming thanks to Tennessee by just three points.

The battle for the remaining two spots on the podium will need to be hashed out by the dreaded tiebreaker scenario, as a pair of panelists finished with identical 8-2 records. Bill Whitney and RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht both landed on that mark, causing little damage to dreams of wearing the hat following Super Bowl weekend. Their picks mirrored each other, as, like Rodney, they picked Tennessee while also backing Centreville, which looked good until the fourth quarter.

Because multiple panelists tied in the weekly standings, we relied on the final point total from our tiebreaker game to break the deadlock. Our featured matchup, Indiana versus Michigan, concluded with a paltry 19 points. Based on their highly educated guesses, no one came within twenty points of that figure, but Bill’s projection of 42 points earned him runner-up status, while RoxAnn (who projected 44 points) settled for third place.

The remainder of the finishing order featured Mike Banic (7-3) in fourth place, Greg Krell (6-4) in fifth place, and Karla Smothers (4-6) in sixth place. Like betting odds, the weekly standings are subject to change, so come next week, expect there to be changes.

In case you are new to the newspaper or need a refresher on how this contest works, let’s take a moment and bring you up to speed. Each fall, the Tri-City Record enlists the assistance of six local football fanatics, or ‘superfans’ as we call them. Each week, our six-person panel receives a list of pre-selected games from the high school, collegiate, and professional scenes and has the daunting task of selecting who they believe will win every game.

Records (overall and weekly) are kept throughout the football season through Super Bowl Sunday, with each week’s edition of the newspaper reporting the weekly standings, as well as the progress of each panelist. After the season concludes, the panelist who has the best overall record will earn the right to wear the 2026-27 Tri-City Record Armchair Quarterback hat, claiming bragging rights until next season comes around.

Each week, if multiple panelists finish with the same weekly record, a ‘tiebreaker’ game will determine their place in the standings. In addition to attempting to pick winners during each week’s slate of games, they will also predict a total score from a specially selected game, one that stands out on a local or national level. The panelist who predicts the closest to the actual points scored (by both teams) receives the higher position in the standings.

Our gridiron campaign continues this week, as week ten of our contest is in the queue. This week’s game schedule features five collegiate and five professional matchups. With action set to be intense from Saturday through Monday and 14 games separating our gurus in the overall classification, who will be the next one drinking the milk in victory lane? Guess you’ll have to read about it next week!

Be sure to check back each week, as our panel of ardent, loyal pigskin pickers fumbles their way through another football season in pursuit of their ‘one shining moment.’ Now, here is a list of games our panel picked from during week ten:

Army at Memphis (Sat.)

Bowling Green at

Western Michigan (Sat.)

Florida vs. Georgia (Sat.)

(in Atlanta, GA)

Michigan at Rutgers (Sat.)

Navy vs. Notre Dame (Sat.)

(in Foxborough, MA)

Arizona Cardinals at

Dallas Cowboys (Sun.)

Cleveland Browns at

Pittsburgh Steelers (Sun.)

Kansas City Chiefs at

Denver Broncos (Sun.) *

Minnesota Vikings at

Detroit Lions (Sun.)

Chicago Bears at

Seattle Seahawks (Mon.)

* tiebreaker