BUCKHANNON — Carpenter’s Crunch Time, the free weekly football pick ’em My Buckhannon has run since 2021, is back for the 2026 season with a rebuilt page, pick stats that go public once the week locks and a running leaderboard that crowns a season champion.
The format is unchanged where it counts: seven high school and college games a week, open to anyone, with no entry fee. Sports columnist Duane Carpenter, who writes the weekly Crunch Time column, sets the slate.
“It’s easy and takes only a minute to enter, and we have a friendly competition amongst readers and amongst the My Buckhannon staff,” Carpenter wrote in announcing the 2026 season.
How it works
- A new slate of seven games posts each week. Sign in to a free account and pick a winner in every game before picks lock at 7 p.m. Friday.
- The last game on the slate doubles as the tiebreaker — enter a guess at the total combined points scored in it.
- Picks can be changed as often as you like until they lock. After the lock, pick statistics go public.
- Scoring is one point per winner called. The best record wins the week and earns two bonus points.
- Ties break on tiebreaker closeness, then season points, then whoever entered first — updating picks resets the entry time.
- Points accumulate all season, and the leaderboard crowns the season champion.
Signing up
There is no password to create or remember. Entering an email address at mybuckhannon.com/games/crunch-time sends back a six-digit access code or a one-click sign-in link, and the account is created on the spot. Making a week’s picks takes about a minute.
Carpenter finished last season on top of the staff standings at 83-22, ahead of Brian at 76-29, Monica at 62-43 and Katie at 61-44. Reader entries set a record in 2025.
Crunch Time is one of several free games coming to the My Buckhannon’s games page. The weekly slate, the leaderboard and this week’s picks are all at mybuckhannon.com/games/crunch-time.
