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Montana is home to two great universities: The University of Montana & Montana State University. Billings Gazette (Billings, MT) decided to capitalize on the rivalry between the Grizzlies & Bobcats by running this simple sweepstakes in which two fans will win tickets to the match up in November. What a simple, fantastic contest. Bonus points for having an opt-in for their Today’s Deal program on the submission page!

My Pet Rox the Black and Gold from WEZB-FM (New Orleans, LA) has the formula for a successful contest:

Football + Pets + Sponsors = Touchdown!

The pet with the most votes (vote count is currently over 100K!) helps their owner win 4 tickets to a game in the Saints Dome & more…all worth $1750!

Here’s what the winner scores:

- 4 tickets to the Jan 1st Black & Gold game!
- Plus a week at Camp Bow Wow Uptown
- $200 in Lakeside Shopping Center gift certificates
- $100 in pet food and clothes from Lakeside Pets
- $100 to The Melting Pot courtesy of Toyota of Slidell
- $100 to The Olive Branch courtesy of Toyota of Slidell

What a fantastic contest – it combines sports & pets, which are 2 of of our top 30 contest ideas!

Here are the top 10 best contests in the month of September for registrations, submissions, and sweepstakes.

Top 10 Registrations:
1. WQSB’s MIX-102.9 Player Of The Week 2011
2. WLUK-TV’s FOX 11 NFL Kickoff Contest
3. Newsday‘s Cutest Canine Contest
4. Seattle Times‘ Guest Guesser
5. Citytv.com’s Reactine iPad 2 Contest
6. Toronto Sun‘s Fabulous 40 Birthday
7. WLUK-TV’s DirectBuy Apple iPad Giveaway
8. KZST-FM’s Be A Star
9. Citytv.com ‘s CityLine Audience Weekly Contest
10. WLUK-TV’s Aaron Rodgers Autographed Helmet Giveaway

Top 10 Submissions:
1. Newsday‘s Cutest Canine Contest
2. Planet S‘s Best of Saskatoon 2011
3. FOX6′s Terra Nova Comforts of Home Challenge
4. Swift Communications Inc.’s The Great Reno Balloon Race Photo Contest
5. The Orange County Register‘s My Dog’s Face 2011
6. The Queens Courier‘s Best of the Boro Voting Round
7. Journal Sentinel‘s Know This Pro 2011
8. Prairie Dog‘s Best of Regina 2011
9. Rock Hill Herald‘s The 2011 Buzzies
10. KPHO-TV’s Funniest Pet Pics!

Top 10 Sweepstakes:
1. Creative Crafts Group’s (QCA) Fabric For Life
2. Our State‘s Simplicity Sofa Gift Certificate
3. Aiken Standard‘s USC & Clemson Home Games Giveaway
4. WSB-TV’s Comcast Sweepstakes
5. Zap2it’s Fall TV 2011
6. WPOI’s The New Hot 101.5 FALL CASH CALL!
7. WJBK-TV’s Dream Team 2011
8. Where Traveler‘s Where 75th Anniversary New York Sweepstakes
9. Chatelaine‘s Beauty100 2011
10. Boy’s Life‘s Stick With Us

“Biggest Fans” is one of the top contests categories run on UPICKEM. “Bolt Fever” from The San Diego Union-Tribune is a testament to why these contests are so popular. Appealing graphics, a topic that reaches a large audience and high participation make this contest a touchdown.

At last, football season has arrived! With that in mind, today I’d like to showcase an excellent football contest from Tribune Chronicle (Warren, OH). The paper is running 3 football contests: a local high school contest, top 15 college games, and the national pro game (run by Second Street). To make it easy for readers to enter, they created a landing page that promotes all three contests and is surrounded by sponsors’ ads. What a genius idea! Great work – we can’t wait to see the results of your contests.

Are you running a football contest that deserves a standing ovation? Let us know in the comments.

The Daily Advocate (Greenville, OH) helped local kids get in gear for the school year with this well-executed coloring contest (love the list of sponsors listed across the welcome page). The hopeful artists download the picture to color right on the contest site and submit it to the paper. Winner receives a gift certificate for the usual back-to-school items. A fantastic late summer contest idea!