Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

Hey! Have you noticed that big, orange banner ad to the right of the SportsTalk homepage?

Well, that’s this year’s link to our SunBlog Madness contest. (The link is all over the place on lowellsun.com, too!) Only this year, the contest is bigger and better than ever. By signing up, you’re entered in a national pool which makes you eligible to win the grand prize…a 20-inch flat-panel HDTV LCD. It will also make you eligible for a bunch of raffle prizes on the site.

But wait…there’s more! Instead of just signing up for the national pool, sign into the SunBlog Madness private group and compete against our blog entrants. You’ll earn bragging rights and more, because I’m working on a prize package for the members of the private group. If you’ll recall when we did this last year, we gave away a pair of Red Sox tickets, two sets of Spinners tickets and two sets of Lowell Devils tickets.

Here are the instructions for signing onto the private group:
1) Click on the big orange banner ad, or click here or on any of the SunBlog Madness links throughout this text
2) At the top, click on the blue “Hoops Hysteria pick all at once” box
3) Click on the “Group Play” tab on the upper right
4)Underneath “Create a group,” click on “join a group” and when the drop down box opens, find the group “SunBlog Madness” (note: you may have to click on “Hoops Hysteria all at once” in the drop down box before getting to the SunBlog Madness entry)
5) Once there, you’ll be asked for a password. The password is: lowellsun
6) YOU’RE IN!!!

If you have any problems signing up, send an email to: tpanos@lowellsun.com or tedpanos@aol.com and I’ll be happy to help. (Since I’ve already signed up and created the group, it’s allowing me to skip a step or two along the way, so my directions to you might be a bit off. Trust me, however, it’s so simple even an internet oaf like me was able to do it!)

Good luck…and let the Madness begin!