Earlier this year, Lucas Davidson clicked a link and inputted 18 educated guesses into the 2024 Jim Irsay's Million Dollar Schedule Challenge. He was one of 21,777 entrants into the contest.
Davidson correctly predicted nine of the Colts' 18 regular season weeks before the NFL released its schedule in mid-May. Nobody else who entered the contest got more than seven weeks right.
"I thought I was going to be real smart and look at each of the weekends for each available team and weed out times that would work or not," Davidson said. "After about an hour of doing that and making a reasonable guess on Week 1, I bailed and tried to get a good mix of home and away games and left some division games for the end of the year."
And on Sunday, when the Colts open the season against the Houston Texans at Lucas Oil Stadium, Davidson will reap the rewards of his picks.
Davidson and his wife, Tracy, received an all-expense-paid trip to Indianapolis, tickets and sideline passes to Colts-Texans, Colts gear and a $50 concession credit to use on Sunday.
Fittingly, one of Davidson's nine correct picks was having the Colts open 2024 against the Texans at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Davidson also nailed his predictions on Week 2 (at Green Bay), Week 4 (vs. Pittsburgh), Week 5 (at Jacksonville), Week 6 (at Tennessee), Week 10 (vs. Buffalo), Week 11 (at New York Jets), Week 16 (vs. Tennessee) and Week 18 (vs. Jacksonville).
For comparison, 30 percent of entries into the contest (6,623) didn't get a single game right; nearly 90 percent of entries got two or fewer games correct.
"I was very surprised," Davidson said. "When the schedule was released, I was looking at it and thought I did pretty well and was happy with nine. I work with some season ticket holders and they thought that was pretty good as well, but when I got the notice I had won, no one could believe it."
Davidson became a Colts fan when the team arrived in Indianapolis from Baltimore in late March of 1984, and he has fond memories of watching Bill Brooks, Eric Dickerson and those early-years Indianapolis Colts teams. Now, he's excited to get an up-close look at the current stars of the Colts, like Michael Pittman Jr. and Jonathan Taylor, thanks to going on an absolute heater predicting his team's schedule a few months back.
"I've always loved how the team reflects the state of Indiana," Davidson said, "hardworking, passionate and relentless."
