By Southern Pigskin Staff
SouthernPigskin.com

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Announcing the celebrity roster, icon Hulk Hogan included, for the 2013 Southern Pigskin College Football Pick’em.

SouthernPigskin.com is proud to be partnered with some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment for the 2013 edition of the Southern Pigskin College Football Pick’em. Country music sensation Rodney Atkins is once again joining publisher B.J. Bennett, editor Matt Osborne and ESPN Radio Coastal Georgia’s Kevin Thomas in picking the winners of the seven biggest ACC and SEC games of the week. Joining Atkins as celebrity game pickers are international wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan and former conference coaches of the year Tommy Bowden and Bill Curry.

Atkins, who recently performed on Jekyll Island, Georgia at an event hosted by Southern Pigskin, has released six chart-topping country music singles. His latest hit “Take a Back Road” accounted for his highest-ever placement on the Hot 100. This will be Atkins’ fourth year picking games with SouthernPigskin.com. Last season, he rallied to a runner-up finish in the standings. Atkins is a huge Tennessee football fan and was born in East Tennessee.

“It’s fun, you never know what is going to happen,” he explained on Three and Out on the Southern Pigskin Radio Network. “I get my buddies involved with it and ask them what they think because we are going to be talking about football anyway. It makes me look at the games a little bit more. It’s a lot of fun.”

Few names in the world carry the muscle, for lack of a better phrase, of Hogan. He currently headlines Impact Wrestling on Spike TV each Thursday night. He is a 12-time world champion and is the longest-reigning WCW World Heavyweight Champion of all-time. Hogan is also the second-longest combined reigning WWF Champion of all-time. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.

Bowden, who played at West Virginia, compiled at 90-49 career record as head coach at Tulane and Clemson, going undefeated with the Greene Wave in 1998. In a dozen years as a head coach, he never suffered a losing season. He was twice named the ACC Coach of the Year, once the C-USA Coach of the Year and was named the FCA Football Coach of the Year in 2006. Bowden’s assistant stops include Alabama, Auburn, Duke, Florida State and Kentucky. Along with his father Bobby and brother Terry, Tommy is a part of college football’s most famous family.

Curry played 13 NFL seasons after a college career at Georgia Tech. Following an assistant stint with the Green Bay Packers, he went on to be the head coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia State. Curry won an SEC Championship with the Crimson Tide in 1989, was named the SEC Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1989 and the ACC Coach of the Year in 1985. He was honored with the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year award in 1989. He also served as a college football analyst for ESPN.

Doug Barnard, life-long friend and former tour manager of Atkins, now a pharmaceutical sales executive, will also be picking. This is his second year taking part in the challenge.

While the pick’em is, supposedly, all in good fun, some serious pride is on the line.

“One of the reasons I’m so excited is because those guys don’t have a chance. I’m going to let my wife and daughter pick every other week just to give those guys a chance. Coach Curry, I’m sure, will give me a run for my money, but those other guys don’t have a chance,” Bowden laughed.

Visit SouthernPigskin.com each week and follow Southern Pigskin on Facebook and Twitter to see the picks and keep track of the wins and losses. Osborne won the title in 2012.