Time is running out on the Fantasy Index Open. Player selections for this free contest lock on Thursday when the ball kicked off for the Bucs-Cowboys game.

This is a free contest, and it’s different than a regular fantasy league. There are no rosters, starting lineups or games. Instead, you submit a top 20 at each position (120 players in all), with every player earning points via a combination of his production and how high you ranked him.

The overall champion will take home a big trophy from the team at Affordable Trophies. They’ve been partnering with us on this contest for years.

So far, over 800 have entered this contest, and some need to go back and fine-tune their entries. A half dozen notable players were released in the roster cutdowns last week, and it would undermine your entry to lose points by having a player who’s not going to play in all 17 games. Most notably, Cody Parkey, Nick Folk, Michael Badgley, Randy Bullock and Cam Newton appeared on many entries submitted in the first half of August. If you picked one of those players, you’ll want to update your entry before Thursday night.

This competition is free, and it’s open to everyone. The top 2 finishers will win berths in the Experts Poll in next year’s magazine.

Robert Heater (Gaithersburg, Md.), David Weissmiller (Mount Carroll, Ill.) and Dave Cohen (Brooklyn) were the big winners last year, outperforming almost 600 other entries. Heater took home the trophy.

To access the 2021 version of the contest, log into the site and then click on “YOUR STUFF”. The contest is one of the pull-down options, under “Fantasy Index Open 2021”. Those who are already logged in can get to the contest by clicking here.

The contest is free, but to be eligible to win you must sign up on the website, providing a name and mailing address. If you were to sign up without supplying a name, you wouldn’t be eligible to win the trophy (which is huge).

Once on the website, use the drag-and-drop technology to select your 120 players – 20 each at QB, RB, WR, TE, K and DEF. You’re stuck with those players for the duration of the 18-week regular season, so be careful about selecting players who are more likely to serve suspensions or miss games with injuries. There are no waiver moves or trades, so when a player doesn’t play, you get a zero from him that week. (If Deshaun Watson were to miss half the season, for example, it would be difficult for him to finish as one of the 20 best quarterbacks.)

Entries are due before the start of the first game of the regular season – next Thursday. Until then, feel free to start on your picks, coming back to make adjustments for injuries and holdouts. But once that deadline hits, all entries are locked.

For scoring, we’re using PPR, with players getting 1 point for each reception. Additionally, players receive 6 points for touchdowns, 4 for TD passes, 1 for every 10 run/rec yards and 1 for every 20 passing yards. Defenses receive 2 points for takeaways, 1 for sacks and 6 for every touchdown scored on a return of a takeaway or kick. Kickers get regular NFL points – 3 for field goals and 1 for PATs.

We’ll come back and score all of the picks using a complex scoring matrix that combines a player’s production against where he was ranked. Basically, the higher you rank him, the most his production counts. Suppose, for example, that Justin Tucker finishes the season with 100 points. If you ranked Tucker first, that would net you 2,500 points (25 x 100). If you ranked him second, you would receive 2,400 (24 x 100). Third would be 2,300 (23 x 100) and so on down to 20th being worth 600 points (6 x 100). We use that same approach for all 120 players ranked by each entry, with the overall high score winning the title.