hmmm. the link inside this article to the rules is not up yet. Is this a $75k investment or free money? If it's an investment, then this is totally bogus.
Investment. I agree, I don't see why it needs to be a contest, if there are good companies, why not just seed them. It is a better dollar value deal than YC, but if Northbridge doesn't fund you after the seed you will be DOA (or at least perceived as such).
$25k of the prize is composed of "in-kind development support from one of our software development partners".
The remaining $50k, the cash amount, is just a max upper limit amount ("Up to $50k in seed capital"), so who knows what the winners will actually get for the 5-10%.