In a neighboring kingdom, the younger brother slept well that night. And, while his brother awoke listless, the younger brother had less of a dream, and more of a vision. The following day he awoke rested. And, he knew he had the answer.
For as long as anyone could remember The NCAA Tournament was wagered upon in one way: filling out brackets. The single greatest spectacle in sports, a 64 team single-elimination blowout, was turned into a glorified lottery. Since the dawn of man this is how it had been. Sure, some people had brought up alternatives. But, they were typically hung in the town square for witchcraft. The brothers saw others endure this fate, but they pushed on.
When the younger brother spoke to his elder the next day he spoke of his vision. The black crow flew low against a red sky, the sun was rising, the day was born anew. He realized this could mean only one thing.....instead of filling out brackets people should make one selection each day in an NCAA TOURNAMENT SURVIVOR SHOWDOWN!
And, that's why, six years ago, we hastily threw together the greatest pool ever - The NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool! We thought we maxed out three years ago when we had over 100 entries. Then two years ago it grew even larger. And, last year was scary big with 222 entries and a winner walking away with $2000. Can it go even higher this year?! For the sakes of my chances I almost hope it doesn't, but let's see how high this baby can fly! Without further ado, the rules:
First, remind me of all the links and
stuff I need. I’m going to ask about it,
so just put it up here.
Good
call. Here’s a quick reference for all
the links you should need:
Entry Fee: $20/entry (no limit on entries per person, buy 2, buy 10, hell, buy 20, I might.)
- Website: tourneypools.blogspot.com – the leaderboard and all updates will be posted here. If you have a question where ANYTHING is, go here before asking, because odds are it’s here.
- Entry Form: Embedded in the bottom
- Email: tourneypools@gmail.com – I’m constantly monitoring this and can get back to you fairly quickly. I ask that you do not send questions asking if I got your pick or payment. If you see an error, then send me a question - 99% of the time it's something I screwed up.
- Paypal ID: tourneypools@gmail.com – yep, finally linked ‘em all up. BRANDING!
- Venmo ID: tourneypools@gmail.com - Venmo is basically Paypal for people who are somehow to slow on the uptake to figure out Paypal. You really have no excuse anymore. It's an app you can get on your fancy smartphone.
Wait wait wait, before you start into
your convoluted rules, did you change anything?
I played this stupid game last year, so just give me the changes so I
can get on with my day!
Ok ok
no need to yell here. We nixed the referral pool, but besides that, there's nothing new here. Just scroll to the bottom and enjoy the show!
As usual,
do not email,
text, call, direct message, or facebook message me picks. I will ignore them.
And
with that, now to the rules proper…
Rules
- Choose one team each day that you think will win for that particular day.
- If your team wins, congrats, you move on to the next day of picks (assuming you can still pick a team. If not, see next rule). If not, you are out. If you forget to pick one day, you will receive the “best” team available to you in the last set of games. The “best” team will be determined by whatever spread I find first, probably Bovada.
- Once you have a chosen a team, you cannot choose that team again for the rest of the contest. If you use Kentucky to beat Manhattan in round one, Kentucky will not be an available option if they are still alive in the Elite 8. If you ever get to a point where you cannot pick a team b/c you have used all the teams playing that day, then your entry will be treated like an entry who could pick that day and lost.
- This comes up every year as a point of contention, but just to reiterate – even if someone does not have a pick, you still have to pick correctly for that day to finish ahead of them. Picking to the point where you run out of teams is an acceptable strategy.
- Multiple entries are allowed – buy early, buy often
- How to submit picks:
- Every day, I will create a Google form that will be used by participants to choose their team for that day. The first day will ask for a handful of information. Subsequent days will not ask for as much info. Trust me when I say all info is necessary.
- Subsequent days will only ask for your entry name, email address, and your pick. Please enter your entry name as I have entered it on the Leaderboard. If you know anything about excel, you know how finicky computers are with matching things up if you don’t spell things the same way
- If you want to change your pick for a day, just use the same form and pick again. I can see timestamps on my end, and I’ll just take the latest one.
Deadlines
- Day One purchase and pick deadline is prior to tip for the last set of games of the evening, which usually occurs around 10:30 PM EST. If you lose at noon, go ahead and rebuy on day one - you will not be alone.
- Daily pick deadlines for rounds 1 and 2 are prior to tip for the last set of games for that day. For the Sweet 16 and later, the deadline is prior to tip of the first game of the day. Each form will have the deadline on there.
Winner/Tiebreaker
The
order of finish is first determined by the total number of winning picks made. In the event of a tie, the tie will be broken
in the following manner…
- Highest combined total of all seeds selected
- Ex: You and I get knocked out on Day 6. Because I’m awesome, I had that 12 seed that won in round one. My combined seed picking total is 28, and yours is 26. I win.
- Highest individual seed selected, and then second highest individual seed, etc.
- Ex. You and I get knocked out Day 6, but both of our combined seed totals are 28. I had my 12 seed, but your highest seed you picked was a 10 seed. I win again. (This was the tie-breaker we had to get to in 2012, so make sure you UNDERSTAND THIS RULE.)
- Highest individual seed selected by round, and then second highest individual seed by round, etc.
- Ex. You and I get knocked out Day 6, both of our combined seed totals are 28, and we have happened to have every seed we’ve chosen be the exact same. However, you picked a 10 seed to win in round 1 (which they did), but I had my 10 seed to win in round 2 (which they did). Once again you lose. You’re really bad at this. (If you don’t understand this rule, that’s fine. Odds are it will not come in to play.)
- If this does not result in a tie being broken, the pot will be split evenly.
Payment
- Entry cost: $20
- Money must be in my grubby hands in some form before you make your pick. The pool was big enough last year that I feel like I can big-time you all like this. You can do this one of three ways:
- Venmo - Venmo is a nifty app that lets you quickly send payments to people. You don't even have to worry about commissions. It's basically Paypal for dummies. My Venmo ID is above.
- PayPal – Still the easiest to track and you don’t have to track me down. The paypal ID is above. In addition, when paying on PayPal, CHOOSE THAT IT IS A PERSONAL PAYMENT! Otherwise, PayPal will take a commission. If you do not have a PayPal account, sign up now so it can check your bank account. Again, this is the preferred method of payment. Not only does it guarantee I get the money, it also GETS YOU PAID FASTER IF YOU WIN!!!
- Find my and physically hand me cash or a check. I literally have to have the payment in my hand. Do not call me and say “I’ll get you Sunday.” Not happening. Unless that Sunday is the Sunday before the tournament starts.
- Payouts will be determined at the end based on number of entries. We will not pay out beyond 7 spots.
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