Payout Info & Day 6 Recap - Boom Goes the Dynamite

Leaderboard Link again, because I think you're super lazy

Saturday Pick Form Deadline is 6:09 Eastern (the real timezone) tomorrow.

Up First, Payout Info:

1st - $2,300
2nd - $1,250
3rd - $650
4th - $400
5th - $300
6th - $200
7th - $97.36 (someone screwed up their PayPal payment.....)

Onto the recap...

Well ladies, gentlemen, and various others that don't fit neatly into either of those categories, we have officially gone beyond the midpoint of our lovely little adventure through the jungle that we fondly refer to as the NCAA Tournament. Six days are down, and just four remain standing between you and Survivor Pool Immortality. Will you be the master of the universe? Will you be the champion of champions? Will your cuisine reign supreme?

I feel at this point I need to disclose a dirty little secret. We said that we run this pool because we enjoy participating and we enjoy running it. Those are somewhat true, but you may have also noticed some ads have been popping up on the blog over the last few weeks. It does bring me some level of shame to admit that yes, we have officially sold out. What was once a pool we ran for the love of the game has become as cheap and tawdry as so many other great businesses that came before it. I feel it is only right to let you know that, through tricking you to come to our blog over multiple days, we have been able to rack up $2.33 worth of sweet, sweet, ad revenue. We always said the money wouldn't change us, but I did see Philip shopping for something on Amazon last week...

The early games saw Virginia v Iowa State and Wisconsin v Notre Dame. As expected, most everyone opted to save Virginia for a rainy day, and no on was brave (or stupid) enough to try their luck with Iowa State. But, all of you little girls that felt discretion was the better part of valor turned out to be correct. The four of you that used Virginia moved on...but, at what cost?

I really expected Notre Dame v Wisconsin would be a very contentious pick. I thought the breakdown here would be in the neighborhood of even. I thought it would probably lean slightly to Notre Dame. But, instead I was wrong (s usual) and Notre Dame was an overwhelming favorite with 28 picks compared to just nine on Wisconsin. Of course, as with virtually every other game in this tournament, our basketball selecting think tank was dead on. Really, why don't we all just submit picks to every game, bet money lines on who the crowd selects, and retire to Grenada. Why Grenada? Because I was going to put Turks and Caicos, but I didn't know how to spell it, and I still don't know how to pronounce it. That would work, right? This group is never horribly wrong!!! (Foreshadowing.....)

Apparently those that chose Wisconsin forgot about this secret I revealed a few days ago about Notre Dame: at that point it became clear that Notre Dame truly does own an actual leprechaun that they have tied to a post in their locker room granting them wishes. I dare you to deny that claim after tonight's comeback.

The late games would surely bring more of the same, right? The majority has been right all post season. The overwhelmingly popular pick was Gonzaga. It's unusual to get an 11 seed as a 4 point favorite in the Sweet 16...it was an offer many of our tiny buffalo children were unable to refuse. The Zags seemed to be cruising, our 51 participants were smiling, they were putting their children to bed, they were laughing, they were living....

AND, BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE!

We knew it would happen eventually. At some point in time the right pick goes horribly wrong. In one fell swoop we lost over half of the remaining living souls.

UNC v Indiana didn't matter.

Good luck tomorrow everyone (much less everyone than yesterday), shit has officially gotten real.