Monday, March 9, 2020

2020 NCAA Conference Tournament Pool!


March is here and the hellish icy grip of winter is beginning to recede. Sure, there's a plague attacking the world and killing everyone, the stock market is in free fall, and Goop is a thing....but, hey, we've got Baby Yoda now...and people don't seem to be eating Tide Pods that often anymore...and it's time for the annual Crone Brother Conference Tournament Pool! So, things aren't ALL bad!

Now, sure, the Conference Tournament Pool isn't AS fun as the NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool. Yes, some see it simply as the little brother to our award winning pool that follows it. But, every great meal must start with a perfect amuse bouche. Wait...my audience here is more of an Applebee's crowd....every great meal must start with a perfect chilli cheese fry platter! And, that is what our Conference Tournament Pool is! A perfect foray into the college basketball world to whet your appetite and sharpen your focus before the NCAA Tournament fires up next week.

Look, you're quarantined in your house for the next six months anyway, so you might as well have some fun. Plus, all of our tournament pools pay out 100% of the money collected, so they're an infinitely better investment right now than the silly stock market and insane financial instruments like 401Ks (more like 4-0-no-ways!...got em).

None of the major rules have changed from last year, but in case you didn't love them so much that you memorized them, here’s a quick reference for all the links you should need:
  • Buy-in: $20/entry
  • Entry Form – Embedded at the bottom.  You're welcome.  Do not email, text, call, direct message, or facebook message me picks.  I will ignore them.
  • Websitetourneypools.blogspot.com – the leaderboard and all updates will be posted here.  If you have a question where ANYTHING is, go here before asking, b/c odds are it’s here.
  • Email: tourneypools@gmail.com – I’m constantly monitoring this and can get back to you fairly quickly.
  • Paypal ID: paypal.me/PhilipCrone
  • Venmo ID: @Philip-Crone
  • Tournament Bracket Links:
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!

Nah, I've perfected this finally.  Just head on down to the bottom and make your picks!

The Rules
  • Participants each pick one team from each of the 8 conference tournaments specified below.  Who you can pick will be based on seed in the tournament.  Participants can pick only one 1 seed, 1 2 seed, 1 3 seed, 1… you get the idea.  Here’s the conference tourneys we will be choosing from:
    • A-10 (Remember when this conference was ok?)
    • AAC (UConn: Look AAC, it's not you, it's me.)
    • ACC (You can use your 8+ seed on UNC!)
    • Big 12 (which has 10 teams; counting is hard)
    • Big East (Best conference in basketball?)
    • Big Ten (Everyone already beat everyone, good luck!)
    • Pac-12 (Still a thing!)
    • SEC (Big Money if you pick a winner here!)
  • You may replace a better seeded team w/ a worse seeded team in your 8 team entry if you so choose.  For example, if you do not like any 3 seeds in any conference tournament, you can replace your “3 seed” slot with any other team seeded 4 or higher.  Likewise, this also means that teams higher than an 8 seed are eligible to be used in any slots.
  • Scoring will be as follows:
    • Championship win – 4 points
    • Semifinal win – 3 points
    • Quarterfinal win – 2 points
    • “Quarterquarterfinal”? win – 1 point
  • This scoring means that only four games maximum will be counted.  Teams playing in a fifth game will not have those wins counted.
Entry Fees & Payouts
  • Buy-in price is $20
  • Multiple entries are allowed
  • Pool will be paid out 100%.  The only way the moderators make money is if we are smart enough to beat you fools down. Which happened last year.  Win your pride back dammit!
  • The number of places to be paid out and the allocation of the prize pool in those paid out places will be determined by the moderators once numbers are final and published before the end of the first day of the contest.
  • In the event of a tie, participants will split any winnings evenly.  I know I’m famous for my obtrusive tiebreaker rules – I’m taking the lazy way out until someone complains and I fix it next year.
Deadlines
  • All entries & $$$ must be submitted by Wednesday, March 11th, 2019 at 6 PM EDT – There are a handful of games before that, so if you want those games counted, get your entry in!  You may use these teams after they tip and before the deadline, but their points in these games will NOT count toward your total!  Also, the Tuesday ACC games don't get any points. So, you can pick UNC (for instance), but you get nothing unless they beat Syracuse.
  • The first Wednesday game tips off at Noon EDT, so if you want to be 100% sure, just get entries in by then. All entries are time stamped when submitted, so don't whine that it was on time.
      • $$$ can be sent in one of three ways
        • You hand it to a moderator in cash or check form\
        • Mail a check/cash to 1601 Beechwood Ave., New Albany, IN 47150
        • Send it via paypal/venmo to the account listed above – this is by far the easiest method for all involved.  If you don’t have a paypal account, sign up for one.  I set up an experiment where I asked a dimwitted chimpanzee to sign up for a paypal account, and it took the chimp 2 minutes and 28 seconds.  I bet you can easily finish under 3 minutes.  Or are you dumber than a dimwitted chimpanzee?  I don’t know, I guess it’s possible.
        • No IOU’s will be accepted.  This isn’t a charity.  Maybe when UNICEF gets into the tournament pool business, you can go there and give them your IOU.  Until then, we’re the guys to talk to.
      Congrats on making it to the end!  Your prize?  An entry form!

      Entry Form Link


      Friday, January 3, 2020

      2020 NFL Playoff Survivor Pool

      Look, I know this is very late, but my dad yelled at me to get it done, so.... Better late than never???

      Hey man!  I did this last year.  Just tell me what changed so I can get on with my day.

      Now that I'm a family man, I don't have time to be updating this thing multiple times on the weekend... Plus the individual days make it too likely that we don't have a pick for the Super Bowl.  Therefore, Wildcard & Divisional Playoff Weekends will just be two picks for the weekend, regardless of day.  Easy enough?

      Ok, on to the rules proper....

      The Basics

      - Each weekend, you pick 1-2 teams depending on how many days there are games that weekend.  If you're team(s) wins, congrats!  You live to fight another day.  If not, it's GAME OVER MAN!
      - As with any survivor pool, you cannot pick the same team twice.  If you do pick the same team twice and don't catch it yourself, you're out.  If you do catch it in time, just resubmit.
      - Picks must be submitted via Google Forms that I will both post here and send to participants once available.
      - Due to how few possible combinations of selections there are, there is no tiebreaker in this game.
      - The pool will be "winner take all," but I'm figuring there will be a few people there at the end, so everyone who makes it to the last day and picks the winner (whatever that is) will split the pot.
      - Just in case anyone is unaware, there are a possible total of SIX games to be picked - wild card weekend (2 games), divisional playoff weekend (2 games) championship Sunday, and finally super bowl Sunday.  Plan accordingly!

      Entry

      - Cost will be $20
      - You may buy only a maximum of THREE entries
      - Easiest way to pay is, as usual, via PayPal or Venmo.  
      • Venmo: @Philip-Crone
      • Cash/Checks: Get it in my hands or mail it to Oeffinger-Crone, 1601 Beechwood Ave, New Albany, IN 47150
      - For those of you who still live in 1997 and are scared of computers and think everything that happened in that Sandra Bullock movie The Net is real, I guess you can find me and hand the money over.  If you choose this route, you need to do so before the kickoff of the first game, which is SATURDAY, JANUARY 6th, 2018. 

      That's it.  As usual, feel free to forward this along to friends who may want to play.  If you have any questions, just let me know.  I'll use the same website (tourneypools.blogspot.com) for all updates.  Good luck all!

      Pick Forms Below!