It's March which means two thing:
1. It's going to be 70 degrees today and 18 degrees tomorrow.
2. It's time to get obsessed with/gamble on college basketball!
I can't help you with the first of those. But, friend, we've got you covered on number 2!
Usually I kick off our tournament pools with insane ramblings no one reads...but, this time I hope you take a minute to actually read this!
WE DO NOT MAKE MONEY HOSTING THESE POOLS. One, that would be illegal. Two, we enjoy them. BUT, if you enjoy these pools and want to say thanks there is something that I'd love for you to do, let me explain:
Two years ago we started buying and racing Thoroughbreds with some friends and family under the stable name Thorough Crowd. In 2020 we had 15 starts with 2 wins. In 2021 we had 64 starts and 11 wins, and we plan to keep growing. If you know us at all, and I realize some of you don't with how much our Tourney Pools have grown, you know that Thoroughbred racing has always been a huge part of our lives. When we started Thorough Crowd we wanted to create racing partnerships that operated at a price point where almost anyone can get involved. But beyond that, we want to create partnerships where there are no crazy fees or price gouging, where the horses are prioritized and treated properly, and to still be successful while doing accomplishing those things.
So, if you enjoy these Tourney Pools and want to return a favor to us, then I'd ask you to do the following:
1. If you've ever thought, "It would be cool to own a racehorse" - Great. Thorough Crowd is a perfect way to make that happen. We'll be running horses this spring/summer in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia for sure. We'll probably run in Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois as well.
2. If you have no interest in owning horses but have friends/family that do, please pass this along to them.
Owning and racing Thoroughbreds was always something I dreamed of doing. And, it's amazing to me that it's something that has happened and that we've been able to have some success with. Last year in 64 starts we had 11 wins (17.2% winners) and 33 of our 64 starters finished in the top 3 (51.6%). For comparison the leading owner in America last year, Godolphin, owned by sheikh Mohammed of Dubai maybe the wealthiest man on the planet a guy that can afford literally any horse in the world, finished the year with 18% winners and 53% in the money. Now, Godolphin is running in some more valuable races obviously, but our percentages and success really are a testament to us finding undervalued horses and placing them properly to have success.
We currently own 11 Thoroughbreds (a few have shares available to purchase) and our goal is to keep growing Thorough Crowd. To bring more new fans and owners to the sport of horse racing. So, I'm hopeful that a few of our Tourney Pool participants might want to get involved and get in on some horses with us. But, I'd also love if you followed us on social media (@ThoroughCrowd on Twitter/IG/Facebook), I'd love if you suggest a friend/family member to check us out, and I'd love for you to reach out with any questions/thoughts/comments/etc. to: David@ThoroughCrowd.com.
www.thoroughcrowd.com (not super up to date, hopefully will get things more current on here soon)
Ok, that ends the Thorough Crowd portion of this message. Now, let's get all the usual links out of the way for the regulars...
- 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.
- 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, 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
- Zelle: steelcard30@gmail.com
- Tournament Bracket Links:
Ok, and with that, the standard rigamaroll...
- AAC (Where Houston isn't the 1 seed so FREE SQUARE!)
- ACC (Don't do it, Louisville fans...)
- Big 12 (which has 10 teams; counting is hard)
- Big East (Hey UCONN is back & nobody noticed!)
- Big Ten (Bloodbath)
- Mountain West (Our A-10 sub who was really good that one time like seven years ago)
- Pac-12 (Minus Arizo-noooooooo)
- SEC (Don't do it, Kentucky fans...)
- Championship win – 4 points
- Semifinal win – 3 points
- Quarterfinal win – 2 points
- “Quarterquarterfinal”? win – 1 point
- 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. 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.
- 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/zelle to the account listed above - seriously, it's 2021 and you haven't left your house in 365 days; by now, you should have an account on one of these services
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