Here we are again, Christmas Eve for basketball dorks. And like Santa Claus we are here to come down your chimney, take your cookies, drink your non-dairy milk alternative, and bring you a little joy in the form of the
2022 NCAA Survivor Pool
The one pool to rule them all!
Typically I rant and rave with a long winded nonsensical opening to the annual festivities. But this year I am dedicating the kick off to the Survivor Pool's 2022 sponsor:
Yes, that's right, we have a sponsor! Our sponsor is us. We are Thorough Crowd.
QUESTION: But, David, what the heck is a Thorough Crowd?
Well Timmy, I'm glad you asked. Thorough Crowd offers the world's greatest Thoroughbred racing partnerships. What makes them the world's greatest partnerships? Here's a few cool facts about Thorough Crowd
- We use data driven strategies to select undervalued horses
- We don't charge any crazy upfront fees or price markups (most people charge 3x or 4x the cost of a horse, we charge what the horse cost because that's what the horse cost...)
- We treat our horses with the best possible care we can
- We keep the pricing affordable so that anyone can be involved (we're talking like $100/share on some horses)
- We win races at tracks like Churchill Downs (no Keeneland wins yet, but we'll have 5 or 6 runners there in April) and have an overall strike rate similar to groups spending 10x more than us...
If you enjoy Tourney Pools and have ever watched a horse race, the least you can do is sign up for our Thorough Crowd email list: https://thoroughcrowd.com/contact/
Did you sign up?
No? Well, go do that then come back here.
All done?
That was awesome of you and I really appreciate it. I hope you have great luck in the Survivor Pool and that every team you pick stays out of foul trouble and hits their threes.
Ok, with our sponsorship note out of the way, that brings us to the Pool. We just wrapped up our biggest Conference Tournament Pool ever, and we expect to have $12,000+ in the Survivor Pool this year. Tell your friends, tell your family, let your kids enter (it teaches money management and risk analysis probably), maybe let your pet have an entry or two (that one octopus picks soccer games), everyone should play!
Well, I guess that's enough preamble, here are the rules:
I've done this for over a decade; are there any big changes?!
No major rules changes, but with payment through Venmo - A LOT of people are sending their Venmo payments to the wrong person. I put a Venmo link below so it's easier to send payments, and y'all still mess this up (it's not hard and you should feel bad). If you screw up I'm telling the similarly named guy to me to pocket $5 per missed payment sent to him as a mea culpa. That extra $5 is your responsibility to cover when you send it back.
THIS IS THE CORRECT VENMO THERE IS ONE L IN PHILIP, DON'T MESS THIS UP!: https://www.venmo.com/u/Philip-Crone
- 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 for Day 1. The Day 2+ form will be linked to the scoreboard post on Friday.
- Email: tourneypools@gmail.com – I’m constantly monitoring this and can get back to you fairly quickly. All forms this year ask for email addresses so you can receive a receipt of your pick. If you got that receipt back, then I have your pick.
- Paypal ID: paypal.me/philipcrone (MAKE SURE TO CHOOSE PERSONAL PAYMENT)
- Once again, the correct PhiLip: Venmo ID: https://www.venmo.com/u/Philip-Crone
- Zelle - steelcard30@gmail.com - a lot of banks use Zelle, so if you're terrified to give your information to anyone else, Zelle probably has it already, so feel free to use that if you're extra nervous about anything.
- 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 or try to pick the same team again, you're out. Look, I've made this thing as automated as possible; I can't hold your hand on everything.
- Once you have a chosen a team, you cannot choose that team again for the rest of the contest. If you use Baylor to beat Hartford in round 1, you cannot use Baylor again for the remainder of the tournament. 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 release 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, and your pick. Entry names will be in a drop-down list, so simply find your remaining entry (or entries) name(s) and then make your selection.
- 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.
- 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 EDT. If you lose at noon, go ahead and re-buy on day one - you will not be alone. AGAIN YOU CAN RE-BUY UNTIL THE LAST GAME TIPS OFF ON DAY ONE!!!
- 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.
- 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. (You'd be surprised how often we get this granular, 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.
- Entry cost: $20
- Money must be in my grubby hands in some form before you make your pick. You can do this one of six (really four) 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.
- Zelle - I'm still not totally sure what Zelle is, but people asked for it, so here ya go.
- Mail - No one has used mail for this in four years so there is no more mail option. If this is distressing let me know.
- Crypto/NFT - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA that shit ain't real.
- Find me or one of my designated trusted goons (whoever told you about this pool is probably one of them) and physically hand one of us 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 have never paid beyond 10 spots, but who knows.
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