2023 NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool

It's 2023, and that means it's time to welcome you to the 13th annual Crone Brothers Survivor Pool sponsored by THOROUGH CROWD!

For those of you who follow college basketball you know that it was a torturous year full of heartbreak, disaster, unhappiness, and most of all....PAIN. Oh, I mean, unless you aren't a Louisville fan, if that's the case I guess it was probably a pretty typical college basketball season. 

But, for me, college basketball, once an escape from the monotony of life has turned into an ever present darkness lurking just over my head and just within my soul. Instead of watching college basketball all season I just wasted time doing things like cooking dinner, hanging out with my wife, and other monotonous chores that bring no joy or happiness. Calm down. I'm joking. But, like 99% of our participants, she won't be reading this anyway, so she can't get mad at me. Plus, let's be real, she's the one that would rather not be forced to hang out with me...

If there is one thing that can give us a tiny bit of happiness in this horrific college basketball season it is our beloved Survivor Pool. 

Last year we ended up with a prize pool of nearly $20,000, and a lot of us were losing picks early and often as Goliath's fell and David's excelled (well, not me). It was a year of chaos, and that trend doesn't look like it will go anywhere as this season has been about as unpredictable as ever. I could prove this point by listing a bunch of efficiency stats that I think prove this point nicely, but I know most of the 5 people that reads this won't want to dive into a bunch of nerd stuff, so I digress.

So, without further ado onto the rules and regulations of the one pool to rule them all:

I've done this for over a decade; are there any big changes?!

Just my "unnecessary effort rake" that I piloted with wild success in the NFL Playoff pool will be making its debut here. I put all the details at the bottom, but seeing as it's new this year, I'll include the same text up top:

We will payout the entirety of the pool save what I like to call the "unnecessary effort rake" that I am instituting starting this year. See, I started running this pool b/c I wanted to be in a pool like this and it didn't exist, so I built it myself - I know, some real "Field of Dreams" shit. Anywho, I'd continue running it for free if people just followed the rules and did everything as laid out. But, they don't. They never do. So, I now take a rake depending on effort I need to expend to fix your all's mistakes, which is as follows:

$1/back end fix - you put in a trailing space, you didn't use the numbering system properly, etc. Who knows, these happen a ton day 1.

$2/"Did you read the rules" email - any questions I get that are either clearly spelled out or heavily implied that I respond to in this way will pocket me a good ol' Paper Tommy J.

$5/effort email - I had to chase someone down for a pick/payment, someone emailed begging me to change a pick, etc etc etc. - special requests and just general stuff any well-functioning adult in 2023 should be able to do will net me a Hey Blinken.

So, here's 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 for Day 1. The Day 2+ form will be linked to the scoreboard post on Thursday. 
• 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)
• 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.

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 or try to pick the same team again, you're out. I'll try to chase you down best I can, but 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.

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 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.  

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.  (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.

Payment

• 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 (ok 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, which I will not kick back into the pool. Additionally, if you win and you cost me a commission, I'll make sure you're prize is the one that eats that 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 five 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. We will payout the entirety of the pool save what I like to call the "unnecessary effort rake" that I am instituting starting this year. See, I started running this pool b/c I wanted to be in a pool like this and it didn't exist - I know, some real "Field of Dreams" shit. Anywho, I'd continue running it for free if people just followed the rules and did everything as laid out. But, they don't. They never do. So, I now take a rake depending on effort I need to expend to fix your all's mistakes, which is as follows:
• $1/back end fix - you put in a trailing space, you didn't use the numbering system properly, etc. Who knows, these happen a ton day 1.
• $2/"Did you read the rules" email - any questions I get that are either clearly spelled out or heavily implied that I respond to in this way will pocket me a good ol' Paper Tommy J.
• $5/effort email - I had to chase someone down for a pick/payment, someone emailed begging me to change a pick, etc etc etc. - special requests and just general stuff any well-functioning adult in 2023 should be able to do will net me a Hey Blinken.