2023 NCAA Tournament Survivor Central

Ok, here should be everything you need for the rest of the tournament! Bookmark this forever (or until, like, 3 weeks from now) to see anything and everything you need!

Survivor Pool Leaderboard

Day 2+ Pick Form (This form will be the only form you'll need for the remainder of the tournament)

Daily Recaps

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

2023 Survivor Pool Day 3 Recap

Day 3 began with 370 of the original 890 entries alive and picking. So, yeah 58% of the entries were already dead after the opening round. But, the good news is that with those first round upsets in the book, surely Day 3 would be more formful and easier to pick right? Right? RIGHT?

Quick Links for the Lazy - Leaderboard    Pick Form

Coming into Day 3 everyone was ready for things to settle down and the Cinderellas to head home. San Diego State understood the assignment and put away Furman with little trouble. There were 78 entries, 21% of the remaining picks, on the Aztecs. Those 78 move onto Sunday with little resistance.

But it didn't take long for things to get interesting. Duke looked like a juggernaut in Round 1, but, as we've seen over and over this March, past performance doesn't matter and everything is random. And 19 people passed up the alleged easy advancement options and fell on the Duke grenade. Shout out to SAMUEL HOUSTON2, the only one smart enough to pick Tennessee and the March Magician Rick Barnes!

So, we had the upset for the day, back to your planned programming with a nice safe number 1 seed Kansas, right? Wrong again muchacho! Kansas losing only took out 5 entries and the Arkansas advance helped literally no one, but it's still an upset, so it still matters.

But, surely taking Missouri over Princeton was safe right? It had to be safe, right? The SEC is winning every game, hell, Arkansas just beat Kansas! And Princeton isn't a basketball school. It's one of those academic schools! With a staggering 150 entries putting their faith in Mizzou, the Tigers laid an absolute egg and sent 40% of the remaining entries home just like that. And, really, it was never even in doubt. Princeton dominated this game from the word go and the 6 entries that swung for the fences with the 15 seed are now sitting very pretty heading into Sunday. The six of you deserve honorary degrees from Princeton for a move this savvy. If Kermit the Frog can get a Doctorate for doing nothing, y'all certainly deserve at least a Bachelors for this.

The last three games returned to normalcy and stayed formful. There were 11 entries that advanced with Houston, 15 with Texas, and 53 went ahead and burned UCLA in exchange for a relatively safe advancement. The losses of Penn St., Auburn, and Northwestern only claimed 9 entries.

I was really hoping Texas would lose because I was all set to pull out a nice, "Well I guess Texas choked, huh?" line in this recap. But, the joke is on Texas, because I just used it anyway.

I'm posting this recap before Alabama and Maryland finish because I'm going to bed, but just 11 picks on Bama and 0 on Maryland means not a whole lot will change with this outcome.

As of now, 175 entries will be moving on to Sunday (164 if Bama loses). So, 19.7% of the original entries are playing on Sunday. It's been an absolute blood bath. So bad in fact that we are seriously considering doing a second survivor pool this Tournament starting in the Sweet 16. Let's see if the chaos continues!

2023 Survivor Pool Day 2 Recap

 We started the day with just 507 entries still alive after a rough Day 1. As Day 2 is drawing close to an end it looks like we'll have about 350 of those entries moving on to Day 3.

Entry Form. Leaderboard. 

And hey STOP ENTERING YOUR GOD DAMN ENTRY NAMES WRONG ON THE FORM.

Look, this isn't rocket science. For instance, I have an entry named "D$ Buy With Thorough Crowd8" So, I enter EXACTLY THAT on the entry form. I don't enter extra spaces, I don't put a space before the 8, I don't for some insane reason put my full name there or my email address. I put the freaking entry name, it's not that hard guys. To make it super simple, I just copy and paste it off the leaderboard, it's literally idiot proof. When there's 500 entries and 200 of you can't even copy and paste something without screwing it up it creates hours of work to just clean up all your mistakes, so stop making them. Next year we will literally have to consider invalidating any entry that can't follow instructions.

Ok, that said, onto a quick recap...the opening game of the day was USC v Michigan State and apparently we weeded out some of our lousiest pickers because unlike the toss up games yesterday, this one actually resulted in more winners than losers. There were 22 entrants that put their faith in Izzo and he saw them through. The 9 entries on USC kicked off the day with a few losers to go home. 

With a lot of people staying a little more conservative on Day 2 the most popular pick on the day was in Game 2 where Xavier had 51 picks. And, while the Musketeers did everything they could to lose this game, Kennesaw State eventually just decided Sean Miller is a classy guy that deserved to get the win. Zero people picked Kennesaw, and in the next game zero people picked UCSB against Baylor. So, not much excitement. 

There were 13 people who tried to get VCU home in the 12v5 match-up, but they once again the chalk prevailed with St. Mary's moving 17 entries on.

Marquette and another UofL coaching candidate, my guy, Shaka Smart won easily and moved 17 entries on with zero picks against. Another 36 picks advanced with Creighton vs just 2 losers on NC State. And UConn was popular advancing 25 entries while only eliminating one entry as AAAKrafty7 was the only person brave enough to pick St. John's Coach Rick Pitino.

BUT, the day wasn't completely boring. Pittsburgh once again proved that the ACC is the strongest conference in the nation as they dismantled Iowa State. There were 32 picks on Iowa State vs just ONE pick on Pittsburgh, and it was Fouse7 who had the guts to back Jeff Capel and the Panthers. We should really add a bonus for if someone is the only pick on a winner like this. It's our game, no one can stop us, maybe next year.

And as a somewhat quiet day rolled along, as so often seems to happen during the NCAA Tournament's first round....BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE! There were 27 entries that said to themselves, "You know what, Painter's gonna choke in this Tournament, so I might as well burn Purdue now." Oh you simple fools. I actually feel bad for Matt Painter, the dude is a consistently great coach that has top 15 caliber teams every year, but man...the dude is doing something wrong in March. Maybe relying on 7'6 inch lumbering giants just isn't a recipe for Tournament success? And how about FDU Coach Tobin Anderson? Dude talked his shit and called his shot....and he was right. And he also has a future taking on this dude after his basketball coaching career ends.

And to the 33 Memphis entries, I feel your pain. What a shitshow the refereeing was late in that game. The two picks on FAU got a gift there for sure.

To those of you still alive, good luck with Day 3!

2023 Survivor Pool Day 1 Recap

Day One is in the books, we ended the day with a ridiculous 889 entries for a prize pool of $17,780! But, out of those 889, only 506 will be moving on to pick on Day Two. 

As a reminder: LEADERBOARD and DAY TWO PICK FORM

It's sort of incredible how hard it is for people to even pick one winner in the NCAA Tournament, as we are all reminded every year. Needing ONE winner, almost half of us were unable to even clear that absurdly low bar.

But, as we saw today sometimes all the preparation and experience in the world can mean nothing when the pressure is on. Yeah, Virginia's 12th year Senior guard Kihei Clark made an all time bonehead play as it became quite evident that Tony Bennett truly did sell his soul for that one NCAA Championship he won. We had 53 entries crash and burn with that ill fated decision, but have no fear East Virginians, your West Virginian brethren fared no better. Just 9 entries were smart enough to realize Tony Bennett is still Tony Bennett, and they'll move on to day two.

The most popular pick early in the day, West Virginia also had an assorted comedy of errors in blowing their game against Maryland and taking down 65 entries in their wake. At least they'll have a nice song for their return trip to Morgantown. Only 15 entries were brave enough to pick a Big Ten school to start the day, and they were rewarded with a trip to day 2. 

And, while on the subject of dreams being crushed, we also say goodbye to Utah State and the 63 entries that met their final resting place as the Aggies got sent home. In a funny twist, 63 is the exact number of children the Utah State basketball team has collectively fathered. The one upside for Utah State being sent home early is that now they'll get to spend all that extra time hanging out with their families. Although, not all of the Aggies were ready to get back to their kids at home. There were 25 entries on Missouri, so this one wasn't quite as lopsided as some of the other games, but the clear Pool Pick was still a loser as our group of entrants desperately tries to prove that James Surowiecki is an idiot.

Arizona goes down as the Day 1 team that hilariously lost, but didn't hurt that many people as only the chalkiest of weasels would possibly burn an early Day 1 pick on a 2 seed...but 11 of those weasels did exist, and they paid for their trying to get an easy trip through Day 1.

The bloodbath just sort of continued all day with a lot of popular selections sent home. Boise picks sent 30 packing, Charleston took down 28, Illinois and Iowa partnered up to take out another 43. 

But there were some popular winners. Arkansas moved through 50 entries, Auburn graduated 44 entries to tomorrow, Duke moved 52.

After a pretty brutal day for many one of the highlights of the day for me was all the desperation picks that poured in on the late games. Tennessee alone was picked by 132 entries, and while they cruised early, they remembered Rick Barnes coached them with about 6 minutes left and very nearly pulled off an incredible collapse. To the 4 entries on Louisiana, you almost pulled it off.

The 73 late entries on Texas A&M didn't fare as well. And I think we all know why. It was another heavily skewed game where the masses got it all wrong. Only 23 entries were placed on Penn State and the future head coach of the University of Louisville (I'm just gonna keep putting this into the universe and try to manifest it into being...)

And finally, in one last look at how impossible it is to figure out college basketball, UCLA just completely dismantled UNC Asheville. Now, of course, a 2 over a 15 isn't surprising....but, when you look at the two 2v15 match-ups today it's a little surprising...

So, yeah, 5 days ago two teams, Arizona and UCLA, played in an incredibly competitive Pac 12 Championship Game. UCLA, a team full of injuries, ended up losing by 2. Arizona, a healthy team now on a roll emerged victorious. And now, today, UCLA and Arizona entered the Tourney as 2 seeds. The victor 5 days ago lost to a 15 seed, the loser 5 days ago stomped the life out of their 15 seed. And, sure, why not? Good luck figuring this game out tomorrow.

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.

2023 NCAA Conference Tournament Leaderboard

 Hey everyone,

The leaderboard is now live! Thanks for playing!

Leaderboard

I may have a few fairly late entries I still need to add, so bear with me if you entered late and just don't see it yet. Thanks!

2023 NCAA Conference Tournament Pool!

Well, we're here. Again. In March. Or, if you're a Louisville fan like me, "Just Pre-Derby Season." What is college basketball anyway? PAIN. ABJECT PAIN. I know, I'm being a little morose. But you probably are too. Let's be honest - is ANY fanbase happy with their team this year? Other than Houston and maybe Purdue? So, let's all choose not to hate watch these games - let's enjoy ourselves and take each other's money. Like God intended it on this holiest of Lenten seasons. 

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:
• AAC
  
• ACC
  
• B12
  
• BE
  
• B1G
  
• MWC
  
• P12
  
• SEC
  
• Scored games which tip before the deadline to enter include - these teams can be picked after their games tip, but you will not be able to count any points earned before entry submission:
• ACC - Syracuse v Wake Forest - 12PM Wednesday
• ACC - Pittsburgh v FSU/GaTech - 2:30PM Wednesday
• Big East - St. John's v Butler - 3PM Wednesday
• MWC - Colorado St./Fresno St. - 2PM Wednesday
• MWC - UNLV/Air Force - 4:30PM Wednesday
• PAC-12 - Washington/Colorado - 3PM Wednesday

This is my umpteenth year of this nonsense. Anything new?

At this point, we're back to business as usual. COVID seems to have receded into the depths of our mind much like a bad collective nightmare like war, famine, and JNCO jeans. With that, onto...

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:

• AAC (Where Houston isn't the 1 seed so FREE SQUARE!... Again)
• ACC (Louisville is probably already out by the time you see this)
• Big 12 (Which somehow has proven to be more ethical than the SEC, but that's a low bar)
• Big East (Yes, Villanova is really 6th in the standings there!)
• Big Ten (Who I think has to cede their reputation as a top conference given Northwestern is the 2 seed)
• Mountain West (They may have just permanently replaced the A-10, stupid schedule be damned)
• Pac-12 (Who will probably be replaced by the A-10 when they're done imploding)
• SEC (Where you can be an ACCESSORY TO A MURDER if you got lottery pick potential - seriously, we can't at least suspend Brandon Miller for a game?!)

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 8th, 2023 at 6 PM EST – 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.

$$$ can be sent in one of three ways

• You hand it to a moderator in cash or check form
• Send it via paypal/venmo/zelle to the account listed above - seriously, it's 2023 and you haven't left your house in 365 days; by now, you should have an account on one of these services
• If you MUST mail me a check, email me for the address - now that the shop is closed, I have to use my home address, and I'm not freely giving that out to a site crawled by Google.

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!

2023 NFL Playoff Survivor Pool Results

 I don't normally write a postmortem on these pools, but this one felt worthy of one to remind everyone that, once again, if you haven't figured it out already, these pools are hard. However, we make it way too hard on ourselves sometimes. The results that brought us to a KC/Philly Super Bowl were incredibly chalky all told, with only three dogs winning in the 12 games thus far, and even those dogs were pretty easy picks (especially after how gassed Buffalo's defense had looked since Christmas). Regardless, we end our pool prematurely, as is common here, with an 11-way tie for the win. We hit a record high number of entries with a whopping 147 entries who will take home $263 each after netting out PayPal fees (guys you gotta remember to hit that "paying friends and family" box as I am not eating PayPal fees to run this) & my not nearly as successful as I hoped "mistake rake" of $43. Congrats!

Final Leaderboard

2023 NFL Playoff Survivor Pool Championship Sunday Pick Form

 Not many left! Good luck everyone!

2023 NFL Playoff Divisional Round Form

Below is the link to the divisional round pick form. I'll also post this on the blog in case you lose track of this email. Couple quick notes:

1) The deadline is prior to the kick off of the FIRST GAME this weekend, which is SATURDAY 4:30 PM!

2) Like last round, you may pick any two games this weekend, regardless of which day they are being played on.

3) For those uninitiated, your entry name is populated in a dropdown box to avoid any silly typos. It just makes things much easier for me on the backend.

Good luck everyone!

2023 NFL Survivor Pool Leaderboard

 Here's the leaderboard! Remember to bookmark this as it's the sheet I'll be updating all contest long. Good luck!

Leaderboard

2023 NFL Playoff Survivor Pool

Welcome back to your favorite gray area of legality survivor pool for the EIGHTH year! Yeesh, we're old enough to do silly chores on that Japanese import "Old Enough" that Netflix has been begging me to watch. Enough of the preface (that's more the NCAA's pool thing anyway) and let's get on with the rules!

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

None of the rules below changed, but here's the thing... I've been doing this pool for eight years and the NCAA one for what will be its 12th year or something (and no, I did not miss 2020 technically). While I have graciously gotten some kickbacks over the years, many people have asked my why I never take a cut. The reason is pretty simple - we made these pools b/c they didn't exist, we wanted to participate in one, and sometimes you just have to be the change you want to see in the world. So I am fine to do it for free so long as everything runs smoothly.

Here's the thing though... It never runs smoothly. Ever. And it's never my fault - my system is flawless. It's YOU PEOPLE who ignore my very basic instructions. So, if everything runs smoothly, I will take no rip as I always have. However, I'm charging the pool from now one whenever one of you inevitably doesn't read my rules and still messes something up. So, for this year, I'll be taking the following cuts: 

• $1/back-end error I fix  
• $2/email I deal with that could have been answered just by reading this blog post all the way through.
• $3/error I have to fix per email sent that requires some real extra effort. 

I thought about taking a flat fee, but I know you all now... and I know you'll pay me well enough. 

The Basics

• Each weekend, you pick 1-2 teams depending on how many days there are games that weekend. (I don't care that wildcard "weekend" now has a Monday night game - we're still doing only two picks.)  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 via the same form you used initially (I constantly check all submissions and take the latest one for each entry).
• Picks must be submitted via Google Forms that I will both post here and send to participants once available. The form will ask for your email address and will automatically send you a copy of your responses. I get hundreds of entries and update them as frequently as I can, so please do not bug me with questions about whether your pick went in or reminders of who you picked - you should have this information already. Please do let me know if you do not get an email back with your picks BEFORE kick-off of your intended game so I can make sure it's in there - I will not add your pick b/c you didn't look for that email receipt before kick-off.
• 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 - HOWEVER, if you lose an entry prior to the final deadline on Wild Card weekend (which is the 8:15 PM ET Sunday game), I'll allow you to continue purchasing entries, throwing good money at bad, to your heart's content, so long as you have no more than THREE active entries at any given time. (So yes, before you can even submit entry #4, you'll have to have lost #1, #2, or #3. An entry is "lost" once a single game is lost on an entry.)
• Easiest way to pay is, as usual, via PayPal or Venmo.  
• Paypal: paypal.me/PhilipCrone
• Venmo: @Philip-Crone (PLEASE NOTE MY NAME HAS ONE L, I have informed the guy with two L's that he can keep $5 of your $20 entry fee)
• Zelle: steelcard30@gmail.com
• Cash/Checks: Get it in my hands or mail - email me for my address; now that I don't have my dad's business to send them to, I'm not putting an address out there for any internet weirdo to find
• 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 last pickable game, which is SunDAY, JANUARY 15th, 2023. 

That's it. As usual, feel free to forward this along to friends who may want to play. If you have any questions I somehow didn't address above, just let me know at tourneypools@gmail.com.  I'll use the same website (tourneypools.blogspot.com) for all updates. Good luck all!