2024 NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool

The most wonderful time of year is upon us once again. And this year a special weight has been lifted off of our souls and minds. While some villains have been vanquished, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of new heroes.

And where better to crown a hero than in the one pool to rule them all, our annual NCAA Survivor Pool!

This is year, I've lost count, maybe 12 or something, of us running this pool. And we are expecting another big year filled with joy and despair, laughter and fear, beauty and horror. Perhaps this is the year we hit a total prize pool of $20,000. And of course, we make nothing running this, (other than what you're willing to give us through incompetence of filling out forms) the only way we get paid is if we're smart enough to win this thing...like a certain D$ThoroughCrowdRules entry happened to do (well split) in the Conference Tourneys.

Last year we ended up with 887 entries and a total prize pool of $17,400 with the $10,000 top prize taken down by prodski3. The Queen ran second nabbing a cool $3,500.

Also, once again, this year's pool is sponsored by Thorough Crowd! And by sponsored, I mean that throughout March Madness I will be intermittently begging people to check out the horses we have available to buy in on!

If you want a horse that will be racing soon, we have those. If you want a 2YO that has never raced and is all about potential, you're in luck there too. Or, maybe you want shares in a broodmare and her first foal, well we once again have you covered! Thorough Crowd is in its sixth year and we've now had earnings of nearly $1M over that span. We're always looking for new partners who want to get involved in racing. As you may or may not know that is basically our family obsession and something that is built into our DNA. 

We started running this survivor pool because it was something we thought sounded awesome that no one else was already doing...and our impetus for starting Thorough Crowd was the same thing. Horse racing is full of partnerships marking up costs and taking advantage of customers. We wanted an honest partnership where choices are driven by data and there's no price gouging...so we started our own.

Hopefully Thorough Crowd sounds like something you want to check out. Hopefully this Survivor Pool is something that you have a ton of fun with. And, if you've got friends/relatives/pets/enemies that you think would want to partake in this pool or in Thorough Crowd, please do us a favor and send it their way!

Now, 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 for one year, I'm messing with payment options. This is thanks to personal stuff (home loan nonsense). So, the following changes are enacted: (1) Zelle is OUT for one year - PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME A ZELLE PAYMENT. (2) I added a check mailing option mainly for you seven weirdos that like Zelle. Find those details at the bottom. If you're worried about missing the deadline thanks to mail, just email me that the check is in the mail. I'm a trusting individual.

Additionally, I'm paying out top 12 this year. I used to say I wouldn't go beyond 10, but we're on track for like 1000 entries this year, so I should probably spread the love a little bit more.

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 - NOT THIS YEAR
• Mail - I brought mail back after dropping Zelle! Send checks to 974 Breckenridge Ln, #133, Louisville, KY 40207 and make them payable to ThoroughCrowd. 

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 five (ok really three) 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 your 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 - I brought mail back after dropping Zelle! Send checks to 974 Breckenridge Ln, #133, Louisville, KY 40207 and make them payable to ThoroughCrowd. 
  
• 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.  Top 12 will be paid out with a 1% minimum going to 12th. 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.