2025 NCAA Survivor Pool

For the first time since 2019, the NCAA tournament feels "normal" for yours truly. You see, I am a massive, unabashed Louisville fan. For the first time since the world ended, I sat down to watch the Selection Show with full confidence that I'd hear Louisville called. Unfortunately, all this time made me forget another aspect of the Selection Show - being blind with rage about being underseeded. Truly a tradition like any other. There isn't a single available ranking - subjective or objective - putting Louisville below like 23rd and somehow we're gifted an 8 seed & looking at Auburn in round 2. Thanks committee, really looking forward to doing all this again next year. But hey, at least I feel like I'll be doing this again next year, right?!

So, what did manage to keep me sane in 2020-2025? Well, nothing really, but the Survivor Pool did at least help me disassociate from the sports pain inflicted by COVID, Kenny Payne, the NCAA, Kenny Payne, Chris Mack's flagrant inability to manage a pandemic, Kenny Payne, and.... I'm not sure what else, probably missed something. Oh and I guess Mike Woodson. So join us, once again for something like the 13th year or so, in a game where indefensible committee decisions can no longer hurt you. Best of luck everyone! 

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?!

Nothing from a gameplay standpoint, just a few pool things...

• I will be on a family vacation 3/29-4/5 - I might try to con someone into running things in my stead, but it's unlikely. Updates will happen, but don't expect them to be timely, especially on our travel day of 3/29, which is Elite 8 Saturday.

• Zelle is back as an option. Yay.

• New check address for the two of you that might want to pay by check.

• If you're paying with Zelle or PayPal - please ensure you're paying a family/friend and not for a product/service. New IRS regulations have started cracking down on merchant payments, and the day I have to claim this contest as income is the day it dies. If you do not send your payment as a family/friend payment, I will refund it and disqualify your entry until it is paid properly.

• Some of you likely recall my infamous "mistake rake" for how I would fund my time running the pool. I thought using that would reduce the work on my end. It didn't. Plus it makes me sound like a curmudgeon who is at this point only running this pool out of some sort of loyalty and obligation. Which isn't wrong by the way, but I don't want it to be THAT obvious. The good news for me though is that I can guess pretty reasonably what I'm gonna end up raking, and it's 3%. So I'm saving myself the trouble of trying to track the mistake rake and just nabbing 3%, dealing with your all's collective B- comprehension of the rules, and calling it a day.

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
• Mail - Send checks to PO Box 7022, Louisville, KY 40257 and make them payable to Phil Crone. 

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 Auburn to beat some play-in game tomato can in round 1, you cannot use Auburn again for the remainder of the tournament. (Although why would you when Louisville is poised to knock them off on Saturday, right?! Ugh, those assholes aren't even gonna make it past Creighton.)  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. Initially, you'll have to type your entry name. I would advise finding it on the leaderboard so you type it in right, as it makes my life easier. Entry names will be in a drop-down list after a couple days, 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 – The paypal ID is above.  In addition, when paying on PayPal, CHOOSE THAT IT IS A PERSONAL PAYMENT!  Otherwise, you're DQ'ed until you remedy it.
• Zelle - I'm still not totally sure what Zelle is, but people asked for it, so here ya go.
• Mail - Send checks to PO Box 7022, Louisville, KY 40257 and make them payable to Phil Crone. 
• Crypto/NFT - I think I have a MetaMask wallet from like 2017 that I can't access. So you probably shouldn't try this.
• 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 the aforementioned 3% rake. 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 about 3% of the pot. If you don't like it, I invite you to find another pool with a 5000/1 payout to the winner that takes less than that.