2009 Recap: Thai Me Down Claims Victory

In 2003, Lynda Kalinowski and Dave Nelson joined forces to create a bracket that they named "Ass Kickin Donkey Lovin Snicky Snacks." That bracket proceeded to dominate our pool and took the 1st place prize - finishing 13 points ahead of the 2nd place bracket. To date, that's the largest margin of victory that our pool has ever seen.

This year, Lynda and Dave joined forces to create two brackets: "Thai Me Up" and "Thai Me Down." Five years after their first victory, Lynda and David can claim bragging rights once again, as the "Thai Me Down" bracket has won our pool with 103 points. Despite the fact that they didn't finish 13 points ahead of the field, I'm confident that Lynda and Dave are happy to claim the $1,125 first place prize. They are the first people to ever win our pool twice.

Lynda and Dave's bracket correctly predicted that North Carolina would defeat Michigan State in the title game. Only five brackets in our entire pool can make that claim. Interestingly, the "Thai Me Down" bracket is the only such bracket that finished in the money this year.

With his winnings, Dave is rumored to be in the market for a new car:

Lynda, meanwhile, is happy to have some extra money in her portfolio:

With 100 points, Josh Moser's bracket took 2nd place. The leader of our pool the entire 2nd weekend of the tournament, Josh correctly predicted the Tar Heels' championship. In fact, every bracket that won money in this year's pool had North Carolina winning.

Here's the quick list of our six money winners:

1. Thai Me Down - 103 pts ($1,125)
2. Josh Moser - 100 pts ($565)
3. Nick Blasnig - 98 pts ($425)
4. David Hokeness - 94 pts ($340)
5. Brandon Nelson - 93 pts ($225)
6. Michael Steinke #2 - 93 pts ($140)

As a result of outscoring Michael by 8 points in the 4th round, Brandon won that tiebreaker and claimed the 5th place prize.

Congrats to all our money winners! You should all have your money shortly.

The winner of my annual "hard luck" award goes to Kimberly Gross. Had Michigan State beaten North Carolina in the title game, Kimberly would have finished in 2nd place. Instead, North Carolina's victory meant that Kimberly's bracket finished in a tie for 18th place. Sorry, Kimberly.
I hope that everyone enjoyed this year's pool. Next year, we plan on expanding the number of payout spots and we'll probably cap the first place prize at $1,000. As a result, Lynda and Dave's victory may prove to be the highest payout we'll ever have.

We hope to see y'all next year! In the interim, I need to get back to re-organizing my annual Major League Baseball pool. If you're interested in playing, feel free to check the link on the right side of this page. Time is running short, however, as entries must be received by 11:59pm Tuesday April 7th.

Otherwise, see y'all next year! I can't wait!!

Final Four Weekend: The Eight Scenarios

There are eight different scenarios that may play out in next weekend’s Final Four. With that in mind, I’ve calculated the standings that would result in our pool from each of those eight different scenarios. By clicking on any of the images below, you’ll see how our pool will finish. Remember . . . only the top six brackets will claim a prize.

At this point, it’s important to recall our tiebreaker procedures. These tiebreaking procedures have been applied to our projected results:

In the event of a tie, total points scored in the latest round (6th) will break the tie. If each participant has the same number of points in that round, then the total points scored in the 5th round will be used. If that doesn't break the tie, then we'll look at 4th round points (and so on - until the tie is broken).

Four different brackets (Keith Koeper #1, Thai Me Down, Rod Larson #1, and Josh Moser) have the unique opportunity to gain instant notoriety and win our pool. Another fifteen brackets can still win money.

Our current leader (Josh Moser) is the only bracket that is guaranteed to win money – no matter what happens next weekend. The worst he can finish is 5th place. However, the only way Josh can win the pool is if North Carolina defeats UCONN in the championship game. If any of the other seven scenarios play out, Josh will hafta “settle” for a lesser prize.

As you’ll see (after clicking below), The Thai Me Down bracket will be rooting for Michigan State next weekend. Rod Larson will be rooting for UCONN, and Keith Koeper will be rooting for Villanova.

It should be an exciting weekend. Good luck to everyone who still has a chance to cash out.

Sunday's Elite 8 Recap

Michigan State and North Carolina earned trips to Detroit next weekend with convincing victories this afternoon. For many of our brackets, the victory by Michigan State was a surprise. Only 63 of our brackets (11.2%) predicted that the Spartans would make it to the Final Four. At the same time, 381 of our brackets (67.6%) predicted the Tar Heels' success.

Once again, I'm going to report that Josh Moser is on top of our leaderboard for a 4th consecutive day. Even if Josh doesn't win this pool, he may have set a record for most consecutive days in first place. Congratulations, Josh!

While Josh's 89 points are currently setting the pace, his reign at #1 may not last much longer. Unfortunately (for him), Josh's bracket shows North Carolina beating Louisville in the final game. With the loss to Michigan State this afternoon, Louisville is not going to score any more points - which may prove to be Josh's undoing. Whether Michigan State or UCONN makes the championship game, a lot of brackets sitting behind Josh are going to earn points.

Second place is shared by Nick Blasnig and the "Thai Me Down" bracket. Similar to Josh, Nick has UNC beating Louisville in the final game. However, the "Thai Me Down" bracket shows the Tar Heels besting Michigan State in the title game. For those of you who have been playing this pool for a number of years, the creators of the 2009 "Thai Me Up" and "Thai Me Down" brackets are the same duo who brought us the 2003 winning bracket called "Ass Kickin Donkey Lovin Snicky Snacks."

Only two brackets in our entire pool nailed all the Final Four teams. For that, Brandon Nelson (11th place) and Kimberly Gross (24th place) should be congratulated. Despite the fact that much of this tournament went according to the seedings, it shows how difficult it can be to correctly predict all four of the final teams in an NCAA Tournament.

In the next day or two, I will post the standings that would result from each of the 8 scenarios that might play out next weekend. That will allow everyone to see exactly what they need to win some loot. In particular, I'm sure that there are a significant number of people who can still claim some prizes. Keith Koeper, in particular, is already aware that he needs Villanova to cut down the nets next Monday night to claim our top prize. I'm sure that a lot of people are rooting for Keith!

Well . . . maybe that's a bit of an overstatement.

Anyway . . . keep checking the website this week for more updates and analysis concerning our pool. Besides the 8 scenarios, I'll let everyone know how previous winners are doing, how our organizers are doing, and I'll try to dig up some other fascinating stats from this year's pool.

Saturday's Elite 8 Recap

Thanks to Scottie Reynolds' half court dash with less than 1 second remaining, Villanova squeaked past Pittsburgh and advanced back to the Final Four for the first time since their shocking run to the title in 1985. Earlier today, UCONN held off Missouri and will join the Wildcats in Detroit next weekend. The Villanova/Pittsburgh was arguably the most competitive and exciting game of the tournament thus far.

In case you missed it (or want to see it again), here's the winning play:



All told, exactly 26 of our pool's brackets correctly predicted that Connecticut and Villanova would reach the Final Four. Congrats to those entries! They all earned 8 points today. Many of those brackets litter the top of our leaderboard.

As I type, Josh Moser finds himself at the top of our standings for a 3rd consecutive day. Hovering two points behind, Nick Blasnig finds himself alone in 2nd place. Interestingly, each of the top five brackets in our pool have all predicted that Louisville and North Carolina will make the Final Four tomorrow. If that doesn't happen, there will be a serious shakeup at the top of our leaderboard. In the interim, Josh can continue to boast that he owns the best of the 564 brackets in our pool.

If you didn't get either team correct today, you aren't alone. A total of 298 brackets in our pool (52.8%) didn't predict that Villanova or UCONN would get this far. So, despite the fact that you're not going to win any money in our pool, you can take solace in the fact that you're not alone.

Good luck to everyone chasing the big bucks. Here's a quick look at the number of brackets that have predicted that these teams will join UCONN and Villanova in the Final Four:

Louisville - 404 brackets
North Carolina - 381 brackets
Oklahoma - 90 brackets
Michigan State - 63 brackets

If you still haven't had an opportunity to pay your entry fee, please do so ASAP. The tournament is about to conclude its 2nd weekend, and you're close to being branded a deadbeat if you still haven't paid. :-)

Friday's Sweet 16 Recap

As a result of another night of "chalk", many of our pool's brackets had a good night. In fact, exactly 103 of our entries (18.3%) went 4-for-4 this evening. Considering how deep we are into this tourney, that's rather impressive.

After tonight's action, Josh Moser still finds himself at the top our leaderboard with 77 points. Keith Koeper continues to hover only 1 point behind. Third place, however, has become a crowded spot. Another seven brackets are currently sitting with 75 points.

Seven brackets in our pool can proudly declare that they nailed all of the Elite Eight teams. Another 45 brackets correctly predicted 7 of the Elite Eight teams. Both of those figures are all-time records for this pool.

Heading into the rest of the weekend's games, over 25% of the entries in our pool (144 brackets) still have the opportunity to correctly predict all of the Final Four teams. I guess that happens when the Elite Eight is comprised of teams with seedings with 1-1-1-1-2-2-3-3. That, my friends, is a tournament of "chalk".

Without doubt, our pool's eventual champion needs all of their Final Four teams to win this weekend. So, despite the fact that Josh leads our pool, he'll need to keep winning to claim the big prize.

Saturday's and Sunday's games are worth 4 points, so we'll see what happens.

Thursday's Sweet 16 Recap

For the past few days, I've been predicting that this pool's eventual champion will need a perfect bracket the rest of the way. With our leaders bunched so closely together and so many good teams still alive in the tournament, our winning bracket probably can't afford a single misstep during these final two weekends. If my prediction holds true, then 1 of the 27 brackets that earned 12 points this evening is on their way to the coveted $1,125 first place prize.

Of the 564 brackets in our pool, here's the count of entries that predicted these teams would win tonight:

Pittsburgh - 498 (88.3%)
Connecticut - 490 (86.9%)
Villanova - 229 (40.6%)
Missouri - 91 (16.1%)

Less than 5% of the brackets in our pool correctly predicted that all four of these teams would win tonight. If you own one of those brackets, give yourself a pat on the back. You are very wise - or very lucky!

After watching 3 Big East teams advance to the Elite Eight, a new bracket (Josh Moser) finds itself at the top of our leaderboard. In particular, Josh's entry was one of those 27 brackets that experienced a perfect night. Following close behind, the bracket owned by Keith Koeper sits only 1 point behind Josh. Keith gave up his lead when he went 3-for-4 tonight.

After Keith, brackets owned by Nick Blasnig, Roger Rama, and Scott Schumacher are tied for 3rd place and trail our leader by only 2 points.

A ton of brackets still have a shot at the big prize!

Is Sweet 16 weekend here yet?

Sweet Sixteen weekend can’t get here quick enough. Monday evening, I tried to watch the Kentucky/Creighton NIT game. Although the game wasn’t decided until the final seconds (Creighton missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game), it wasn’t the same as watching the “real” action of the NCAA Tournament.

Later that night, I saw that Vermont was scheduled to play the Oregon State Beavers in an exciting CBI Tournament game. Huh? Entering the game, Oregon State had a record of 13-17. When a team with a losing record is playing in a postseason basketball game, it illustrates the mediocrity of the tournament. Sadly, Oregon State won the game. Who wants to be the first to jump on the Beaver bandwagon? If they win the tournament, they may crack the .500 mark!

As the Sweet Sixteen weekend slowly approaches (isn’t Thursday here yet?), exactly 516 of our pool’s brackets (91.5%) have all of their Final Four teams alive. So, if you believe that you’re having a good tournament and think that you have a legitimate opportunity to win our pool, you’re not alone. With so many Final Four teams still alive, most of us have a real hope of winning some loot.

If nothing else, this statistic helps confirm the fact that it’s been a relatively boring tournament so far. Cinderella did not last long in this tourney, as only one “surprise” team (Arizona) is still playing. Echoing this thought, Brian Mikolajek sent me the link to this article:

Is this the most boring tournament ever?

As most of you will recall, last year’s tournament was the 1st – EVER - that saw all four #1 seeds reach the Final Four. Apparently, many of us believe that it can happen in back-to-back years. Exactly 74 of our brackets (13%) have predicted that all four #1 seeds will be playing in Detroit in ten days.

At the same time, 11 of our brackets (2%) did not include any of the #1 seeds in their Final Four. Before you start thinking that these must be crazy entries with outrageous picks, two of these brackets (A STUSKI & Daryl Bartsch) are currently sitting in 64th place – only six points from the lead. If all the #1 seeds get knocked off this weekend, I’d expect that these two brackets will be near the top of our leaderboard.

One final note:

Only one bracket in our entire pool was a true “homer” and picked both Wisconsin and Marquette in the Final Four. Hovering near the top of our leaderboard after last year’s opening weekend, great-grandmother Gerry Berg can boast that she’s our pool’s biggest “homer” this year. Of course, Gerry’s bracket is mired in 551st place right now, but that’s another story. Way to back those Wisconsin teams, Gerry!

Sweet Sixteen Analysis

As we look back at the opening weekend of action in this year's NCAA basketball tournament, the following table illustrates how few upsets there really were.

Not surprisingly, almost every bracket in our pool thought all the #1 seeds would reach the Sweet Sixteen. Leading the way, exactly 557 different brackets (98.8%) thought that Louisville, UCONN, and North Carolina would survive the opening weekend. Following close behind, 548 of our brackets (97.2%) had Memphis in the Sweet 16 and 542 brackets (96.1%) had Pittsburgh advancing this far.

On the other end of the spectrum, only 42 brackets in our pool (7.4%) predicted Arizona's run. If you own one of those brackets, congratulations!

Even #5 seed Purdue's run to the Sweet 16 wasn't very surprising to the people in our pool. Exactly 330 brackets (58.5%) had them advancing, while only 197 brackets (34.9%) thought #4 seed Washington would advance in Purdue's place.

Here's the chart showing the number of brackets that foresaw each of these teams making the Sweet 16. Remember, a total of 564 brackets were entered into our pool this year.

Sunday: Day 4 Recap

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY FEE(S) ASAP!

The opening weekend of the 2009 NCAA basketball tournament has come to a close and brackets owned by Kathy Grom and Keith Koeper are on top of our leaderboard with 58 points. In all the years this pool has run, we've never seen such a healthy score after two rounds.

Following close behind, a trifecta of brackets owned by Roger Rama, Scott Schumacher, and Theresa Schroeder lurk only one point behind our co-leaders.

Similar to yesterday's action, there weren't many surpises in today's results. Although 12th seeded Arizona's appearance in the Sweet Sixteen is a surprise, they were favored to beat Cleveland State this afternoon. In fact, every team with a better seed claimed victory today.

As a result of more "chalk talk," the brackets owned by Keith Koeper and Scott Schumacher can boast that they got all the Sweet Sixteen teams correct. Nice work, guys!! Another 35 brackets in our pool nailed 15 of the Sweet 16 teams.

Our pool's average bracket correctly predicted 12 of the Sweet 16 teams. Again, this is an all-time record. At the same time, the 48.2 points that our average bracket has scored shatters our pool's previous best by nearly 3 points. For all the talk I heard about the unpredictability of this year's tournament, it simply hasn't come to fruition.

With so many good teams remaining in the tournament, it appears likely that our pool's all-time highest score (105 pts.) will be beaten this year. At the pace we're going, someone should crack 110 pts.

Keep checking this site during the week. Among other things, I plan on posting various stats from our pool. For example, how many of our brackets correctly predicted Arizona's run to the Sweet 16? How many of our brackets have predicted that all four #1 seeds will make the Final Four? How many of our brackets didn't have any #1 seeds in their Final Four?

The answers to these questions (and more) will appear on this site leading up to the next set of games on Thursday. For those of you not keeping track, here's the schedule of games on Thursday and Friday:

Thursday:

Missouri vs. Memphis
Purdue vs. Connecticut
Xavier vs. Pittsburgh
Villanova vs. Duke

Friday:

Syracuse vs. Oklahoma
Arizona vs. Louisville
Kansas vs. Michigan State
Gonzaga vs. North Carolina

In the meantime, enjoy the madness! I'm going to spend the rest of my evening recovering from the losses sustained by Wisconsin and Marquette this afternoon. Sigh . . .

Marquette Eliminated

Despite the return of Dominic James, the Missouri Tigers ran past, around, and thru Marquette during the 1st half of today's game and built a 16-point lead. Then, the Warriors put up a ferocious rally, but eventually lost the game by a score of 83-79.

Marquette had a 4 point lead with two minutes remaining, but Missouri overcame the deficit. Missouri finished the game on a 9-1 run. Ouch!

With the win, Missouri reached the Sweet Sixteen and earned a date with Memphis on Thursday. Exactly 403 brackets (71%) in our pool earned two points for correctly predicting the Tigers' victory. Meanwhile, the 139 brackets (25%) that predicted a victory for Marquette earned no points.

In the end, it was an ugly day of basketball for teams from Wisconsin, as the Badgers and Warriors will both take depressing plane rides home tonight.

A recap of all the day's action will be posted later this evening.

Xavier ends Bucky's Season

Despite leading by five points in the 1st half and two points at halftime, the Wisconsin Badgers weren't able to spring back-to-back upsets in this year's tournament, falling to the Xavier Musketeers by a score of 60-49 this afternoon. With nine minutes remaining, the 12th seeded Badgers led by a point, but 4th seeded Xavier eventually pulled away for the victory.

Exactly 57 of our brackets (10%) would have been very happy with a Badger victory, as that's the number of entries that predicted Wisconsin would make the Sweet Sixteen. Instead, the 278 brackets (49%) that correctly predicted Xavier's victory earned 2 points. Meanwhile, the two brackets (0.3%) that predicted a run to the Sweet Sixteen by Portland State are . . . well, those brackets were very confused.

Hopefully, Marquette finds better success in Boise later today. Exactly 139 of our brackets (25%) have predicted that the Warriors will reach the Sweet Sixteen.

Dominic James cleared to play

I'm shocked! Holy . . . wow . . .

I don't know how many minutes he'll play or how effective he'll be, but based on Marquette's last few peformances without him, this is a huge lift. For those of us that picked MU to beat Missouri in our brackets, this can only help.

Go Warriors!

JSOnline story

Saturday: Day 3 Recap

Day #3 of the 2009 NCAA Tournament was a day of chalk. Of the 8 games played today, only 5th seeded Purdue's victory over 4th seeded Washington could be considered an upset. Otherwise, the better seeded team won every game - although a couple games were real nailbiters.

As a result of today's action, many of our brackets experienced a good day. In fact, exactly 152 of our entries (27%) scored the maximum 16 points. The average bracket tallied 13.7 points today - which is rather amazing.

When the dust had settled, Roger Rama and Theresa Schroeder found themselves on top of our leaderboard with 43 points. When you consider that my wife finished dead last in this pool in 2002, it's remarkable how well she's doing this year. While I watched hundreds of hours of basketball this season, Theresa may have watched a total of 30 minutes. Sigh . . .

Exactly 24 brackets are only one point behind our co-leaders and another 33 brackets are only two points behind. Needless to say, our leaderboard is packed!

With Marquette and Wisconsin both scheduled to play on Sunday, it should be an exciting end to the weekend. I'm already counting the minutes!

Badgers Win!

For anyone who went to bed early Friday night, here's some nice video of Trevon Hughes beating Florida State.

Friday: Day 2 Recap

Courtesy of their upset victory over Wake Forest, the Cleveland State Vikings are vying to become the Cinderella team of the 2009 NCAA Tournament. The Horizon League's conference tournament champions, the 13th seeded Vikings dominated the Demon Deacons tonight and rendered many of our brackets useless. Considering the fact that Wake Forest was ranked #1 in the country for a short time earlier this year, their early departure from this year's tournament is quite surprising.

How does a team with three probable 2009 1st round NBA draft picks lose to a team named after a fictitious state? I suppose that's why we call it March Madness.

Only 24 of our 564 brackets (4.25%) correctly predicted Cleveland State's victory. At the same time, 77% of our brackets thought Wake Forest would make the Sweet Sixteen and 44 brackets (including my own) thought they'd make it all the way to the Final Four. Oops! I guess that it's time to start rooting for my wife's bracket.

For those of us that live in the state of Wisconsin, Friday was a good day. The Marquette Warriors squeaked by Utah State and the Wisconsin Badgers edged Florida State in overtime. Both games were quite exciting. Woo hoo!!

Upon the conclusion of Friday night's games, Slim #3 stands alone in first place in our pool with 29 points. Five different brackets loom only 1 point behind. The race for the big bucks is wide open!

Saturday's and Sunday's games are worth 2 points, so things should start to shake out a bit at the top of out leaderboard. For now, I'm simply going to bask in the glory of basketball in the state of Wisconsin and pray that my wife's bracket (currently tied for 7th place) has a good weekend ahead of her.

No One is Perfect

Courtesy of Marquette's 1-point victory over Utah State this afternoon, no one in our pool is perfect anymore. Kurt Kranich owned the only bracket to get the first 19 games of this year's tournament correct, but he had predicted that Utah State would pull off the 1st round upset over my beloved Warriors.

For that, Kurt deserves to lose his perfect bracket. :-)

Go Marquette!

Thursday: Day 1 Recap

Day #1 of the 2009 NCAA tournament has come to a close. After watching 12 straight hours of basketball, I'm pooped. Still, I can't wait to do it again tomorrow. With Marquette and Wisconsin scheduled to play, it's going to be a long and (hopefully!) enjoyable day.

Exactly three brackets in our pool can proudly declare that they experienced a perfect Day #1. Kathy Grom, Kurt Kranich, and Sean Tanner #1 find themselves tied at the top of our leaderboard. Congratulations! Following close behind, another 36 brackets correctly predicted 15 of the opening day's 16 games.

It wasn't until #12 Western Kentucky topped #5 Illinois to conclude the day that we saw our first real upset of the tournament. With that being said, exactly 220 of our brackets (39%) correctly predicted the Hilltoppers' victory. Once again, a #12 seed pulls off a 1st round upset. Not surprisingly, it came at the expense of a Big Ten team.

As mentioned in an earlier post, exactly 564 brackets joined this year's pool - a new record. In fact, this is 38 more brackets than last year. For the 14th straight year (I think), we've seen our pool increase in size. Thanks to everyone who has joined the fun!

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Editor's Note: Don't forget to pay your entry fee as soon as possible!

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Good luck to everyone. With so few upsets in Day #1, we can all still dream of claiming the big prize - even if you're currently sitting in 155th place - like me. Keep checking this site for updates.

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It's time to hit the hay. See ya tomorrow!

Away We Go!

The 2009 NCAA Basketball Tournament has begun and we've got 564 brackets in the pool. Once again, it's a record turnout! Here are our projected payouts:

1st Place: $1,125 (40%)
2nd Place: $565 (20%)
3rd Place: $425 (15%)
4th Place: $340 (12%)
5th Place: $225 (8%)
6th Place: $140 (5%)

Louisville is the favorite to claim the championship, as 143 of our brackets (25%) have predicted that the Cardinals will cut down the nets in Detroit on April 6th. North Carolina is close behind, however, with 139 brackets forecasting that they'll win the national title. After that, Pittsburgh (112 brackets) and Memphis (57 brackets) are our next most popular picks.

This graph shows the number of brackets that have picked each team to win the national championship. You can click on the image for a better look::

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Keep checking this website, as regular updates will follow throughout the run of the tournament.
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Good luck to everyone! We've got a long way to go before we crown a champion.

March Madness

If you're having difficulty getting excited for the pending madness of March, this 4-minute mix of Gus Johnson may help. The quality of the video isn't great, but listening to Gus repeatedly go bananas is fun.

Time to Fill Your Brackets!

The 65 teams that will be playing in this year's NCAA basketball tournament have been announced. With that in mind, it's time to start filling your brackets!

As has been the case for the past several years, Bruce Sackmann, Rob Schlicht, and myself (Steve Schroeder) will be collecting everyone's brackets and associated entry fees. Last year, 526 people entered the pool. With a modest entry fee of $5, I won't be surprised if we surpass last year's record turnout. If you find yourself reading this website, you're welcome to join!

On the right side of this page is a link that will allow you to fill out a bracket. This link will take you directly to a zipped excel file that has been specifically created for this pool. WE'D REALLY LIKE YOU TO USE THIS FILE!! As you can imagine, it takes quite a bit of effort to handle nearly 500 different brackets. By completing the excel spreadsheet and e-mailing it to Bruce, Rob, or myself, you will make our lives a lot less complicated and you'll allow us to keep things better organized. By using the excel sheet, you'll also allow us to start reporting results early Thursday afternoon.

Ultimately, your completed bracket (in excel) will feed into a "master" file that will allow us to quickly report updated standings throughout the course of the tournament. If you have any questions regarding the excel file, simply shoot one of us an e-mail message and we'll be happy to help you. I've personally spent a lot of time trying to make the excel sheet as simple as possible, so I hope that most of you use the excel spreadsheet.

Of course, we understand that some of you don't use excel. With that in mind, it is completely acceptable if you manually fill out a bracket and submit a paper copy of your picks. You may simply cut out a bracket from the newspaper (or find one on the internet) and use that form.

Per usual, you are allowed to submit as many entries as you like - provided you pay $5 for each entry. The scoring system is quite simple. One point will be awarded for each correct prediction in the 1st round, two points for each correct prediction in the 2nd round, three points in the 3rd round, etc. etc., until six points are awarded for properly predicting the national champion.

The top six finishers in this year's pool will win some money. First place will receive 40% of the total pot while second place (20%), third place (15%), fourth place (12%), fifth place (8%), and sixth place (5%) will also be awarded for their respective performances. In the event of a tie, total points scored in the latest round (6th) will break the tie. If each participant has the same number of points in that round, then the total points scored in the 5th round will be used. If that doesn't break the tie, then we'll look at 4th round points (and so on - until the tie is broken). Using this tiebreaker system, there is no need to project the total points in the title game (a common tiebreaker in other pools)!

ALL BRACKETS AND ENTRY FEES ARE DUE BY 11:00AM ON THURSDAY, MARCH 19TH! DON'T BE CAUGHT NAPPING AND MISS THE DEADLINE!!

Throughout the tournament, this site will track and report the standings of our pool. At a minimum, I will update the standings on a nightly basis and, for that reason, I recommend bookmarking this page and checking in regularly as the tournament progresses to see where you stand. In all probability, I will update the standings (live) during tournament action, so we can all see where we stand at any particular moment. If nothing else, this will allow people to check the results of the pool without having to wait for Monday morning updates.

So . . . good luck to everyone who chooses to join this pool. May the best man - or woman - win!!