Following
the success of the last few years with this event, we are staying with
PickHoops.com as our on-line entry system. This is
a very easy way for you to enter your own picks right up to the
deadline of Thursday, March 17 at 12:18pm ET. This system will
crank out great stats -- and you can also enter up
to ten times under the same username. This system costs me $40
($39.95 actually, but lets round up a nickel to keep the math simple),
so we will deduct that $40 amount from the total pot.
You enter
your own picks in pickhoops.com and do not send me anything except your
entry fee. No faxing, or emailing or scanning.
Also, as a reminder, the email address for the Poolmeister is bootseem@gmail.com Send an email with any questions.
The
pool fee is still the same: $20 per entry. The total payout is
calculated by taking all the entries LESS the $40 pool program fee
(pickhoops.com) LESS $20 for the person in last place. And the
payout will go as follows to the top 10 spots:
1st -- 30% 2nd -- 20% 3rd -- 12% 4th -- 10% 5th -- 8% 6th -- 6% 7th -- 5% 8th -- 4% 9th -- 3% 10th -- 2% Last place gets the $20 entry fee returned
As
a point of reference, we had 118 entries last year for a total pot of
$2,360. The splits above represent some decent $$$ and should
keep a lot of people up late during the Final Four!
You'll be asked for your name and email address and to create a new user password for yourself.
The brackets are picked on Sunday night, March 13 and the bracket entry officially starts
at 11pm Sunday night (this gives the PickHoops guys some time to get the brackets entered and double checked)
Online bracket entry closes Thursday, March 17th at 12:18pm EDT -- no extensions!
Feel free to invite family and friends to join the pool. The more entries, the better!
A
note on the tie-breaker. In your entry, you must guess the TOTAL
final score of the last game. Thus, if you think the score will
be 75 - 60, your guess should be 135. In the case of a tie at the
end of the pool, we use the "Points in Final" game guess. If
still a tie, the person who has the most wins in the first round
wins. If still tied after that. then we declare a tie.
PAYMENT:
This is important...
the most painful part of the pool is collecting the entry
fee. If you want to be in the pool, here's what you do. On
Monday morning, make out a check to Boot Seem for $20 or put cash in an
envelope and send it to me. (See below for alternate ways to pay -- via Paypal or Venmo) All payments must be received by 5pm on
Saturday, March 19, or your entry will simply be deleted. No
extensions or collection calls this year.
My address:
Gary "Boot" Seem 15 Newlin Road Princeton, NJ 08540
I
will see the entries as they are entered, but it won't hurt to drop me
an email when you mail in your entry fee so I know you are in.
Also, I will accept payment via both:
PayPal (provided you use your Paypal balance or bank account -- no credit cards!)
and
Venmo.
You can use my email address for both services to pay me at: bootseem@gmail.com
PickHoops.com has a ton of stats that are posted in real time, but I will also keep the updates coming via email.
Enjoy!
Boot
Tournament Rules
Special
note on the tournament: There are 68
teams
picked for the tournament! The winners of the "play-in"
opening
round games will be determined on Tuesday. You can enter
prior to that
game,
but you will have to make a pick based on an unknown winner of those
"play-in"
opening
round games. (Personally, I think this is a messed up addition to the
tournament from a few years ago... but my opinion doesn't count.) The reality is
that this play-in is probably not that
important. For details on why
they have 68 teams, you can visit
the NCAA site at www.finalfour.net
You can pay your entry fee of $20 via regular
mail so that
it
arrives by Saturday, March 19
to me at:
Gary
"Boot" Seem
15 Newlin Road
Princeton, NJ 08540
Any
entry that does not have payment received by the Poolmeister by Saturday,
3/19 will be deleted from the pool.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, YOU CAN CALL ME
AT (802) 233-6700.
You MUST choose a winner for every game in the tournament.
Also, don't
forget to pick the tiebreaker score (Total
points scored
in the championship game ).
You may enter up to ten times with the same username (yeah, enter
lots!!). Also,
feel free to pass
this on to any friends or colleagues.
All participants must be at least 2 1/2 years of age or
older.
In case of any ties, a tie-breaker will be used to
determine a
winner
from
the entry which comes closest to correctly predicting the total points
scored in the championship game. If that is tied, then the
most
points
in Round 1 determines the winner. After that, it will simply
be
determined
a tie and the tied prizes will be combined and split.
Your standing is determined by the number of points earned
by
each
entry
from the point assignments given to each round in the tournament. The
rounds
are weighted so that later rounds are worth more than earlier rounds,
thus
correctly chosen teams that go far, will score the most points. The
point
assignments for each round are as follows:
32 First round games 1 point each 32 possible points 16 Second round games 2 points each 32 possible points 8 Regional Semi-final games 3 points each 24 possible points 4 Regional Final games 5 points each 20 possible points 2 Semi-final games 7 points each 14 possible points 1 Championship game 10 points 10 possible points ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Totals: (63 games) 132 possible points