2:30pm 3/19
6:30am 3/19 - No one is perfect anymore, but congratulations to deedlee1 for going 15-1 on the opening day, missing only Texas-Wake Forest. Not a single other person in the pool correctly predicted the Georgetown-Ohio matchup. Anyone who can correctly predict both Georgetown's and Vandy's ousters deserves a round of applause. To give you some perspective as to how difficult it is to go 15-1 with this year's results, ESPN.com's bracket tournament had 4.8 million entries. Only 56 went 16-0. Nice work! Of course, this is the time when I throw a wet blanket on the festivities and note that no one has won the pool after leading on the first day in the ten years I've run it.
Good luck to you all. I'll update the standings irregularly throughout the day as computer access allows.
10:05pm 3/18 - Georgetown's loss takes out another three championship picks, including one of mine. Four brackets out of 144 are now busted. Very tough start for the Big East with Marquette, Georgetown, and Notre Dame all going down (and Villanova almost joining them).
3:15pm 3/18 - Congrats to Uncle Dick, who became the first pool entrant to lose his championship team. Hey, no reason to drag out the sorrow, right?
Noon EDT has come and gone and the games are upon us. Thanks for entering. As noted above, all the entrants' brackets are here in one big file for your review. If you entered and don't see your bracket in that file, send me an email at mattolsen@yahoo.com immediately, forwarding the bracket that the web site emailed to you after you entered your picks. Any missing entries need to be resolved today (Thursday), but I don't expect we'll have any problem with that.
As always I have decided to enter the pool, as has my wife. Our four entries are "Matthew Olsen 1", "Matthew Olsen 2", "Matthew Olsen 3", and "Jenn1". Print them out now if you want to audit me. I feel lucky this year, although I've felt lucky the past ten years as well, but I have yet to cash in my own pool.
The tentative prizes (subject to adjustment due to non-payment or accidental duplicate entries) are:
-Matt
The Moose Resorts NCAA Pool is back for its 11th season. As always it's ten dollars to enter. Important note: when you are ready to send me the money note I have a new address. It's in the FAQ. Aside from that there's no major changes from last year. It seems to be working pretty well so I'm not going to tinker with it now.
If you're new to the pool, here's how it works. First, click on the link above to be brought to the online entry form. It's pretty self-explanatory. Enter as many times as you'd like (provided you're willing to pay $10 for each entry). Write a check and put it in the mail to me ASAP (my name and address are in the FAQ), and then check back here each day after the games are finished to see where you are in the standings. Simple, huh?
UConn's absence from the field will take out a lot of the shameless homer picks, so it'll be interesting to see who the field likes the most. Good luck to all of you.
-Matt
Any other questions? They're probably answered in the Frequently Asked Questions. Notice how I keep bringing up the FAQ? That's because it's because it helps both you and me out when you read it. Please look there first. If you still have a question after that, send me an email.
Good luck!!!
Questions? Send me an email.