Dr. Jay's NCAA Basketball Tournament

Pool Rules 2009*

The season of March Madness is upon us again. If you missed the madness of Mardi Gras in February, come join us in my TWENTIETH Semi-annual NCAA Tournament Pool. The rules are enumerated below. The University of Iowa Men's basketball team didn't even make the NIT this year, again, but I'll try to remain enthusiastic about the pool anyway! The Iowa Women are in the NCAA's, but the Illinois State Women missed out. Illinois State's Men will be on the road in the NIT first round, but the cash prizes in my pool will have to keep me interested in the NCAA Men's Tourney.

The absolute deadline for all entries in the Men's NCAA Pool is 11:15 AM CDT, Thursday, 19 March 2009. That is when the Men's games begin. This is not negotiable.

 

Tournament Rules

The entry methods are as follows:

• LOW-TECH METHOD: Fill in an entry bracket by hand before the 11:15 AM deadline on Thursday and hand deliver it with the entry fee to Dr. Jay. Blank brackets are available in many newspapers, or online at ESPN's Tournament Website.
• MID-TECH METHOD: Send Dr. Jay an email: jansher@ilstu.edu and include all the winners of the first round (32 winners), all the winners in the second round (16 winners from the original 32 winners), and so on, until you have picked winners for all 63 games. It may be helpful to have a completed bracket in front of you as you do this. You must still hand deliver or mail your entry fee to Dr. Jay to be officially entered.
• HIGH-TECH METHOD: Submit your entry using this handy WEB FORM. You can follow the instructions on the form and submit it to Dr. Jay. This method is similar to the mid-tech method, but uses the web instead of email. You must still hand deliver or mail your entry fee as in each of the other methods...or, again this year, pay your entry fee via PayPal. Dr. Jay has a verified PayPal account there you can submit your payment to.
  I'm PayPal Verified

1. SPECIAL PICK EXCEPTION: The #16 seed play-in game between Alabama State and Morehead State to be held Tuesday night, March 17^th will not be considered as part of the pool. If you send your entry in between that game and the Thursday deadline, you'll already know the winner. If you send your entry in before that game, you will get that one as a freebie. Either way, be sure to indicate how far you think that team will advance beyond that initial first round, if at all.
2. You MUST choose a winner for every game in the tournament. This may sound silly, but every year several people leave at least one of the lines blank.  Also, don't forget to pick the tiebreaker score (Total points scored in the championship game ).
3. Include your name, phone number, and email address on each entry. This information will be used exclusively to contact you if there is a problem with your entry, to put you on an email mailing list for pool updates, and to inform you if you have won any prize money after the pool is done. It will not be given or sold to any commercial agencies. I respect everyone's privacy.
4. An entry fee of $6.00 (cash, check, or PayPal only) is required for each entry. The entry fee SHOULD be paid at the time of entry, but for web entries from out of town, payment must be mailed to Dr. Jay and received no later than NOON, 26 March, 2009. This will ensure that the entry fee is paid before the start of the regional semifinals.
5. Entry fee for out of town web submissions should be mailed to: Dr. Jay Ansher, 1707 Sweetbriar Drive, Bloomington, IL 61701. All other entry fees are due at the time of entry, and should be hand delivered, or submitted via PayPal.
6. You may enter as many times as you like (yeah, enter lots!!).
7. All participants must be four (4) years of age or older.
8. Any entry form can be shared by more than one person or team, but any prize must be shared by the team. 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.
9. The person running the pool (Dr. Jay) has agreed to run the pool with the understanding from all who enter that he is entering also (i.e., I am not excluding myself or my family members from participating!).
10. Final placing 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 round games are worth more than earlier round games, 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            8 points each          16 possible points

1  Championship game           12 points              12 possible points

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Totals:                          63 games            136 possible points

 

Prize Money for the Men's Pool: Monetary prizes will be awarded to the four entries with the most points at the end of the tournament. The total Prize Money is the sum of all entry fees, minus $42.00. Thirty dollars goes toward administrative fees associated with running the pool (software, PayPal fees, web hosting), while $12.00 goes toward 2 consolation prizes. To encourage participation, the TWO LAST PLACE entries will win their entry fees back. Also, for the fifth straight year, I'm awarding intermediate prizes. The best first round picks will win 5% of the pool, and the entry with the most correct teams in the Sweet 16 will win 5% of the pool. NEW for this 20th Anniversary Pool, a prize of 5% of the pool is awarded for the person picking the correct champion, even if they are not in the top 4 places in points. Ties will be broken using the tiebreaker score included on each entry.

1st Place --- 40% of Total Prize Money

2nd Place --- 20% of Total Prize Money

3rd Place --- 15% of Total Prize Money

4th Place --- 10% of Total Prize Money

Best First Round --- 5% of Total Prize Money

Best Sweet 16 --- 5% of Total Prize Money

Correct Champ --- 5% of Total Prize Money

Next to last --- $6.00 Entry fee refunded

Last place --- $6.00 Entry fee refunded

 

P.S. Don't forget to keep a copy of your choices so you can follow your progress. After each round (and twice during the first round), results will be posted on my website devoted to the tournament.

 

You can get to those update pages by going back to the main 2009 NCAA page.

 

Actual Bracket and Results

Current Men's Tourney results bracket

*Not officially (or unofficially) sanctioned by ESPN, My wife Becky, Kargatron.net, the Physics Department or Illinois State University.