Bonus points don’t double. 10 beating the 2 gets you 10 points. 2 for the second round and 8 bonus points. The surprising thing thing about Honsel picking Loyola is he only got 1 bonus point last round as he had them beating Texas a 10 seed.
2018 NCAA Pool
- Thread starter Dan Murfman
- Start date
I don't even see the logic. The rules are clearly spelled out. Theoretically, everyone can "game" the system.
So Erik will be a big Loyola fan. If they win he will take 4 of the 5 top spots. He’s not guaranteed to win. If Kansas wins or if Nova beats Michigan he won’t win.
Here's why this breaks down:
Picking all 1s then nailing Final 4 results:
Round 1: 29 points. Awesome.
Round 2: 4 points. (Nova and Kansas as #1's). That's it. Loyola nets you 0 because you'd be picking the upset, the 14th seeded Wright St who you picked to beat Tennessee. You'd go 2-14 in round 2. The FSU over Xavier upset? You're picking #1's.
If you switched this to picking the overall winner and upsets everywhere else? A bit better:
Round 1: 45 points, adding in the UMBC win.
Round 2: You'd lose the points for Kansas (let's just assume Nova wins) because you'd pick the upset. So, that's it, just Nova's points--2 of them.
Round 3: You're only getting points for Villanova, so 4 more, up to 51.
Round 4: You only have Villanova alive, so 8 more points, up to 59.
You'd be in 233rd place. Out of 286.
So, long story short (I may be off a tiny bit, but nothing big) what you were thinking might happen doesn't. Essentially because there aren't as many upsets as you think, and those second round upsets that actually happen? In these brackets you describe you'd be picking 16th seeds to win again.
Michigan over Kansas gets me 4th.
Between Sister Jean and how Nova looks I'm not anticipating a cash.
If I'm reading correctly, I'll get 4th if Kansas wins the title. It's good to see SoSHers have a shot at the money.
It was a good weekend for payments. I am now down to one person who I've sent a couple of emails and I haven't heard back. I'll keep trying so the prizes will be:
1st $2785
2nd $1393
3rd $668
4th $445
5th $279
1st $2785
2nd $1393
3rd $668
4th $445
5th $279
I lost all chances when Duke lost. Michigan over Duke would have got me 5th, but overall I did terrible this year. Will try again next year, maybe with a new strategy.
So after dominating the pool he will be an underdog to win the pool as he needs Michigan to win
Got the finalists, but sucked really badly early in the tournament. How badly?
Picked 7 lower seeds to win in the first round - went 1-6 in those games (Butler the only winner)
18-14 overall in the first round and got a grand total of 3 bonus points.
8-8 overall in the second round and got a grand total of 1 bonus point.
3-5 in the Sweet Sixteen
2-2 in the Elite Eight
2-0 in the Final Four
Tough to win with 4 bonus points in the whole tournament. If I wasn't so bad with those lower seeds, I'd probably have a shot.
Picked 7 lower seeds to win in the first round - went 1-6 in those games (Butler the only winner)
18-14 overall in the first round and got a grand total of 3 bonus points.
8-8 overall in the second round and got a grand total of 1 bonus point.
3-5 in the Sweet Sixteen
2-2 in the Elite Eight
2-0 in the Final Four
Tough to win with 4 bonus points in the whole tournament. If I wasn't so bad with those lower seeds, I'd probably have a shot.
Agreed. Michigan just couldn’t make any shots. I’ll take it...thanks for running!
So done for another year. During the tournament we had a little discussion about the scoring. My biggest thing about not changing it is I've done it this way for 20 years. But are there any changes I should think about?
I think I have been in this for about 10 years now, and I see no reason to change it. It was a bit disheartening halfway through to think Honsel could score 3 out of the 5 prize slots and walk away with $3-4K, but in the end he won I think $1100.
I tried to look at some numbers and one of the scenarios I did was picking every upset 4-8, and then picking all the 1's & 2's to reach the elite 8, all 1's in the final 4, and so on...getting Nova correct.
While that strategy would get you in the top 15, you wouldn't be winning any money.
This year was a pretty big outlier, we have never seen a #1 go down first round, an 11 made it to the final 4.
I vote no changes.
I was the one who brought it up to begin with, but I have been convinced that no changes are needed
My only suggestion would be to raise the ante. Otherwise, this pool is awesome.
Dan, it seems to me there has been a growing amount of players playing 5-10 brackets in recent years. With it being an upset bonus pool and growing the amount of entries I know it makes sense but to me it's a bit of a turn off. I still play but have dropped down to just one entry this year.
I'm sure there are lots of folks who feel the exact opposite of me but I would like it if you maxed individual entries to 5.
I'm sure there are lots of folks who feel the exact opposite of me but I would like it if you maxed individual entries to 5.
So, people entering more than one bracket have caused you to stop entering more than one bracket?