2018 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament Pool Sign Up Now Live

We are about 1 week away from Conference Tournaments tipping off, time to make those picks!

To make watching the NCAA Basketball Conference tournaments a little more interesting, for the 8th year in a row, below are the details of a pool in which you pick the champion for each conference.  This has been a ton of fun the past few year's so sign up and pass it along to anyone else that may want to play.  

Congrats to last year's champion, Dan Sohler.

Below is the overall Top 10 from 2017, this will give you an idea of what kind of totals are needed to compete.

The game is very simple, pick who you think is going to win each of the 32 NCAA Basketball Conference Championships.

The entry fee is $50 with the following payout structure:  

1st Place receives a 60% payout

2nd Place receives a 25% payout

3rd Place receives a 15% payout

4th Place receives a free entry for the 2019 pool*

*This year's free entry is awarded to TJH based on his 2017 finish

This Pool Has a Very Easy Scoring System: The person with the combination of most correct picks, including bonus points, wins the pool.  

Bonus Points are Available:  The bonus point scoring is simple, for every 3 seed or lower winner that you pick, you will be awarded 1 bonus point.  In 2017 11 out of 32 conference tournament winners were a 3 seed or lower.

*Minor Change for the 2018 Pool*
Instead of using the Big 10 Championship game as a tie breaker and a Bonus Payout, we will now be using the SEC Championship game.  This is due to the Big 10 conference tournament starting and ending earlier this year.

Also...

More Ways to Win Money!

The fun part about this pool is you have alternative ways to win money, so even if you're not towards the top of the standings you can still win money throughout the conference tournament week.  It's likely we'll have some ties, so the money gets split among all winners in the event of a tie.

1. Most Bonus Points:  The person(s) with the most total bonus points will win $150

2. Most Power Conference Points:  The person(s) with the most Power Conference points will win $150 (The 5 Power Conferences will be highlighted on the entry form)

3. Lowest Winning Seed:  The person(s) who has the lowest winning seed conference champion wins $100 (Last year Michigan paid out as an 8 seed)

4. Closest SEC Score:  The person(s) with the closest SEC championship game score wins $50 (This is the last conference championship game, so even if you're in last place you have the opportunity to recoup $50!)

As conference tournaments complete at different dates through Selection Sunday, 3/11, I will post constant updates with the current standing at:

https://2018conferencetournamentchallenge.blogspot.com/

As long as you follow the Blog you will be completely updated and informed on how each conference tournament is playing out and the impacts to our pool.  It also gives you some fun stuff to read during your work day. 

To get started, fill out the attached spreadsheet with the team you think will win each conference tournament and e-mail it back to me no later than Sunday, 2/25.  You can also, call, text, mail, or e-mail your picks in to me if you prefer not to use the spreadsheet. 

It really shouldn't take longer than 5-10 minutes to fill everything out as I included a drop down list for each conference to allow easy and accurate selections for that conference.  

The seed numbers currently shown in the excel spreadsheet probably will change over the next few weeks as the regular season comes to an end at different dates for each conference.  I will keep the seeds up to date on the master score sheet I send to the group.

I would highly suggest to subscribe to the Blog if you want consistent updates as I will avoid sending constant updates to everyone's e-mail.  Every few days however, I will send out a excel copy of the standings.  You can subscribe by entering your e-mail address on the right hand side of the page.

As the tournament gets underway, and we start to have teams eliminated early on, I will consistently post updates to the standings here (Bookmark this link for the standings).

Here are some pro tips (If you care):  

If you are not college basketball savvy, it is important to understand that in some conferences NOT all teams make the conference tournament, so it's a wise move to avoid picking a last place team when viewing the current conference standings on ESPN, CBS Sports, or any other college basketball website.  In addition, 4 teams this year are ineligible for their conference tournaments, even if they are in first place.  I have marked all known teams as ineligible or DNQ for the tournament in the spreadsheet dropdowns.  Additional teams may be added, but it is currently up to the date of this note.  It is up to you to do the research as no changes are allowed effective Monday, 2/26

More tips and tricks to be aware of - Current standings can be found  at http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/standings which can help show which teams are most likely to win, and you can assume teams in 3rd place and lower are potential Bonus Picks .  But remember, standings may and probably will change between when you submit your picks and when the conference tournament starts for a particular league (i.e. A 4th place team may get hot and jump into a 1 or 2 seed, making them not a bonus pick)

Ensure you fill out your name/nickname, as you want it to appear on the standings, and E-mail address on the sheet prior to sending it back to me to avoid any confusion.   

I will send out a master spreadsheet with everyone's picks, known bonus points, and conference info prior to the first tournament championship game (Including my picks). 


$$$$$

Money can be sent the following ways:

PayPal:  rwdpeanut@gmail.com

Address: 1140 Venetian Court; Naperville, IL 60540  

In Person/Vegas

Any non-payment, or attempt to arrange payment, by 3/4, will result in your entry being removed.  I'm not going to spend my time chasing down money this year. 

If you have any questions or want to forward this to anyone that may be interested, feel free to do so, just ensure they send the spreadsheet back to me by Sunday, 2/25.