The 2018 Conference Tournament Championship Pool Final Results

The final conference tournament championship came to a close this afternoon with (1) Cincinnati beating (3) Houston in the American Conference.  Below is a summary of the winners and payouts, along with a link to the final standings.  I validated the scores and tiebreakers and will begin paying out tomorrow.

• For those that won money, please reach out to me and let me know your PayPal address or if you prefer I pay you in cash when I see you
• In addition to that whole $13, Derek gets a free entry next year for coming in 4th place

We Have 1 Game Left

We have gone through 3 out of the 5 conference tournament championship games today, we have 1 conference championship left that actually matters to the standings.  Included in this blog are the pool scenarios for the (1) Cincinnati vs. (3) Houston game.

Link to the Standings 

Scenarios

• Aardvark Tina is currently in 1st place and with a Houston win she stays in 1st place; if Cincinnati wins then Aardvark Tina comes in 2nd
• If Cincinnati wins, I actually win, I don't think I have ever sniffed the top 4 in 8 years of this, so I guess I am due;  I would be tied with Aardvark Tina, but I have the SEC score tiebreaker over her
• Corey clinches 3rd no matter what happens; he does have Cincinnati so if they win he outright wins 3rd, but if Houston wins he still wins 3rd in as he has the SEC score tiebreaker over Rob Lowe who has Houston
• If Houston wins, Rob Lowe takes 4th place and the free entry to the pool for 2019
• Derek is currently in 4th, which is the free entry to the 2019 pool, but if Houston wins then Rob Lowe passes Derek for 4th place

Payouts

• My favorite part about this pool is that so many different people can win money, even on the last day
• In the standings column BE is filled with who has won side pots; we have someone in 28th place that just today almost recouped his buy in by getting being accurate with Power Conferences

Any results in the spreadsheet are unofficial, I will spend time tonight going through each person to confirm everything is calculating accurately.

Happy Selection Sunday, Day!

Happy Selection Sunday, Day!

Today is the last day of the pool, and everyone is jockeying for position, nothing is locked up by anyone at this point.  However, we do have many people that have been eliminated from finishing in the top 4.  We have 16 people that have the ability to get into the Top 4, not everyone can finish 1st, but with tiebreakers, a few can sneak into 4th.

Link to the Standings 

We have 5 conference championships today, below is a preview of each championship in order of when they start.  I am not going to go through each scenario for our pool, but I will call out a few.

Ivy League

• (1) Harvard vs. (2) Penn does not have a huge impact on our pool, but a Penn win does almost eliminate Safkas chance at coming in first as he lost (3) Yale yesterday
• 10 of the 11 people in the top 11 have (2) Penn, overall for the pool 75% of us picked Penn

Atlantic 10

• (1) Rhode Island is playing (3) Davidson and this is our 1st super important match-up of the day
• Aardvark Tina and Sam I Am both have Davidson, for them to stay in contention for 1st they need this win
• Andrew and Corey are in the top 4, however they will get passed up after this game is over no matter the result;  Andrew only has 16 max points, so he will fade away quickly
• A Davidson win also locks up another $150 for Aardvark Tina as she will win another side pot, total bonus points

SEC

• This is a conference championship that is meaningful for everyone in the pool, regardless of standings
• If you get the score correct for (2) Tennessee vs. (4) Kentucky, a $50 side pot is available, additionally the score is used as our tiebreaker in the standings (Standings Sort Order:  Points, SEC Score)
• This game is critical for Rob Lowe, he is the only person in the top 10 that has Tennessee, so a loss here and all the Kentucky people pass him up
• Depending what happens with the Davidson game, a Kentucky win has impacts to the total bonus points side pot

American Athletic Conference

• The last conference tournament championship of the day, (1) Cincinnati vs. (3) Houston
• Depending how the previous games play out this can have a huge impact to the standings, this one is important for Rob Lowe as he has (3) Houston, no one else in the top 10 has Houston
• Additionally, a bunch of people right outside the top 10 have Houston, and with the potential of a bonus point can send them to 3rd or 4th place
• The entire 2 weeks of the pool likely comes down to Houston and Cincinnati

I am not going to cover the Sun Belt conference tournament championship game as it has no impact to our pool and standings.  With a (2) Georgia State win and a correct SEC score, Fuss may possibly be able to take 4th place.

As games complete today, I will post updated standings so everyone can see where they are at, and then later tonight I will post the final standings and payouts.  Expect that to be posted very late tonight, I need to go through and validate each persons score for accuracy.

Good Luck to everyone that has a shot to be in the top 4 today or that have the ability to win a side pot!

Punched Ticket Tracker

We Have Our First Side Pot Winner & We Have Some Losers

Congratulations to Aardvark Tina, with the North Carolina loss tonight she was able to lock up the side pot payout for the lowest winning seed with (6) NC Central.  I assume she will use some of that money to buy this...

We are also at that point where people have started to be eliminated from being able to finish in the top 4, so those names have been grayed out.  If you are a grayed out name, don't be discouraged as you could still win money from side pots.

• Most power conference points
• Most bonus points
• Closest SEC championship game score

Link to the Standings 

5 More Tickets Punched: Texas Southern, Kansas, San Diego State, Villanova, and Buffalo

This late afternoon/early evening gave us 5 more conference tournament champions, again changing up what the standings look like.  The standings fluctuate now with every single game.

Link to the Standings 

SWAC

• In the controversial SWAC, (3) Texas Southern defeated (1) Arkansas Pine Bluff, giving 11 people a win and a bonus point
• 3 people in the tops 15 at the time had Grambling State, a team that was disqualified before the conference tournament began

Big 12

• (1) Kansas pulled away from (3) West Virginia late in the game to secure the championship
• 41% of us picked Kansas, but the 2nd highest pick was West Virginia

Mountain West

• Only JoeCo had (5) San Diego State as they beat (3) New Mexico, this put Joe right up there with the leaders
• 65% of us had (1) Nevada, the 1 and 2 seeds were out of the Mountain West championship

Big East

• It took some extra time, but (2) Villanova beat (5) Providence, this caused a few people toward the top of the standings to miss a bonus point
• 76% of us were on Villanova

MAC

• In a chalky match-up (1) Buffalo took care of (2) Toledo, no bonus points were available
• 59% of our picks in the pool were for Buffalo, but many people at the top of the leader board had Ball State

I will provide at least 1 more update tonight, and then another 1st thing in the morning for the late games so we know what the last day looks like.  Tomorrow is Selection Sunday!

Breakdown of Standings and Money

We had 5 more games complete since the last update, no championship games but all these games had impacts to our standings.  I hope to provide 1-2 more updates today.

Link to the Standings 

The focus with this post is to review the standings to see who has the best chance to win the pool, along with looking at the bonus money payments.

• The focus is on the top 15, this group has the best chance to finish in the top 4
• The people in the best position right now based on Max Points are Sam I Am, Aardvark Tina, Derick, Ryan E., and me!
• If your Max Points are any shade of green you are very much in this, anyone in yellow you are in decent shape, if you're in red your chances of winning are slipping away
• Sam I AM and Aardvark Tina each have 2 bonus points, which means if it finishes like that they would split a $150 pot

Below is a snapshot of additional bonus money that can be won.

• Rob Lowe, Sam I am, Sully, and B.I. are currently tied for the Power Conference Points, would split a pot of $150
• Aardvark Tina is the lone Lowest Winning Seed, with (6) NC Central winning today;  however we do have (6) North Carolina playing tomorrow, so we may have a 10 way tie for a $100 pot

Championship Game Saturday

We have 14 conference tournament championship games throughout today, We will start to see the standings shape up so I will post multiple updates.  As people are eliminated I will turn the name gray so you know you have been eliminated.  Remember, even if you are eliminated from coming in 1st - 4th, you still have opportunities to win bonus money through the last game tomorrow.

Link to the Standings 

Below is a rundown of the action so far today that has impacted our pool, including a couple conference tournament championship games.

America East

• 88% of the people picked (1) Vermont and of course that meant (2) UMBC won the game with a buzzer beating 3
• A couple guys actually did have UMBC, but they are further down in the standing so not a huge impact to the standings

MEAC

• In a HUGE shocker (6) NC Central defeated (1) Hampton, giving Aardvark Tina a bonus win as she was the only one on NC Central
• Half of the pool was on Hampton

In the Sun Belt Conference (1) Louisiana-Lafayette lost in the semifinals to (4) UT-Arlington, 79% of our pool had Louisiana-Lafayette winning.  Outside of Louisiana-Lafayette, all favorites moved in that were playing in semi-final games.

Conference Tournament Indicator 

The Lost Patriot League Championship Tonight

Yesterday I stated no more championship games until Saturday, however that was a complete lie.  As I look through the match-ups I found that we do have a championship game today.

I'd like to say that Bucknell will cruise to an easy victory, but based on past results I am just going to go ahead and predict a Colgate win.

• 82% of us picked Bucknell and Team Rankings gave them a 74% chance to win before this tournament even tipped off
• B.I. is the lone person who selected Colgate, so while in the grand scheme of things a Bucknell win doesn't change the standings much, it is super important for B.I.
• No bonus points can be won as it is (1) Bucknell vs. (2) Colgate
  

Unless crazy upsets happen today across all tournaments, we won't see much movement in the standings, however I will still update the spreadsheet so keep the link saved.  

Many tournaments are in the 1st or 2nd round today, not many of us reached for those teams.

Link to the Standings 

Another 5 Tickets Punched and Next Championship Games are Saturday

5 more tickets were punched to the NCAA Tournament tonight, again completely changing around our standings which are posted online.  No championship games will be played over the next 3 days, we'll have 20 over Saturday and Sunday.  Unless I am super bored or something crazy happens, I probably will not post another blog until Friday, however I will continue to update the standings at least once/day.

Link to the Standings 

Quick Summary of Tonight

• Horizon: (2) Wright State wiped the floor with (8) Cleveland State
• Colonial: (2) Northeastern blew a late 17 point lead and lost in overtime to (1) Charleston
• Northeastern: (4) LIU-Brooklyn broke out the meth lab again and destroyed (1) Wagner
• West Coast: (1) Gonzaga completely blew out the Mormons of (3) BYU
• Summit League: (1) South Dakota State and the legend of Mike Daum beat (2) South Dakota

Punched Ticket Tracker

Conference Tournament Indicator 

Preview of all 5 Conference Championship Games Today

Below is a quick preview of the 5 conference championship games that will be played today, I'll attempt to update standings twice tonight as each set of games finishes.  After tonight we will be close to half way through the pool, so for those that find themselves at the bottom after tonight should start getting nervous, but know you're not yet mathematically eliminated.

Link to the Standings 

At 6pm CST we have 3 games being playing at the same time tonight, which can be stressful if you're alive in all 3 conferences, but works out well when you don't have a team to root for.  At 8pm CST we have 2 games being played at the same time, with the majority of the pool alive in both conferences.

Horizon League Championship Game (6p CST)

• (2) Wright State vs. (8) Cleveland State, no one in our pool has Cleveland State, 9 people have Wright State
• Wright State is projected to win by 9 points, so expect a blowout easy win here
• No bonus points will be awarded as no one has Cleveland State
• This is making me relive my 2009 nightmare in Vegas when Tim Husted GAURANTEED a Cleveland State win over Wake Forest during the NCAA Tournament while almost getting in a fight with a guy that actually went to school at George Mason

 

Colonial Conference Championship Game (6p CST)

• All chalk with this match-up as (1) Charleston plays (2) Northeastern
• 47% of our pool picked Charleston, however Northeastern was a very close 2nd
• Charleston is projected to win by 2 points, but it looks as though we'll see a good close game tonight
• No bonus points will be awarded as no 3 seeds or lower are playing 

Northeast Conference Championship Game (6p CST)

• (1) Wagner vs. (4) LIU-Brooklyn, no one has LIU-Brooklyn in our pool, and this is the 1st year ever Aardvark Tina didn't choose LIU-Brooklyn
• Vegas has Wagner winning by 8, so this should give 20 people in the pool an easy win
• No bonus points will be awarded as no one has LIU-Brooklyn 

 

 

West Coast Conference Championship Game (8p CST)

• (1) Gonzaga vs. (3) BYU, with 82% of the pool on Gonzaga, which means a Gonzaga win won't create too much separation in the standings
• However, B.I. has BYU, which would award him bonus points with a win, and he is the only person with BYU;  a BYU win should give B.I. some separation in the standings
• Now having said all that, Gonzaga is favored to win this game by 10 points, but Mormons are always a tough out 

 

 

 

Summit League Championship Game (8p CST)

• More chalk with (1) South Dakota State vs. (2) South Dakota, 82% of the pool is on South Dakota State
• We do have 6 people on South Dakota, and amazingly this is our first conference championship game in which ALL of us are alive and can root for a winner
• This is projected to be a super close game, with South Dakota actually being favored by 1 point
• No bonus points will be awarded as no 3 seeds or lower are playing 

 

 

In addition to these conference championship games, we do have conference tournament games all day that will impact our pool with losses, we really will rack up losses at a furious pace over the next 3-4 days.

Bonus Points are Paying Out Early

2 more teams tonight punched tickets to the NCAA Tournament and bonus point picks are paying out early and often in our pool.  All teams are now out of the regular season and have or will start conference tournaments by Thursday, except for the Ivy League.  Also, finally everyone in the pool has at least 1 win!

Link to the Standings 

MAAC Tournament Championship

• (4) Iona easily took care of (6) Fairfield to win the MAAC conference tournament and gave 11 people in the pool bonus points

Southern Conference Tournament Championship

• In a low scoring game full of turnovers, (1) UNC-Greensboro pulled away from (2) East Tennessee State in the 2nd half for the win
• Surprising that only 10 people had the 1 seed picked, so a big win for many people

At this point it really starts to get hard to track and blog every single thing that is going on and how it impacts our pool, we have 5 championship games tomorrow!  I am getting to the point where I will rely on the conference tournament indicator and punched ticket tracker below.

Conference Tournament Indicator 

Punched Ticket Tracker

SWAC Update, MAAC and Southern Conference Championship Preview

In addition to being a blog, this update is also being sent via e-mail today for those that have not been keeping up with the blog or with the link to the standings.

Below outlines impacts to the SWAC prior to its start, a preview of the 2 tournament championship games today, attached standings update, and payment.  I have attached the standings in this note, but they are also updated on One Drive.  

Link to the Standings (I reset the standings link as a few people indicated they were having issues with access)


Payment

If you have not yet made arrangements to pay, please do so soon or I will need to remove you from the pool.  Those that I see often I am not worried about, I am more concerned about the people that I really don't see throughout the year.  

Column AX in the spreadsheet shows who has not yet paid, but I know many of you have already made arrangements.  If I have something inaccurate let me know and I will make the update.

SWAC Tournament Update

Although the SWAC tournament has not yet tipped off, we had 6 people lose a point due to Grambling State being disqualified.  No changes can be made to that pick as I did give the opportunity a week ago to everyone to make a change to Grambling State because we knew they were being talked about in terms of potentially being disqualified. 

Many people chose to make a change even though Grambling State was far and away the best team in the SWAC, but for the unlucky 6 that chose not to, the risk did not pay off.  Those kids at Grambling should start going to class more often.

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2018/3/4/17077050/swac-tournament-bracket-grambling-arkansas-pine-bluff-texas-southern-prairie-view-ncaa-basketball

MAAC Tournament Championship Preview

• The MAAC tournament has been upset heavy with the 1,2,3, and 5 seeds all going down early, leaving the championship match-up between (4) Iona and (6) Fairfield
• Iona has had a history of winning this tournament regardless of seed, so we do have 11 people on Iona in our pool, a Iona win will provide a bonus point which will again shake up the standings
• Team Rankings did project Iona as the winner of the conference tournament before it even started, giving them a 27% chance to win, however 38% of our pool went with (1) Rider
• Iona is only favored to win the game by 4 points so this should be a close game, likely another last second shot winner

Southern Conference Tournament Championship Preview

• The Southern Conference will be the 2nd championship game played tonight with (1) UNC Greensboro vs. (2) East Tennessee State, very chalky match-up
• Here is a stat that did not come true, both Team Rankings and our pool gave (3) Furman a 35% chance to win this conference tournament;  Although we were aligned with the analytics, Furman lost
• No bonus points available and we're fairly evenly split between UNC Greensboro and East Tennessee State
• Vegas has East Tennessee State winning this game by 1, which again means a close game is expected

We are now at the point in the basketball season where every game from here on out will be a conference tournament game, losses will rack up super fast this week.  Unless you're getting absolutely clobbered, no reason to panic as the losses rack up as Saturday & Sunday will bring us 19 championship games. 

We have seen in this pool many times where someone is around mid pack in the standings, seems out of it, and jumps right to the top of the standings after Saturday.  This is why on the full version of the standings spreadsheet I show things like Max Points and Your Projected Total, those are indicators on if you are really out of it or not.  Until your Max Points are less than the Total Points of the 1st place person, you have a chance.

5 Teams Have Now Punched Tickets

We are 1 full week into conference tournaments and we now have 16 tournaments in progress or complete, and 5 conference champions.  Today the following teams punched tickets:  (2) Radford, (1) Loyola, (2) Lipscomb, and (5) Michigan.  Link to the Standings

The standings are starting to shape up and we have 3 people that have a winning % that is over 50% which is amazing, but also still super early.  Every day this week we have 1-2 conference tournament finals being played, so we will see the standings slowly change over the week.

• Rob Lowe is in the best position as he has only suffered 3 losses
• B.I. took an aggressive approach with all the long shots, which is working so far, and he has many more long shots left
• Jenn should enjoy being this high up early on as I assume she will fall down in the standings as the week goes on

If you have not payed yet, please send money via paypal to rwdpeanut@gmail.com so we can get that wrapped up, this pool ends in 1 week and I would like to pay out winners quickly.

Monday morning I will preview the conference tournament championships that are taking place at night, it looks like we have 2 of them.

Sunday Conference Tournament Championship(s) Preview

This afternoon we have 4 conference tournament championship games being played, in addition to other conferences playing in Semifinals and Quarterfinals.  Below is a preview of the 4 conference tournament championship games, I will attempt to update and post standings as each game wraps up.  Link to the Standings

Big South Conference Championship Game Preview

• (2) Radford vs. (5) Liberty
• 12 people in our pool have Radford so this is a significant game when it comes to the impact of our pool, however no bonus points will be awarded as Radford is a 2 seed
• No one is our pool has Liberty, so a Liberty win gives no one a win in our pool
• Vegas has Radford winning by 2

Missouri Valley Conference Championship Game Preview

• (1) Loyola Chicago vs. (3) Illinois State
• 24 people in our pool are on Loyola Chicago, so a win here gets most people a win, however no bonus points will be awarded if Loyola wins as they are a 1 seed
• We do have 4 people that have 3 seed Illinois State, so if Illinois State wins this game we have 4 people that immediately go to the top of the standings with 2 points (1 point for a win and 1 point for a 3 seed or above win)
• Vegas has Loyola Chicago winning by 8

Atlantic Sun Conference Championship Game Preview

• (1) Florida Gulf Coast vs. (2) Lipscomb
• No bonus awarded no matter who the winner is; 19 people int he pool have Florida Gulf Coast and 12 people in the pool have Lipscomb, only 3 people are eliminated from a potential win in this conference
• Vegas has Florida Gulf Coast as a 7 point favorite

Big 10 Conference Championship Game Preview

• Mixed in with the mid-major conferences, the Big 10 will feature (3) Purdue vs. (5) Michigan;  Bonus points will be awarded no matter who wins!
• Purdue is the favorite in our pool with 14 picks, while only 4 people in the pool picked Michigan
• Vegas is showing Purdue winning this game by 4

Good luck to everyone this afternoon, the standings will really start to shape up after we have 5 conference tournament champions and bonus points awarded!

Murray State is the First Ticket Punched for the NCAA Tournament

It is officially March as we now have our 1st ticket punched for the NCAA Tournament from the Murray State Racers in the Ohio Valley Conference.  Tons of conference tournament basketball was played today, we have finally started to see some separation and substance in the standings.  Link to the Standings

The largest upset of the day today in conference play came from the Horizon League as 1 seed Northern Kentucky lost to the 9 seed Cleveland State.  We shouldn't be surprised, the Horizon League is always fucked up with 1 seeds getting knocked off right out of the gate.

We have a bunch of championship games tomorrow, I will preview the games before tip off in the afternoon.  Additionally, most conferences have now wrapped up regular season play, so my spreadsheet updates tomorrow will have much more finalized standings.

So we finally had a ticket punched for the NCAA Tournament today, the graphic below is a summary of which conferences have already had teams punch a ticket!

Over Half the Conference Tournaments Tipped Off and Ohio Valley Championship Preview

We're now at the point where over half of the conference tournaments will be tipped off by this afternoon and we have a full day of losses ahead of us.  Everyone in the pool now has at least 1 loss, the worst players have 4 losses, but no one is out of this yet.  We have our first championship game tonight and a win can send the last place players to first and first place players to last.

The standings are updated through all the games from last night and below is a preview of the games today, starting with the Ohio Valley Conference championship game.  Link to the Standings

Ohio Valley Conference Championship Game

Tonight we will have our first conference championship game, also the first official ticket punched to the NCAA Tournament.  (1) Murray State will play (2) Belmont.

• 53% of us in the pool, or 18, are on Belmont and according to Team Rankings Belmont had a 45% chance to win prior to the tournament tipping off;  we overreached a little bit, but still went with the favorite
• Murray State was not that far behind, 14 of us in the pool selected Murray State
• This match-up is favorites, so no matter the outcome no one will receive bonus points tonight; Corey was the only person to selected a different team, Austin Peay, but they were blown out last night by Belmont
• Murray State is favored by 2 points, so expect a very close game

The America East conference tips off today, all teams will be playing as this conference does not give any teams a first round bye.  Vermont is by far and away the favorite both in our pool picks and according to Team Rankings.  88% of our pool picks are on Vermont to win the tournament and Team Rankings gives them a 77% chance to win the tournament.

In the Big 10 we are down to the Semi-finals with 4 teams left, we have 3 out of the 4 teams in our pool, with Michigan being bonus points as a 5 seed.  As a pool we're fairly evenly spread between (3) Purdue and (1) Michigan State, with Purdue getting the edge in terms of who we picked.  Michigan State is the only non bonus point team left in the Big 10.

The Colonial Conference first round tips off today with the 7-10 seeds, only impact to our pool is that Amanda has James Madison, the 10 seed.

The Horizon League Quarterfinals are today, (1) Northern Kentucky and (2) Wright State are in action, a loss by one or both of those teams will have huge impacts to the pool.  14 of us are on Northern Kentucky and 8 of us are on Wright State.

In the MAAC, yesterday we lost both the 1 and 2 seeds, so the winner of this conference tournament will either be someone with bonus points or no one will win.  In our pool we're split between (3) Niagara and (4) Iona, any other MAAC team that wins means none of us got this one right, and there are a ton of teams left in the MAAC.

(3) Niagara
(4) Iona
(5) Manhattan
(6) Fairfield
(7) Quinnipiac
(9) St. Peters

Missouri Valley begins the Semi-finals this afternoon with Loyola Chicago, Illinois State, and Southern Illinois all in play for our pool.  Bradley is the only team that is in the Semi-finals that was not picked in our pool.

The Northeast Conference is also in the Semi-finals this afternoon, out of the 4 teams left the only one that has any impact to our pool is (1) Wagner.  Everyone else lost their teams earlier, plus 59% of the pool picks are on Wagner.

The Southern Conference moves in to the Quarterfinals today and that puts all of our teams at risk int he pool, still too many teams left to cover especially since we have not lost any yet.  Our picks are all over the place in this conference.

The Summit League Quarterfinals start today, all teams are in action over the next 2 days, but we overwhelmingly, 80% of us, picked South Dakota State.  I assume we're all betting on Mike Daum (See link below).

https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2018/1/12/16884660/mike-daum-south-dakota-state-nba-draft-2018-sleeper-mid-major-basketball

Finally, for some late night hoops we have the West Coast Conference Quarterfinals, with all WCC teams in play.  Not shockingly, 82% of us are on (1) Gonzaga, but we do have a few people that picked Saint Mary's or BYU.  The Saint Mary's game starts close to midnight central time!

The conferences below are in progress, but inactive today:

• Atlantic Sun
• Big South
• Patriot League

Good luck to everyone today , we're going to finally have a few winners on the standings, along with a ton of losses!  We're so early on in the pool, so as I said before, no one is out of it yet.  I'll be sure to call out the losers that are pretty much out of it.