March Madness 2013

March Madness is here...WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!  As some of you may know this is my favorite time of year and nothing makes me happier than to get everyone involved and run this pool.  I know there are sites out there that allow you to upload brackets and score everything for you but I happen to be a fan of the old fashioned way of scoring by hand and updating results everyday.  And that is precisely what I plan to do (with the help of Jonny's old blog site, of course)!  Brackets are $20 a piece, and the limit is one per person. 

Like every year, I have taken off work for the first week of the tournament so you will all be able to get me your brackets and money one way or another!  There are several options: You can always come by me and Jonny's and fill out a bracket and pay on the spot (anytime between Sun night-early Thurs morning)...If not there's always texting me a pic of your bracket, emailing me a pic, filling one out verbally over the phone, etc.  In terms of payment, you can pop a check in the mail, give me cash, or even give me your credit card # (I can run your card using the credit card machine at work, I would just have to charge $2 service charge).  ALL PAYMENTS MUST BE IN MY HAND ONE WAY OR ANOTHER BY NOON ON THURSDAY 3/21 or I will be forced to tear up your bracket and spit on it.  For those select few of you that cannot seem to get $/bracket to me, I am willing to take a cruise around town and stop by people's mailboxes if I have to.  I am willing to go above and beyond to make this pool as big and exciting as possible...which brings me to the next topic...THE MONEY!  Last year Julianne took home $500!  Once everyone has submitted their entry, I will let you know what the payout will be.  Like every year, it'll be WINNER TAKE ALL except for $20 (which 2nd place gets back).

Finally, I just want to mention a couple scoring rules because I know all pools are subtly different in terms of scoring and I want to make sure everyone knows everything before completing a bracket.  Play-in-games on Tues and Wed are irrelevant, our tournament will not begin until Thursday.  In the first round (even though it'll be referred to as "the second round" after the first round play in games...stupid) all correct picks will be rewarded 1 point.  *You will be rewarded 1 extra bonus point (NOT the difference in the seeds) for picking the upset.*  If that team goes on to win another round you will NOT receive another bonus point (sorry).  In the second round, all correct picks will be rewarded 2 points.  In the third round 4 points.  In the fourth round 8 points.  In the fifth round 16 points and  then 32 points for correctly identifying the champion.

Ok so I think that's everything, if I've left anything out let me know...I really hope everybody joins and if you have any questions just call or text me!  Now Jonny will post a poem to honor the start of march madness...LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!