Matty's March Madness 2011

• Nuts and bolts: $10 per entry; unlimited entries per person; must be family, a friend, or a friend of a friend to play; must get your bracket(s) and money in on time or make arrangements with me.
• Timeline: Selection Sunday is this Sunday (3/13), so the pool will open shortly after the teams are announced. An electronic version of the bracket will be made available on the website, but you can also submit your bracket by hand, fax, or scan/email. All brackets must be received no later than tip-off of the first game on Thursday (3/17). There are no exceptions to this rule. The national championship game is April 4, so all payouts will be made by April 11.
• Play-ins: There's been some discussion as to what we should do with the added play-in games this year. Here's our short answer: nothing. The play-in games will be treated no differently than previous years. The games are worth nothing for our purposes.
• Payouts: Last year we paid out to the top 5 entries and the last place entry. This will remain the same this year.
• Bonus: As always, the referral bonus ($5) is up for grabs, but it will take a Herculean effort to wrestle the title away from our reigning champion, James Haggar.
• Pool Contacts: The pool has grown so large over the years that we've adopted a pool contact system. That is, if someone wants to play, they either have to know me or list as a pool contact someone I know. The person listed as a pool contact is responsible for the entrant (entry fee and otherwise). This is has been a good way we've found to keep it fair and manageable.
• Lastly, I see and touch every single bracket that comes in. I make sure all the info is accurate and complete, and I import each bracket individually into the pool. The less I have to change on a bracket, the faster I'm able to get through the brackets and update the website to reflect new submissions. Please, please, please fill out your name and pool contact correctly on the bracket. Use proper capitalization, and just put your real name. If your name is John Smith, use John Smith. Don't submit 6 brackets looking like this: john smith, The smithman, Jack smith, JonatheN Smith, jonnathan youknowwhoiam, or Johnny Smithers. No nicknames. Just put your real name, and use the same real name for each and every bracket you submit. With so many brackets coming in such a short period of time, efficiency is critical. We simply can't afford to take the time to track down every questionable entry and make corrections. This same rule applies to the Pool Contact field. Use real names and proper capitalization. Unfortunately, we're at the point where we'll just delete nonconforming brackets. Please know that I'm not trying to implement draconian rules to be difficult; keeping the names and numbers of entries straight is crucial to making sure the pot is right at the end of the tournament. If you're doing multiple brackets, please follow this simple method for entering your name on each bracket: John Smith, John Smith2, John Smith3, etc.