Participation
Everyone is welcome to participate, so please let anyone who might be interested in entering know about this Pool.
Costs
The entry fee for each bracket is $10.00, cash or check, which you may (i) mail to me at the address provided herein; or (ii) pay using Venmo or PayPal. My Venmo account name is @Larry-Oldham and you may make a PayPal payment to me by clicking this link (please note that the total for PayPal is $11.00 to cover the service charges). A little birdie told me that Big Brother is cracking down on gambling all of a sudden and freezing some accounts used to do so. While I cannot imagine any reason that would happen to me, nevertheless be discreet with your payment references.
How to Enter
Before this coming Thursday's tournament games start, you pick the winners of each game all the way through the National Championship game by using the Electronic Bracket provided. You are awarded points for each correct pick in each round as specified in these Rules. Picks are saved in the system upon submission of an Electronic Bracket and you will see your name or alias, if you use one, appear when you have done so.
Entry Deadline
Brackets must be submitted electronically by 12:00 p.m. this coming Thursday. For purposes of the entry deadline, the First Four games on this coming Tuesday and Wednesday nights are not taken into account. Entries for which the entry fee is not received in the mail by the Monday after the first week of the tournament may be disqualified and everyone failing to pay their entry fees will become ineligible to participate in the future. For those who wish to mail entry fees, the address is: Larry C. Oldham, 416 Pirkle Ferry Road, Suite K-500, Cumming, Georgia 30040.
Multiple Entries
If you wish to enter more than one Bracket, please click Logout and return to the Bracket link, this time creating a new registration. Distinguish between your accounts by using an alias or adding a "1", "2" or other distinguishing suffix after your name or alias.
Editing Electronic Brackets
You may learn some news about a team after making your picks or may simply change your mind upon further reflection and you will have the ability to edit each Bracket you submitted up until Thursday's entry deadline. Each Bracket you enter is assigned a Participant ID that is tied to the particular user registration you were logged-in with when you created the Bracket. To edit the desired Bracket, login with the correct user account, pull-up the Bracket you want to modify, change at least one pick and hit Submit.
First Four Games
There are four games that will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday nights prior to the Round of 64, which starts on Thursday. These games are irrelevant for purposes of determining the entry deadline for this Pool. You have the option of choosing the winner of each of the First Four Games in the games being played (as well as subsequent rounds) and will receive credit if you pick a First Four Team to advance that does, even if you happen to pick the wrong winner in the First Four game.
Standings
The standings will be updated as soon as possible after each game is completed, with the updates being reflected in the Tournament Key as they are made in the system.
Tie-Breaker
If there is a tie for First Place prize money, the prize money for the positions affected will be aggregated and split evenly among the tied winners (e.g. if there is a three-way tie for First Place, the prize money for First Place through Third Place will be added together and the total will be split among the winners). If any tie for First Place results in a pay-out of less than $250.00 to each of the winners, the other prize money allocated to the other prize positions will be reduced on a pro rata basis to ensure that each of the First Place winners receives at least $250.00. Ties in categories other than First Place will be broken by most points in a particular round, starting with the games from the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament and moving to each successive round until a difference exists; if still tied, the tie-breaker will be decided by a coin toss.