The BTT bracket is now set. Why wait to make predictions about a bunch of teams you know almost nothing about (Quinnipiac? Sam Houston? Stony Brook?) when you can make predictions right now about the 11 teams you’ve been watching nonstop for the past 10 weeks?
Same rules as last year:
To submit an entry in the contest, post a comment to this blog post. Include your pick for the winner of each of the 10 games of the tournament. Scoring will be as follows:
- Round 1 winners (3): 1 point each
- Semi-finalists (4): 2 points each
- Finalists (2): 4 points each
- Champion (1): 8 points
- Total points available: 27
In keeping with the tempo-free statistics bent of this blog, the tie-breaker will be the number of possessions in the final game of the tournament. The official data source for that number will be StatSheet. For the less statistically-inclined, go ahead and pick a random number between 55 and 75.
Here’s an example of a contest entry, based on the assumption of the higher seed winning each game:
- Game 1: Michigan
- Game 2: Northwestern
- Game 3: Minnesota
- Game 4: Ohio State
- Game 5: Wisconsin
- Game 6: Purdue
- Game 7: Michigan State
- Game 8: Ohio State
- Game 9: Purdue
- Game 10: Ohio State
- Tie-breaker: XX possessions
(Feel free to drop the "Game" on each line to save time, but please include the numbers.)
Legal boilerplate:
- All entries must be received by 2:00 ET on Thursday (before the tip-off of Game 1) to be valid.
- In the case of a tie between one or more contestants in both contest points and the number of possessions in the final, the winner will be determined by coin-flip or other random mechanism determined by the The Only Colors, Inc.
- The prize for the contest winner consists of one (1) copy of When March Went Mad by Seth Davis.
- The Only Colors, Inc. is the final authority regarding interpretation of the contest rules and determination of the winner.
- Live contest scoring updates will be provided only to the extent one or more generous readers volunteer to compile and update the results.
Happy bracket filling outing.