Down To The Last Four Teams

 As of now, we have two participants who have yet to submit payment for their brackets. Both are newcomers to our office pool this year and will unfortunately be removed this year and future years if they fail to pay their entry fee by Friday.  

As it stands, we are currently short $40, and I may need to make adjustments to the payout structure or use my personal winnings to cover the shortfall.

In the latest standings update, there are some years where selecting the higher seeds is the way to go. Who would have guessed we'd end up with no #1, #2, or #3 seeds in the Final Four, which has busted the brackets for everyone except for seven pick sheets. Only UConn has the potential to score points for those seven pick sheets. 

If UConn loses on Saturday, the standings stay the same, and tiebreaker points will be used to determine 1st, 3rd, and 5th place.

Here are the current standings with tie breaker points in brackets:

1. Cort Lundeen 3 - 100 Points (142)
2. Dominic Fortuna - 100 (155)
3. Steve Cuddihy 3 - 99 (159)
4. Steve Cuddihy 4 - 99 (161)
5. Steve Cuddihy - 97 (160)
6. Steve Cuddihy 2 - 97 (160)
7. Paul Wolson 2 - 97 (140)
8. Scott Johnson - 97 (128)

If UConn wins both on Saturday and Monday, then the standings will change to this:

1. Court Lundeen 3
2. Steve Cuddihy
3. Hunter Oien
4. Steve Cuddihy 2
   
5. Cort Lundeen 2
6. Dominic Fortuna

On the other hand, if UConn only wins one game and loses on Monday, things will get a bit more complicated in the standings, but it should be a combination of the two above outcomes.

Game Schedule for the Final Four:
   
Saturday's Games

• Florida Atlantic vs San Diego State - 5:09 (CBS)
• Miami vs UConn - 7:49 (CBS)

Monday's Game

• SDSU vs UConn - 8:20 (CBS)

First Weekend Done, Second Week Of Games Begins

 I had Purdue losing to Florida Atlantic in the second round, certainly not the first round to #16 seed FDU. We also lost Kansas in the second round, but it’s tough to repeat as champs. However, it didn’t stop there, #2 seed Arizona lost to Princeton Tigers and Marquette lost to the Spartans of Michigan State. All in all, we lost two number 1 seeds and two number 2 seeds. The only good thing out of this is we are all losing points to the higher seeded teams, it just depends on how far you had each team going in your brackets.

If we were still running on our old office pool software, the player scenarios would be available for us to figure out our best and worst place finish, plus who exactly to root for. Unfortunately, all we get with the new pool host is your max points you can score per bracket. 

Here are your current Top 10 in the standings after two rounds of play. You can check the full standings by clicking the Standings link above.

The Sweet Sixteen round of games picks back up Thursday evening. We have four games on Thursday, four games on Friday and then we are down to just eight teams remaining.

Thursday’s Games

• Michigan St vs Kansas St - 5:30 (TBS)
• Arkansas vs UConn - 6:15 (CBS)
• FAU vs Tennessee - 8:00 (TBS)
• Gonzaga vs UCLA - 8:45 (CBS)

Friday’s Games

• San Diego St vs Alabama - 5:30 (TBS)
• Miami vs Houston - 6:15 (CBS)
• Princeton vs Creighton - 8:00 (TBS)
• Xavier vs Texas - 8:45 (CBS)

Second Round Games In Progress

 Honestly, the first six hours with the new pool host had me feeling quite anxious. I quickly realized that 12-15 brackets were missing from my initial expectation, and to compound the issue, the pool brackets went offline for what felt like an eternity. I will guess, it seems someone finally rebooted their servers, and we're now back online and operational with everyone's brackets accounted for!

For those of you who are new, welcome! For those who have been with us before, thank you for coming over to the new pool host. I’ve received messages from some of you regarding missing the old pool software, you are not alone. The standings should update shortly after each game completes. The link for the standings is at the top of this email.

Last year we had 111 pick sheets for this contest, and this year we exceeded that number with 120 entries. I have collected the majority of the entry fees, we will have $1200 in prize money to pay the winners. There is approximately $240 left to be collected, so if you still owe, please make sure to get your payments in if you haven’t does so already.

We already have some busted brackets with Arizona getting their asses handed to them last night by Princeton. Really depends how far you had them going if it hurts or helps you. Virginia lost on an errant inbound pass that allowed Furman to win on a desperation three pointer.

As usual, I’ll send out an email summary after all of the weekend games have completed. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the best weekend of the tournament. I cannot wait to see who comes out on top!

27th Annual Bracket64 Challenge

Get ready for the 27th annual Bracket64 Challenge!

The NCAA basketball tournament pairings have just been announced, and we are excited to announce the launch of our annual Bracket64 Challenge. This year, we will be using CBS Sports Bracket Manager for our pool host, as our old software website is no longer available.

Our bracket contest officially begins at 11:30 AM on Thursday, March 16, and the entry fee remains at $10 per pick sheet. To enter, please create a user account with CBS Sports Bracket Manager, then submit your brackets. You will now be able to edit your brackets, plus track your progress throughout the tournament using their phone app or from your home PC.

• Deadline: 11:30 AM on Thursday, March 16
• Entry Fee: $10 per bracket
• Website: CBS Sports Bracket Manager
• Bracket Name: Bracket64 Challenge

The first game that matters is this Thursday! So, make sure to get your pick sheets entered before tip-off to secure your spot in the competition.

In 2022, we collected $1030 in prize money and awarded the top five brackets as follows:

• 1st Place: $550 (AJ Wood)
• 2nd Place: $230 (Kristi Vogel)
• 3rd Place: $120 (Mary Lou Field)
• 4th Place: $55 (Nick Vedder)
• 5th Place: $55 (Samly Wittchow)

2023 Office Pool Bracket

2023 Tournament Schedule

Pre-Tournament Events
March 12: Teams Announced @ 5:00 PM [CST] on CBS
March 14-15: Four Play-In Games
March 16: Entry Deadline @ 11:30 AM [CST]

First Weekend Of The Tournament
March 16-17: Round One - 64 Teams
March 18-19: Round Two - 32 Teams

Second Weekend Of Games
March 23-24: Round Three - 16 Teams
March 25-26: Round Four - 8 Teams

Championship Weekend
April 1: Round Five - Semi-Finals - 4 Teams
April 3: Round Six - Championship - 2 Teams

NCAA Division I Men's Tournament Dates (2023).
Retrieved from https://www.ncaa.com/march-madness/schedule