Flawed system

Gotta love those Florida Gators, right? Well that is how I feel after winning* one office pool and finishing second in another. One was a large large pool, like 117 entries to be exact. The other was smaller, like 18 or so. So I was actually shocked that I was the only contender in the large pool I participated in to pick Florida. I thought me and just about everyone else and their mothers would have picked Florida. Sure, Greg Oden and Mike Connelly, Jr are awesome players. But ya know what? The Big Ten sucked this year. Sure, Kansas was deep as shit and just about the most athletic team in college hoops. But ya know what? No way they beat UCLA & Florida back to back to win the tournament... and the Big 12 kinda sucked this year too from top to bottom (although they were far superior to the Big 10). UNC? Not with that many freshman. I actually loved Georgetown, they were a lot of fun to watch this year with Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert, and after I saw them steam roll thru the Big East tourny and find different ways to win against different teams, I thought they were a show-in for the final four. And all along, there is just no team that could compete with Florida. So they coasted thru a chunk of their season, so what? They returned 4 out of 5 starters from last year's winning team, and had three guys that would have been in the lottery last year had they entered the draft (that number is up to four after this year). And they have Billy Donovan, an amazing coach. And in my mind, they had the easiest road to the final four (Wisconsin was the two seed in their quartile of the bracket, a good but definitely not great team, which says it all about the midwest region this year). So long story short, I am shocked that by making the safe pick in my mind (I am by no means a Florida fan, in fact I'd prefer any Big Ten team or Big East team over ANY SEC team), I ended up as the only person in a position to win with Floriday in that giant pool.

Please note the asterisk* after "winning." This unfortunately needs to be here to qualify me actually winning the pool. Technically, I tied for first. But this is a grave injustice, something along the lines of Gore winning the popular vote and not becoming president.

As any good pool participant will agree, there should be no tying for first. Tie for second? Fine. But there has to be a *winner* in my books. Not for this stupid office pool. The person I tied with had picked UCLA to win the whole damn tournament. But since she and I both finished with 64 points, we split the [nonexistent] big purse.* Bullshit. She didn't even pick the winner, how could we tie? There should be a tie-breaker to determine this sorta thing!! This just ain't right! And just like the electoral college, this office pool is just a stupid and flawed system. From here on out, I'll stick to simple brackets. Check out these convoluted rules (this is straight from the entry form):

You pick 10 teams--this is not a bracket pool (PLEASE PUT SEED # NEXT TO EACH TEAM). To quote someone on the Hart Research NCAA Pool Rules Committee: “Suck it up.” Here are the point values for the main Regular Tournament (10 teams) part of the contest.

#1 to #4 seeded teams receive 1 point for each tournament win

#5 to #8 seeded teams receive 2 points for each tournament win

#9 to #12 seeded teams receive 3 points for each tournament win

#13 to #16 seeded teams receive 4 points for each tournament win

Once a team reaches the Sweet Sixteen point totals double. Apply the following multiplier effect to each team's point value:

X 1 for victories in first and second round games

X 2 for victories in all subsequent rounds (regional semifinals/finals, national semifinals/finals) – for example a #5 seed that reaches the Elite 8 would be worth 8 points (2 points for Round of 64, 2 points for Round of 32, and 4 points for Round of 16)

Special Wild Card bonus round:

In addition to your regular 10 picks for the Regular Tournament contest, select two (2) teams each from the lower seeds: #5-#8, #9-#12, and #13-#16. THESE TEAMS CAN ALSO BE ON YOUR LIST OF TEN TEAMS.

For each game these Wild Card teams win in the tournament, you receive 1 bonus point regardless of round.

Extra bonuses: You receive 4 points for each Final Four team you pick. If you pick the 2007 NCAA champion you receive 4 points times the team's seed number. i.e. someone who picked Jackson State would get 64 points (4 X 16).

I. REGULAR TOURNAMENT PICKS

	TEAM/SEED #
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

II. WILD CARD PICKS

SEEDING	TEAM #1		TEAM #2
#5-#8
#9-#12
#13-#16

III. 2007 FINAL FOUR TEAMS

MIDWEST:	EAST:
WEST:	SOUTH:

IV. 2007 NCAA CHAMPION

[Editor's note: Please note no condition for TIE-BREAKING! Bullshit!!]

That said, I finished 2nd in the bracket pool I participated in. I had a dream that I cleared $200 in combined winnings, but it was just a dream, there was actually no prize money at all (see footnote).

* It is nonexistent because gambling on college sports is illegal and this pool was done in good clean fun, no money changed hands and there is no big purse to split. This footnote is here at the behest of my attorney.