Selection Sunday is this week - March 16th.  Come back to this site to make your picks on Monday morning, March 17th.

 

Welcome to the 19th Annual
March Madness® Illegal Office Pool™
COME BACK MONDAY MORNING.   Selection Sunday is March 16th.  Pool opens for picks on Monday morning, March 17th.  Maybe even as early as Sunday night March 16th.
Cornell's Geoff Reeves (15) and his teammates celebrate after defeating Harvard to clinch their first Ivy League championship in 20 years. The title means the Big Red have earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Cornell University, a perennial powerhouse in NCAA Hockey, was the first team to make the NCAA Tournament this year.  The Big Red can also kick your school's ass in lacrosse, soccer, squash and a host of other D1 sports. For you ACC fans, "perennial" means "every year".

We are shooting for a $2,000+ pool this year.  All prize money is paid out to the first 5 or 6 contestants with about 50% of the pool money going to the first-place winner (exact figures to be determined).

Click here to get some Bracketology insight so when you lose your $10, at least you'll feel like you gave it an educated try.  It won't help you win, but it will sure make you sound knowledgeable in the food room at work.  And now might be a good time to actually start watching a few games, so when you pick Drake to win it all, you can always say you gave it some thought.
Click here to see last year's final Pool results.

How to play
  1. First step is to fill out your picks.  Click on the "Enter Picks" button at the left and go to the Picks Sheet.  Fill in the form entirely and completely.  If you need help with this concept, go practice over at SI or someplace else, come back here when you've mastered the art.  Pay attention to your picks.  You need to make your picks BEFORE NOON on Thursday AFTER SELECTION SUNDAY.  No exceptions - the "Enter Picks" button will be deactivated at that time!
  2. At the top of the Picks screen BE SURE to enter your REAL NAME which is ONLY used for administrative purposes to match your money with your picks.  This name will only be known to you and the administrators of this pool and will be discarded at the end of the tournament.  NOTE!  Each PICKS name must be unique - if you are playing more than one sheet, change the PICKS name for each pick, but keep the REAL name the same so we can match your picks with your money.
  3. Be sure to enter your SHEET name.  Your SHEET name is the name you would like to see in the Standings report which is published here on the site.  This is the name that could win you a small prize for creativity.
  4. And finally BE SURE to enter your email address -- this address will be used to send you a copy of your picks and like your real name, will not be sold or sent to anyone unrelated to the pool unless they show us serious cash or represent a government agency with a valid search warrant.  If you do not have an email account, then find someone who does -- and get the confirmation email from them to see your validated picks.  If you don't know anyone with an email account, move to a cave that has Internet access.
  5. CHECK YOUR PICKS BEFORE YOU CLICK THE SUBMIT BUTTON!  If you determine that you made a mistake after submitting your picks, do the following:  Submit a new set of corrected picks.  As your SHEET name, use the same name you used on the bad sheet but add the phrase "CORRECTION" to the end of the name.  This is the only way we can determine that you wish to withdraw the original sheet in favor of the new sheet.   If you don't follow this procedure, we can only assume that 2 or more of your picks with similar names means you want to submit several sheets.
  6. The most important step:  You need to find a way to get $10 for each sheet to one of the following people:  Mikie D, Moon Man, Robbie H or The Godfather on or before NOON Thursday AFTER SELECTION SUNDAY -- NO EXCEPTIONS.  If you don't expect to see any of these guys before then, you need to MAIL YOUR CHECK TO:

R MOONEY
101 North Shore Rd. 
Derry, NH 03038

IF YOU ARE WRITING A CHECK FOR MULTIPLE ENTRIES -- INCLUDE A SEPARATE PIECE OF PAPER WITH THE NAMES OF THE PICKS THAT GOES WITH THE CHECK!

IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING ONE $10 CHECK FOR ONE PICK PUT THE NAME OF YOUR PICK IN THE MEMO OF THE CHECK.

The envelope must be postmarked on or before Thursday AFTER SELECTION SUNDAY or else you are not eligible for cash prizes.  And your bragging rights will also be tainted with the foul smell of impropriety.

For your convenience, a bag man may be appearing at a location near you during the days prior to the deadline to take your $10 (cash or check):

  • Monday - The Godfather at VTL Lexington
  • Tuesday - The Godfather at CONSTELLATION ENERGY (Lowell, MA)
  • Wednesday - The Godfather at Wilmington
  • Thursday - The Godfather in Boston.
  • All Week - Mike & Rob at the Usual Location in Waltham
  • All other locations should pursue the check-by-mail option.

Initiate your contact with the bag man by using the code phrase "The '89 National Champion Wolverines was certainly the best college hoop team ever".

SPECIAL NOTE TO OUT-OF-TOWNERS:  If you are in a remote location, we encourage you to spread the word among your friends and play in large amounts.  As a consideration to the money minders of this pool, please try to consolidate your payments into a single check accompanied by a list of REAL NAMES that the check should be used to cover.  We encourage participation by anyone with a net worth exceeding $10.

Then What?
Starting on the Monday after the first and second rounds, you can return to this site and click the "Standings" button.  You'll get a listing of all the participants ranked by their position in the pool.  You'll be able to click on any participant to see their picks, and you'll be able to send them email to make fun of them.

Scoring
How are the rankings calculated?  Same as last year with point values of 2, 4, 6, 10, 15, 25 for each round (max points per round: 64, 64, 48, 40, 30, 25).
If you have a beef, or if you submitted a sheet in error, or would like to congratulate us for being fine upstanding citizens, click on the "Send Email" button and write to us.  If you want to withdraw one of your sheets, you MUST send an email BEFORE NOON on the day the games start or we will consider you in the pool.
Payouts will be described on this page as soon as the cash is counted.  Payouts will be made during the week after the conclusion of the tournament.

Authentication & Integrity
All picks submitted to the pool are stored on a server as data but are also sent to a public email site called Hotmail (as well as a copy to the contestant's email).  We keep the emails in Hotmail until after the tournament is over, and upon request we can show you the original email with a Hotmail-generated date/time stamp that verifies a given set of picks is authentic and has not been altered after the tournament has started.
Questions to us by email only please!   This is a very low budget operation.
 
Trevor Booker

 

I love the Madness Baby!

Dick Vitale
SPECIAL TO Illegal NCAA Office Pool

[Ed. Note: Dick Vitale is difficult to hear, more difficult to read.]

Feb. 27, 2006

As priceless today as it was two years ago.

For all of you basketball lovers out there, I know you can't wait for March Madness to begin. You can talk about the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Kentucky Derby, the U. S. Open in golf and tennis, the Indianapolis 500, whatever you'd like. There are great moments, so many special memories in sports, and great championships, like in the NBA and NHL. But there is nothing like the three weeks when 65 teams work for a trip to Indianapolis for this year's Final Four.

March Madness is so unique and so special because everyone gets the fever. Grandma and grandpa get involved and interested in the games. Cinderella schools become household names and kids adopt a team close to their community. They hope for the magic and for their team to make a run. You can talk about seeds all you want, but the bottom line is you need four wins to make the Final Four. There have only been three times where three of the top four seeds made the Final Four -- 1993, 1997 and 1999. That shows how unpredictable things can be. All four top seeds are favorites, yet it has never happened where all four got to the Big Dance.

There is such parity in college basketball, and that is another reason why the tournament is special. In 1980, none of the top regional seeds made the Final Four -- the only time that has happened since seedings began. You have to beat quality teams to advance. If you are good enough and have the ability and talent, you can march on.

If you want to learn more about the Final Four, there are a couple of great books currently available. John Feinstein, the talented author and Washington Post writer, has another potential best-seller named "Last Dance," discussing the Final Four experiences of many people involved in the game.

Another one involving March Madness is called "How March Became Madness," penned by Eddie Einhorn and Chicago Sun Times writer Ron Rapoport. Einhorn is a minority owner of the Chicago White Sox who was also a major college basketball innovator with the creation of TVS. You may remember TVS for showing games and promoting the sport on the national scene years ago.

Einhorn worked diligently to build a television audience for the college game. He put on the first nationally-televised game with Lew Alcindor vs. Elvin Hayes at the Houston Astrodome. The Cougars upset the Bruins that day, but UCLA got its revenge in the NCAA tournament. Einhorn and Rapoport interviewed many key people about their Final Four memories. Check out those two books to learn more about the greatness of March Madness.

Dick Vitale coached the Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in 1979. Send a question for Vitale for possible use on ESPNEWS.