March Madness Bracket Contest 2008

now if miss. st  wins over memphis  i'll be feeling really good.
 

Well, my bracket's officially *fudge*ed. Good luck stroh and 'fredo. May the best ho win.

Just a heads up for anyone that's wondering why there's a new team in the cbs/sportsline group standings called "*test bracket-doesn't count*" in 4th place.

This new bracket obviously won't count for the contest, but is there merely to speculate on the performance of various strategies (making all risky picks, all chalk, etc.) and see how different strategies would fare.

I'm hoping that next year we can come up with a good scoring balance where either an upset-laden or conservative strategy looks appealing from the outset and it will just come down to how the games play out.

Interesting.  So the scoring for the final four would look like this:

seed
#1 8 pts
#2 16 pts
#3 24 pts
#4 32 pts
#5 40 pts
#6 48 pts


One thing I just noticed.  If you look at the seeds of the past final fours, as expected, it's very stacked with the top seeds.  So you're really taking a risk when you pick a #5 seed or higher.


http://sportsline.com/col...em/history/finalfourseeds

2007   1, 1, 2, 2   Florida, Ohio State, Georgetown, UCLA
2006   2, 3, 4, 11   UCLA, Florida, LSU, George Mason
2005   1, 1, 4, 5   North Carolina, Illinois, Louisville, Michigan State
2004   1, 2, 2, 3   Duke, Connecticut, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech
2003   1, 2, 3, 3   Texas, Kansas, Marquette, Syracuse
2002   1, 1, 2, 5   Maryland, Kansas, Oklahoma, Indiana
2001   1, 1, 2, 3   Duke, Michigan State, Arizona, Maryland
2000   1, 5, 8, 8   Michigan State, Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin
1999   1, 1, 1, 4   Connecticut, Duke, Michigan State, Ohio State
1998   1, 2, 3, 3   North Carolina, Kentucky, Stanford, Utah
1997   1, 1, 1, 4   Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, Arizona
1996   1, 1, 4, 5   Kentucky, Massachusetts, Syracuse, Mississippi State
1995   1, 2, 2, 4   UCLA, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma State
1994   1, 2, 2, 3   Arkansas, Arizona, Duke, Florida
1993   1, 1, 1, 2   North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan, Kansas
1992   1, 2, 4, 6   Duke, Indiana, Cincinnati, Michigan
1991   1, 1, 2, 3   UNLV, North Carolin, Duke, Kansas
1990   1, 3, 4, 4   UNLV, Duke, Georgia Tech, Arkansas
1989   1, 2, 3, 3   Illinois, Duke, Seton Hall, Michigan
1988   1, 1, 2, 6   Arizona, Oklahoma, Duke, Kansas
1987   1, 1, 2, 6   UNLV, Indiana, Syracuse, Providence
1986   1, 1, 2, 11   Duke, Kansas, Louisville, LSU
1985   1, 1, 2, 8   St. John's, Georgetown, Memphis, Villanova
1984   1, 1, 2, 7   Kentucky, Georgetown, Houston, Virginia
1983   1, 1, 4, 6   Houston, Louisville, Georgia, N.C. State
1982   1, 1, 3, 6   North Carolina, Georgetown, Louisville, Houston
1981   1, 1, 2, 3   Virginia, LSU, North Carolina, Indiana
1980   2, 5, 6, 8   Louisville, Iowa, Purdue, UCLA
1979   1, 2, 2, 9   Indiana State, Michigan State, DePaul, Pennsylvania

You moved up nicely. Of course, Yoga Hottie's still going to kick your ass.

FWIW, I asked dystopia to "generate a bracket that picks the higher seed straight through EXCEPT (a) picks EVERY 11th and 12th all the way through to the Elite Eight; (b) pick the 12th seeded teams to make the Final Four; (c) I don't know, pick East and West to make the final (like Wicked Witches); and (d) pick the 12th-seed from the East to win."

I really didn't pay attention to the weighting thing, then I looked at it but didn't understand how it should factor into picking.  Just wondering how it compared to blindly gamble on EVERY 11th and 12th team v. trying to pick accurately all the way through v. picking chalk.  I'm curious like a cat.  My friends call me "Whiskers".

go 'ville, xavier, kansas.