Information

The rules are the same as in previous years.  Points are awarded for correct picks in each round as follows:
 

Tiebreaker for first place is as follows:

1. Correct Champion
2. Most correct Final Four teams
3. Most correct Sweet Sixteen teams

Bookmark this page to keep track of tournament results and your score throughout the tournament.  Standings will usually be updated by the morning following the completion of each round; they may be updated more frequently depending on how much time I have.  Note that the #64 vs. #65 play-in game will not be part of the pool.  You may pick either the #1 seed in that region or the winner of the play-in game.  If you have questions, please email me at: waltmeier@earthlink.net.

Honorary Pool Entry

For the past several years, I've included a "favorites" entry, where all higher seeds are picked, as a metric for participants to measure their picks against (i.e., "did all my research and contemplation mean anything, or should I have just mindlessly picked the favorites?").  For many years, I just named the picks "favorites", or some generic name like "Joe Seeds".  Last year however, I decided that George W. Bush was the perfect name to assign to someone betting on heavy favorites.  This year, I've decided to make this an annual tradition, by naming an "Honorary Pool Player of the Year" who gets assigned the favorites picks.  Of course, this year the selection is obvious.  Your first Honorary Pool Player of 2003 is, of course, Rick Neuheisel.  Unfortunately for Rick, now that he no longer is encumbered by a job and is free to win money in pools, here he is merely an honorary participant and thus ineligible for any prizes.

Pool Statistics and Results

Now, which teams should you pick?  Well, thanks to my assiduous record keeping, I have statistics on all tournament games played since 1985, when the tournament went to 64 (well, now 65) teams, through the 2003 tournament.  These results are listed my Tournament Statistics Page.  Feel free to consult this page for any statistical guidance you may seek, or just for the heck of it.

Of course, it's not so much who actually wins the games, but who you pick to win the game.  Do you want to see how you've done in the past, maybe decide you need a new strategy?  Or just reminisce over great pools of yore?  Now you can!  All new this year, complete final standings since 1990 and complete final summaries since 2001 are provided:

Complete Final Standings:  1990-1994, 1995-1999, 2000-2004
Complete Results Summary:  2004, 2003, 2002, 2001

Finally, you can check trends in pool participation and results with the Participation Summary 1990-2004 and the Points Summary 1990-2004.