TOURNAMENT CONTEST: By Friday noon, register online at http:/cs.appstate.edu/aam/ncaa/2024/index.html Also, as a tiebreaker, guess the total score in the final game. Let your friends and family know about the contest. The more entries, the more fun. Send any questions to alice.mcrae@gmail.com PRIZE: The satisfaction of winning. SCORING: For each round 1 game that a team on your list wins, you will receive ten points. For each round 2 game, you will receive an additional twenty points. For each round 3 game one of your teams wins, you will receive an additional thirty points. For each round 4 game, you will receive an additional forty points. BONUS POINTS: During the first through fourth rounds, you will receive additional points when an underdog (based on the number of the seeding wins). BEFORE THE FINAL FOUR ONLY, if your 10 seed beats a 7 seed, you receive 3 (seed 10 minus seed 7) additional points. If the 7 seed beats the 10 seed there are no additional points given. During the final four (the fifth and sixth rounds), the winners of the fifth round will receive 50 more points, and the winner of the last game will receive 60 more points. There will not be additional bonus points awarded. (Thanks to Baron Fenwick for inspiring the scoring). Within a region, during the first round, the 1st seed plays the 16th seed, the 2nd seed plays the 15th seed, the 3rd seed plays the 14th seed, etc, as can be seen from the diagram below. The loser of each game goes home, and the winner advances to play the winner of another game (see the chart). After four rounds, there will be one team from each of the four regions left. In the fifth round, the winners of Regionals 1&4 and Regionals 2&3 play each other. In the last round, the two winners from the 5th round play in the tournament final. Most years, it does not matter what teams you pick in the highest seeds; most, if not all, lose. Hopefully, with the bonus points, it will matter more if you do choose a big upset winner. The team that wins the tournament ends up scoring a total of at least 210 points, so it is important to make sure that team is on your list. Note: On Wednesday and Thursday, Mar. 20 and 21 the play-in round takes place. There will be four games to decide four of the seeds: Sacred Heart/Presbyterian(16 seed Regional 1), Auburn/Arizona(11 seed Regional 3), Holy Cross/UT Martin(16 seed Regional 2), Vanderbilt/Columbia(12 seed Regional 3). If you pick one of those pairs, you will get the winner of the game as your choice. Those games do not count in the contest. Perhaps in the future, I can figure out how to include those games. Steve Patch, a math professor at UNC-Asheville, introduced me to this contest. WITHIN A REGION ---- 1 2 ---- | ------ ------- | ---- 16 | | 15 ---- | | |----- -----| ---- 8 | | | | 7 ---- | ------ | | ------- | ---- 9 | | 10 ---- |---------------------------| ---- 4 | | 3 ---- | ------ | | ------- | ---- 13 | | | | 14 ---- | | | | |----- -----| ---- 5 | | 6 ---- | ------ ------- | ---- 12 11 ---- To play, choose 1 from each row. REG 1 REG 2 REG 3 REG 4 1. S Carolina Iowa USC Texas 2. Notre Dame UCLA Ohio St. Stanford 3. Oregon St LSU UConn NC St 4. Indiana Kansas St Va Tech Gonzaga 5. Oklahoma Colorado Baylor Utah 6. Nebraska Louisville Syracuse Tennessee 7. Ole Miss Creighton Duke Iowa St 8. UNC West Va Kansas Alabama 9. Mich St. Princeton Michigan Fla St. 10. Marquette UNLV Richmond Maryland 11. Texas A&M Midd Tenn Auburn/Arizona Green Bay 12. FGCU Drake Vandy/Columbia SDakotaSt 13. Fairfield Portland Marshall UC Irvine 14. E Washington Rice Jackson St Chattanooga 15. Kent State Cal. Baptist Maine Norfolk St. 16. ScrdHt/Pres. HCross/UTMar TexA&M-CC Drexel