NCAA Brackets

sightunseen

I know this may seem a little early, but an idea occurred to me that would combine cigars and college basketball.

Instead of chipping cash into a pool, how about we chip in cigars? Participants can initially send the cigars to a single individual to hold in trust until the winner is determined. To keep track of the brackets, we can probably use yahoo sports.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Update:
Alright, guys, I just created our Yahoo group for the bracket. I will be PM'ing participants the sign in info. You'll need to set up a Yahoo account to play, so please take a moment if you don't already have an account. When you join, the Group ID # is 4798

To be part of this games, please be on the Good Trader List. This is the final list of participants:

Sightunseen
Lilwing88
ejenne87
Goldy
kingjk729
Vulchor
Matt Marvel
bandyt09

Quick Rules
"Buy-in" of five sticks. Sticks should be handmade premiums only. I know it's tempting to throw in some Swishers or White Owls.

Winner will be determined by the scoring on Yahoo Sports.

Now the good part, what the winners will get:

There will be 1st and 2nd prizes only. Based on the current list of 9 participants, 1st place winner will have 5 5-packs sent to him and 2nd place will have 2 5-packs. Senders will be determined by the whoever is after the winner on the above list. For example, if I won (highly unlikely), then the next 5 people after me will send me their 5-packs. 2nd place winners are exempt from sending. So for example, if I was 1st place and Lilwing comes in second, then the 5 people after lilwing will be sending me 5-packs and lilwing will receive a 5-pack from Vulchor and Matt Marvel. I think I got this right. Vulchor, if I am wrong, please let us know. Note: Depending on the final number of participants, the number of 5-packs for 1st and 2nd place may change.

Selection begins on 03/14

Brackets lock on 03/18. Please finalize your brackets before 03/18.

When registering your bracket, please use your Ccom handle as your name.

I think I've covered everything. Please let me know if you have questions or other suggestions.

lilwing88

That sounds frickin awesome. I'm in. Maybe 3-5 sticks from each player, premium only. Payouts for 1st 2nd and 3rd, maybe. When you come up with the specifics, count me in.

ejenne87

typicaly if it involves cigars and sports I am all for it. This includes cigars and my favorite sporting events of the entire year! I go NUTS during the month of March!! Deffinately count me in.

GO CUSE!!!!

Goldy

Count me in, I absolutly love March Maddness

Sandman1am

I am interested but would need to know all the details before I'm def. in. Points per game per round, tie breakers, etc. Just a thought, during college football bowl games it was done a bit differently. The 1st & 2nd place winners were sent the winnings from the individual people who did not win. It worked out just fine. This would save on shipping as the sticks would only have to be mailed out once. Also the sticks wouldn't be taking up space in someone's humi.

kingjk729

i think it should be fill the bracket out in its entirety and guess the combined score of the final and the 65th team game combined score ...... Set it up that each person is in for 4 or 5 sticks and the prizes for 1st through third ............... maybe 70 20 10 % ....... and i think the point totals and brackets need to be done on an alternate like yahoo since we can use there bracket create a pool and invite those participating ......... total number of correct games in the bracket and points for the championship and 1st tourney game all sent to a participant thats not involved in this game ..... If anyone has some tweaking please post ...... but me iam in

Vulchor

Im in. I have an idea for a way to do it like we do at work if you want to hear PM me. Also, we dont need to send to a 3rd part I dont think----football pool went well on the honor system.

Sandman1am

Vulchor:

Im in. I have an idea for a way to do it like we do at work if you want to hear PM me. Also, we dont need to send to a 3rd part I dont think----football pool went well on the honor system.

I agree with Vulchor I got all of my winnings just fine from football. PM to you Vulchor

sightunseen

Vulchor you have a PM

Vulchor

I was asked to posy what we do at work, and seemed to have gotten some positive feedback from people here. Let me know who likes it and who is in so we can start deciding on how many sticks and how many winners, based on entries.

Basically, everyone fills out a bracket, top to bottom. First round is 1 point, second is 2, third is 4, fourth is 7, fifth is 11, and championship is 16. Tie breaker is total points scored in championship game----but that has never been needed. You keep winning as long as your teams win. If you pick a loser going to the elite 8 for example, you would not get points for that teams games----but you could still get points beyond that if you picked another team to beat them in that round.

Basically points for games you win, going up 1 point extra per round. No pentalites for losing, and the points for each round reward those who last longer----but arent so huge you get knocked out if you lose one team early. Anyway, done it this way for about 5 years----all but one has come down to the championship for at least 2 participants. Let me know what you think.

Goldy

Sounds good to me. I like that your system curbs the later games in an effort to keep the race closer.

sightunseen

Sounds good to me too. The only worry I have is recording all the participants' entries. I seem to remember that Yahoo Sports follows a similar point system. If all the participants submit their brackets there, then we can save some time/effort and also see everyone does throughout the tournament.

kingjk729

IN

Goldy

Yahoo does 1-2-4-8-16-32 but I think you can do a custom scoring system

lilwing88

bump...... Is this still on?

Vulchor

sure hope so

Sandman1am

I would like to play but I'm still not sure if the final rules have been posted or if there was a decision as to where the game was going to be played. If so could someone let me know. It's already halfway though Feb. and that means MARCH MADNESS is right around the corner!!!

clearlysuspect

I have about as much knowledge of college basketball as madonna has virginity.

sightunseen

Hey guys. Yes, the contest is still on. I've been on vacation so I haven't been checking the forums.

So this is where we currently stand: Yahoo Sports will open up their NCAA brackets next week. When that happens, I will set up an account and PM all the participants the name and password.

A question remains on how the prizes will be doled out. I think there were some suggestions on 75%-20%-5% for 1st 2nd and 3rd place. I am fine with that, but we need to figure out how to get those prizes out once the contest ends. The easiest way to me is to have everyone pool their "buy-in" with a single person and once the contest is over, that person can divy it out. I can see some complications arising if everyone just sends the the winner their cigars directly (which player will send how many? etc).

I'll edit my first post in this thread once I have the Yahoo account set up.

Vulchor

Again, I refer to the college football game that went without a hitch. If there are 10 players or less, 2 people get a prize. Either 6 send to the winner if 10 people, 5 if 8or9 people, 4 if 7 or 6 people, etc.

Who sends to who is based on who has resonded here they want to play, and whoever else joins later. Meaning so far the order is Sight, Wing, EJenne, Goldy, Sandman, KingJK, Vulchor. If it started today winner would get sticks from the first 3 on the list (not including self if won obviously), 2nd would get from the remaining 2 players.

IE----If Wing won and Goldy was 2nd...Wing would receive from Sight, EJenne, and Sandman. Goldy would get from King JK and Vulchor...............We could do a third place, but i would rather make it a nice 1st and 2nd instead of splitting up so much...just makes it nicer for the top 2 in a longer game. Again, all any one person would be losing is 4 sticks (or more if your feeling frisky).

Sandman1am

Vulchor:

Again, I refer to the college football game that went without a hitch. If there are 10 players or less, 2 people get a prize. Either 6 send to the winner if 10 people, 5 if 8or9 people, 4 if 7 or 6 people, etc.

Who sends to who is based on who has resonded here they want to play, and whoever else joins later. Meaning so far the order is Sight, Wing, EJenne, Goldy, Sandman, KingJK, Vulchor. If it started today winner would get sticks from the first 3 on the list (not including self if won obviously), 2nd would get from the remaining 2 players.

IE----If Wing won and Goldy was 2nd...Wing would receive from Sight, EJenne, and Sandman. Goldy would get from King JK and Vulchor...............We could do a third place, but i would rather make it a nice 1st and 2nd instead of splitting up so much...just makes it nicer for the top 2 in a longer game. Again, all any one person would be losing is 4 sticks (or more if your feeling frisky).

I agree with everything Vulchor says here except the fact that I would be sending anyone sticks in this game J/K. I was the lucky winner in the football pool and It worked out really well to have everyone just send them to me. It's a benefit if you win that way you don't have to pay to ship off sticks then get them back.

sightunseen

Vulchor. Thanks for clarifying your divying system. That works for me as well.

Vulchor

Well said Sandman....except for the part about you winnning this go round!!!!:) LOL-----You got it sight.

lilwing88

I like this system....... Plus, I'm the automatic winner. So does everyone just start sending me a box of Anejo #77s each? Sounds good to me. LOL!

Sandman1am

lilwing88:

I like this system....... Plus, I'm the automatic winner. So does everyone just start sending me a box of Anejo #77s each? Sounds good to me. LOL!

Ummmm ya right! You will be lucky to get past me in the 1st round !!!! lol jk

lilwing88

sightunseen, PM sent, bro.

sightunseen

lilwing88:

sightunseen, PM sent, bro.

Replied, sir.

Matt Marvel

I'm in. I do brackets every year, so I might as well hop in this.

sightunseen

Alright guys, Yahoo sports brackets are up and I have updated my first post with the official rules and confirmed players. I will be sending participants the log-in info for our group on Yahoo Sports.

ejenne87

I am SOO pumped for March Madness this year! Syracuse is unbelievable this season, they should be #1 in the country this week and they should have secured themselves a #1 seed in the tourny! Look out Kansas, 'CUSE is looking pretty unbeatable...

Sandman1am

ejenne87:

I am SOO pumped for March Madness this year! Syracuse is unbelievable this season, they should be #1 in the country this week and they should have secured themselves a #1 seed in the tourny! Look out Kansas, 'CUSE is looking pretty unbeatable...

Evan even bobby knight agrees with you on this one.