Rules

Entering

• Sign in with your email. No password; we email you a link.
• Pick all 63 games from the Round of 64 through the title game. The First Four isn't picked; the bracket fills in with First Four winners once they're known.
• Each person plays one bracket, but one account can hold several, so you can enter brackets for your kids. Give each bracket a name.
• Also predict the total points scored in the championship game. It's the first tiebreaker.
• Brackets open on Selection Sunday and lock at the first tip-off of the Round of 64 (Thursday). You can edit until then. Brackets are private until lock, then everyone can see every bracket.

Scoring

A bracket's score is its round points, plus upset bonuses, plus the 8/9 bonus.

Upset bonus

When you correctly pick the worse seed to win a game, you get (winner's seed − loser's seed) × round number on top of the round points. Seeds are those of the two teams that actually played. Same-seed games earn no bonus.

• #12 over #5 in the first round: (12 − 5) × 1 = 7 bonus points, plus 2 round points.
• #10 over #2 in the second round: (10 − 2) × 2 = 16 bonus points, plus 3 round points.
• #11 over #3 in the Elite Eight: (11 − 3) × 4 = 32 bonus points, plus 8 round points.
• #9 over #8 counts too: 1 bonus point.

8/9 bonus

Get all four #8 vs #9 games right for 10 bonus points.

Tiebreakers

1. Closest guess at the championship game's total points, over or under. Guessing 145 for a 72-68 final (140) misses by 5.
2. Most correct picks out of 63.
3. Still tied: the brackets share the place and split its payout.

Paying

Each bracket is $11. Pay through the Bank Pool entry page on Big Cartel, Venmo @andymorgen, or cash. Brackets still unpaid when brackets lock are marked unpaid on the leaderboard, and unpaid brackets can be removed before payouts. Last year's last-place finisher gets a free bracket.

Payouts

The pot is every paid bracket's buy-in; nothing comes out for hosting. Each paid place gets a share of the pot rounded to the nearest $5, and the bracket in the middle (the 50th percentile) gets whatever is left.