cbb

CBB '24 - Week 10: End Of The Beginning

A PSA on how the next few weeks of the contest will work

Let's Refresh, To Be Fresh

This weekend (Week 10) we have our last regular Saturday card. The entry card is linked at the bottom of this post, per usual.

Next weekend (Week 11) is the end of conference tournament week. For Week 11, instead of putting out a card that offers picks on individual Saturday games, we're going to put out a card where participants pick the outright winners of the seven largest conference tournaments (Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Mountain West). Contestants will receive winnings for each correct pick.

The Week 11 Conference Tournament Winner Card will be sent out on the late afternoon of Monday the 11th and all submissions will be due Thursday the 14th at 9am PT / Noon ET.

At the conclusion of Week 11, the participants with the 64 highest winnings totals will be seeded into a 1-64 bracket, with their winnings-total ranking determining their seed. Participants in the Tournament will compete head to head, trying to generate more winnings than their opponent for each round of the Tournament.

The seeds, bracket, opponents and First-Round NCAA Tournament Card will be released on the late afternoon of Monday the 18th and all submissions will be due Thursday at 9am PT / Noon ET.

Opponents will each make picks on one-or-more First-Round NCAA Tournament games. Whoever generates more winnings than their opponent with their picks moves on to the second round, etc.

Unlike the regular season portion of the contest, higher-seeded contestants will have proportionately more than 1,000 points to allocate each round, as a reward for their regular-season success.

Each Seed's balance is below. This will be the balance of points participants have to allocate across their picks for each round of the Tournament portion.

Seed	Balance Per Round	Seed	Balance Per Round	Seed	Balance Per Round	Seed	Balance Per Round
1	2000	17	1746	33	1492	49	1238
2	1984	18	1730	34	1476	50	1222
3	1968	19	1714	35	1460	51	1206
4	1952	20	1698	36	1444	52	1190
5	1937	21	1683	37	1429	53	1175
6	1921	22	1667	38	1413	54	1159
7	1905	23	1651	39	1397	55	1143
8	1889	24	1635	40	1381	56	1127
9	1873	25	1619	41	1365	57	1111
10	1857	26	1603	42	1349	58	1095
11	1841	27	1587	43	1333	59	1079
12	1825	28	1571	44	1317	60	1063
13	1810	29	1556	45	1302	61	1048
14	1794	30	1540	46	1286	62	1032
15	1778	31	1524	47	1270	63	1016
16	1762	32	1508	48	1254	64	1000

For example, the 1-seed plays the 64-seed in the first round. The 1-seed will have 2000 points to allocate across First Round NCAA Tournament games, while the 64-seed will have 1000 points to allocate across First Round NCAA Tournament games.

If the 1-seed generates more winnings with their points across the First-Round NCAA Tournament games than the 64-seed does, the 1-seed wins and moves on to the next round. If the 64-seed generates more winnings with their points across the First-Round NCAA Tournament games than the 1-seed does, the 64-seed wins and moves on to the next round.

Here is an example:

The 1 seed allocates 1,000 points on “Team A to win – 1.0x” and 1,000 points on “Team B to win – 1.2x”.

The 64 seed allocates 500 points on “Team C to win – 2.1x” and allocates 500 points on “Team D to win – 2.5x”.

The 1 seed’s Team A selection wins, but its Team B selection does not. The 1 seed finishes with 1,000 in winnings.

The 64 seed’s Team C selection wins but its Team D selection loses. The 64 seed finishes with 1,050 in winnings.

The 64 seed beats the 1 seed, because it generated more winnings (1,050) than the 1 seed did (1,000). The 64 seed advances to the second round. The 1 seed is eliminated.

We'll revisit this in future weeks' emails.

Zag Resurgence Buoys Field, Illini Enrich The Rich

Speaking of seeds and rankings, if the regular season ended right now, your top 16 seeds would be as follows.

Full leaderboard is linked below.

Many of the biggest winners in Week 9 were on the most-picked side of the week's most-picked game, Gonzaga at Saint Mary's.

The Zags walked all over a Gaels team that badly missed Joshua Jefferson, and Tim Merck, "Delete All The Dupes," "The Flaming C" and "Sword and Shields" each cashed in four-figure wins.

Other big winners included Kevin Chaney and "9.9," who both took Iowa to get it done on the road at Northwestern, and "Wrap It In Goss," who found an edge with Villanova in a massive bubble insurance win over Providence.

(Special shout out to The Blue Emu, who has somehow submitted eight cards and not yet logged a single point. That 64-seed is still within reach, my friend).

But the biggest winner of all was Dear Leader.

Last week, we noted that there could be a power vacuum at the top due to the recent birth of clubhouse leader Ranger Of The North's first child.

Surely, he would be too distracted with all of his child-rearing duties to submit cogent picks. Those nipping at his heels would have a chance to catch up, right?

Wrong.

Our man is en fuego. Bringing life into the world and assassinating all life in this contest. He racked up 1,360 more winnings this past week by taking Illinois on the road as short dogs vs. Wisconsin, and extended his margin over the rest of the field to 2,400 points.

It will likely take someone hitting multiple long shots during the Conference Tournament Card to unseat Mr. Aragon from the No. 1 overall seed. Such dominance might even constitute a nickname change...

Speaking of nicknames, the aforementioned Chaney and Merck are within sniffing distance of 7,500-point threshold required for bestowal. Keep your eyes peeled.

Week 10 Card