The bracket is out. The time is here. As I have for the past three years, I am willing to run the annual NCAA Prediction Contest again, and also embarrass myself with my personal predictions! (If anyone else would like to run the contest instead, say so by Wednesday noon (EST) or I will have started getting the format together!) The winners will get accolades and be able to take bows and undoubtedly collect large winnings from somewhere else. For the last several years, we had two divisions: (1)The Human Division where about 25 of us WOSO fans entered our best shot, and (2) the Statistical / Machine Division where we had 6 entries last year. Usually, the very top humans beat everyone (including the computers) but the Machines beat the humans on the average. I got good feedback on the system of scoring for the last three years, so I'll use that system once again. Recall that its major feature was to underweight a little bit the big payoffs for calling the semi final and final games, and emphasize more points in the second and third rounds to reward savvy picks in those "upset rounds" leading up to the elite 8. If you can call the elite 8 you're going to be in high-level company with a great shot at taking the contest. But if you get every other pick wrong except the the eventual finalists then you will end up in the middle of the heap. In other words, if you pick Stanford and West Virginia to play for the championship, you might have called the winner, but if you got all of the other picks wrong, other contestants who correctly called most of the 56 games leading to the elite 8 will have a big lead on you even if they miss on the two golden teams. I will post the details of entering on Wednesday. The deadline to enter will be one hour before the first game of the tournament kicks off. So dust off your crystal balls and get to prognosticating. Cheers!
OK... No takers wanting to run the contest this year..... So go ahead and start getting your entries in. They need to be posted by noon (eastern time) on Friday so as to beat the start of the first games at 1:00 on Friday afternoon. You can make your entry by simply posting it on this thread. FORMAT is quite important to me as I want to be able to copy and paste directly into the spreadsheet. (It takes time to hand copy in wrongly formatted entries and induces errors.) ...So PLEASE format exactly as indicated below. Basically, I am looking for a vertically ordered list for each round of the tournament. The First Round list should contain 32 projected winners names in a single unbroken list. The order is important. Use the NCAA official "interactive" bracket ( http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/soccer-women/d1 ) starting on the left side of the page with your choice for the Stanford/Houston Baptist winner straight on down 16 games to the Florida/FGCU winner and then continuing with no break starting with the winner of the South Carolina/Alabama State game and flowing down the right side of the page to finish with the Northern Kentucky/West Virginia winner. You should have an unbroken list of 32 winners from the first round. Then skip a line and put in the "Second Round" heading and list IN THE SAME ORDER the winers of the second round games. Then skip a line and and insert the "Third Round" heading and enter your 8 choices for winers in the same order. Then skip a line and enter the "Quarterfinals" heading and enter your 4 choices in the same order. Then skip a line and enter the "Semifinals" hearing and enter your 2 choices in the same order and finally skip a line and enter the "Finals" heading and enter your choice for tournament winner. Lastly skip a line and enter your screen name again. (then post to this page.) Please use the same nomenclature for the schools as appears in this NCAA bracket. (EG "South Carolina" and "USC" (instead of Southern California.) Below is a sample entry in the correct format. Cheers! ******************************** NAME of Entry Author (your screen name.) (skip one line) FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara Pepperdine Minnesota Virginia Monmouth Bucknell Georgetowwn USC Texas A&M Utah Florida State Auburn Albany Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado SMU BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio Sate West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Minnesota Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State Auburn Florida Colorado BYU Arkansas North Carolina Notre Dame Duke Nebraska West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia USC Florida BYU North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford USC North Carolina Duke SEMI FINALS USC Duke CHAMPION USC NAME of Entry Author (your screen name.)
OK, first time doing this. I guess I'll go first. I'm assuming you want ALL the picks (up through the final) now, correct? Pretty vanilla choices (i.e., conservative picks). I hear the winner gets the annual BS turkey award. Good luck to everyone! ******************************** MILLENNIUM FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara Pepperdine Minnesota Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetowwn USC TCU Utah Florida State Auburn Connecticut Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio Sate West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Minnesota Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State Auburn Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Georgetown USC Florida South Carolina North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford USC South Carolina West Virginia SEMI FINALS USC West Virginia CHAMPION USC MILLENNIUM
First Round Stanford Santa Clara California Minnesota Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetown USC TCU Texas Tech Florida State Auburn UConn Marquette Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio State West Virginia Second Round Santa Clara California Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State UConn Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia Third Round Santa Clara Virginia Florida State Florida BYU North Carolina Notre Dame UCLA Quarters Virginia Florida North Carolina UCLA Semi Finals Florida UCLA Champion Florida
Kurt Kline FIRST ROUND Stanford Long Beach State Pepperdine NC State Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetown SC TCU Utah Florida State Auburn UConn Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas NC ND Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio State West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford NC State Virginia Georgetown SC FSU Auburn Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson NC ND Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia FSU Florida South Carolina NC Duke UCLA QUARTERFINALS Stanford FSU NC Duke SEMIFINALS FSU Duke CHAMPION FSU Kurt Kline
Killing it--KickitHard FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara California Minnesota Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetowwn USC TCU TTU Florida State Auburn UCONN Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio Sate West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Minnesota Virginia Rutgers USC Florida State Auburn Wisconsin South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Northwestern Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Minnesota Virginia USC Wisconsin BYU North Carolina Northwestern UCLA QUARTER FINALS UVA USC North Carolina UCLA SEMI FINALS UNC USC CHAMPION UNC Kickithard
Ingoldsby FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara California Minnesota Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetown USC TCU Utah Florida State Auburn Connecticut Marquette Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio State West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford California Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State Connecticut Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia Florida State Connecticut South Carolina North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford Florida State North Carolina West Virginia SEMI FINALS Stanford West Virginia CHAMPION Stanford Ingoldsby
FIRST ROUND: Stanford Santa Clara California NC State UVA Penn St Rutgers Georgetown USC Tex A&M Utah FSU Auburn UCONN Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri UNC Notre Dame Northwestern Illinois St Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio St West Virginia SECOND RD: Stanford California UVA Rutgers USC FSU Auburn Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson Missouri Northwestern Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND: Stanford UVA USC Florida BYU Clemson Duke UCLA QUARTERFINALS: Stanford Florida Clemson Duke SEMIFINALS: Florida Duke CHAMPIONS: Duke
FIRST ROUND Stanford Long Beach Pepperdine North Carolina St Virginia Penn St Rutgers Georgetown USC Texas A&M Utah Florida State South Ala UConn Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio Sate West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Pepperdine Virginia Rutgers USC Florida State South Ala Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Northwestern Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia Florida State Florida BYU Clemson Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford Florida State BYU Duke SEMI FINALS Stanford Duke CHAMPION Stanford RtD!
the guru FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara Cal Minn Virginia Penn St Rutgers Georgetown USC Texas A&M Utah Florida State Auburn UConn Marquette Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio Sate West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Cal Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State UConn Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Georgetown Florida State Florida South Carolina UNC Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford Florida State UNC Duke SEMI FINALS Florida State Duke CHAMPION Florida State theguru
FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara California Minnesota Virginia Penn St Rutgers Georgetown USC TCU Utah Florida State Auburn UConn Marquette Florida South Carolina OklahomaState Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio Sate West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford California Virginia Goergetown USC Florida State Auburn Florida South Carolina BYU Arkansas North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia USC Florida South Carolina Akansas Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford Florida South Carolina West Virginia SEMI FINALS Florida South Carolina CHAMPION South Carolina Love, Jim Halpert
Persin FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara Pepperdine NC State Virginia Penn State Harvard Georgetown USC Texas A&M Utah Florida State Auburn UConn Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado SMU BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio Sate West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Pepperdine Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State Auburn Florida Colorado BYU Clemson North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia USC Florida BYU North Carolina Duke UCLA QUARTER FINALS Stanford USC BYU UCLA SEMI FINALS Stanford UCLA CHAMPION UCLA Persin
OK! The first ten entries are in! Now... a reprieve! The NEW ENTRY DEADLINE is 5:00 eastern on Friday. This is because I made my first screw up yesterday and mis-read the times on the schedule. Yesterday my brain thought it saw a 1:00 game for tomorrow.... obviously I was looking at a Saturday or Sunday game by mistake. The first game is Penn State vs Bucknell at 6:00 tomorrow. I'm looking forward to 15 or so more individual entries and the usual half dozen or so entries for the computer/statistical division. Cheers!
FIRST ROUND Stanford Long Beach State California NC State Virginia Bucknell Harvard Georgetown USC TCU Utah Florida State South Alabama UConn Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Dayton West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford NC State Bucknell Georgetown USC Florida State UConn Wisconsin Colorado Oklahoma Clemson North Carolina Northwestern Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Georgetown USC Wisconsin Colorado Clemson Northwestern West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford USC Clemson West Virginia SEMI FINALS Stanford West Virginia CHAMPION West Virginia Ziggy
dmthomas49 FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara Pepperdine Minnesota Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetown USC Texas A&M Utah Florida State Auburn Connecticut Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio State West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Minnesota Virginia Rutgers USC Florida State Auburn Florida Colorado BYU Arkansas North Carolina Michigan Duke Nebraska West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia Florida State Florida Colorado North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford Florida State North Carolina West Virginia SEMI FINALS Florida State North Carolina CHAMPION Florida State dmthomas49
Yaaaay!!! Penn State plays first. Woooohoooo!! Just curious, may I add a second entry of picks? I won't expect a prize if I win with the 2nd entry, although, I'm not expecting a prize with the 1st entry either. I'm posting the following for posterity's sake: I noticed some people still didn't follow your instructions with regard to formatting for school names and usernames. I noticed some people abbreviating the names of schools, whereas the NCAA website had the full name. Also, some people added a space between their usernames (when there should not have been a space). Lastly, some people forgot to put their username at the top and bottom.
sweepsit FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara Pepperdine Minnesota Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetown USC TCU Utah Florida State Auburn Connecticut Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio State West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Minnesota Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State Auburn Florida South Carolina BYU Arkansas North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Georgetown USC Auburn BYU North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTERFINALS Stanford USC North Carolina West Virginia SEMIFINALS USC West Virginia FINALS USC sweepsit
As you can well image, multiple entries per person would give them an advantage. -Not that a second entry would likely be a seriously large improvement on the first, but if someone submitted 25 entries they would have a 50% chance of winning with the lucky entry against the other 24 contestants. But go ahead and submit another entry if you wish, but let me know which one is your "official" entry for the contest purposes. Thanks for noticing that some fans on this board are less precise about following instructions. The format that I want saves me maximum time and effort. Other close approximations will work but slow me down. For instance, the screen name at the the top and bottom of the listings allows me to locate an entry more quickly whether I am scrolling up or down. Everyone using precisely the same name for each school saves me proof reading time as an unusual or different version of the school name makes me do a double take and then checking to be sure that that cell got scored correctly. Using the same vertical spacing allows me to cut and paste the whole entry rather than having to do it piece meal to be sure that the correct horizontal lines line up on the spread sheet. ..... But no matter, I get by just fine. I realize that such exacting instructions lend themselves to confusion. I am happy to run this contest and am delighted to get entries no matter how they are formatted. Cheers!
OK...Here's my go at the contest. Heart over careful calculation as I'm staying with the school where I spent time in the classroom --- North Carolina all the way! I usually come in about 2/3rds down the list, but maybe the Heels will get lucky this year?? ******************************************************************************** Soccerhunter FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara Pepperdine Minnesota Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetown USC Texas A&M Utah Florida State Auburn Connecticut Marquette Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Notre Dame Kent State Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio State West Virginia SECOND ROUND Sanford Minnesota Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State Connecticut Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Sanford Virginia Florida State Florida South Carolina North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Sanford Florida State North Carolina West Virginia SEMI FINALS Florida State North Carolina CHAMPION North Carolina Soccerhunter
Thanks for offering the option. I'll stick with my original picks. I did a bit of homework for them. I'll keep a side note of my other sweet 16 picks on up to the championship winner, and kick myself later if they come closer to the mark. Thanks again and good luck to all. May the best man... or PC algorithm win.
REGION 1 FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara Pepperdine Minnesota Virginia Penn State Rutgers Georgetown USC TCU Utah Florida State South Alabama Connecticut Marquette Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Illinois State Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio State West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Pepperdine Virginia Rutgers USC Florida State Connecticut Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Rutgers USC Florida BYU North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTERFINALS Stanford USC North Carolina West Virginia SEMIFINALS USC North Carolina CHAMPION USC REGION 1
TWSWBC FIRST ROUND Stanford Santa Clara California Minnesota Virginia Bucknell Rutgers Georgetown USC Texas A&M Utah Florida State Auburn Connecticut Marquette Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Dayton West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford California Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State Auburn Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Northwestern Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia USC Auburn South Carolina North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford USC North Carolina West Virginia SEMI FINALS USC North Carolina CHAMPION North Carolina TWSWBC
IRST ROUND Stanford Long Beach State Pepperdine NC State Virginia Penn State Harvard Georgetown USC TCU Utah Florida State South Alabama UConn Marquette Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Memphis Missouri North Carolina Notre Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Dayton West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford NC State Virginia Georgetown USC Florida State South Alabama Florida South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Notre Dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Georgetown Florida State Florida South Carolina North Carolina Duke West Virginia QUARTER FINALS Stanford Florida State North Carolina West Virginia SEMI FINALS Stanford West Virginia CHAMPION West Virginia
Liesse00 FIRST ROUND Stanford Long Beach St. Pepperdine Minnesota Virginia Penn St. Rutgers Georgetown USC Texas A&M Utah Florida St. Auburn Connecticut Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado Oklahoma BYU Clemson Arkansas Kansas North Carolina Norte Dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Dayton West Virginia SECOND ROUND Stanford Minnesota Virginia Georgetown USC Florida St. Connecticut Wisconsin South Carolina BYU Clemson North Carolina Norte Dame Duke UCLA West Virgina THIRD ROUND Stanford Georgetown USC Connecticut BYU North Carolina Duke West Virgina QUARTER FINALS Stanford USC BYU West Virginia SEMI FINALS Stanford BYU CHAMPION BYU Liesse00
First round Stanford Santa Clara Cal Minnesota Virginia Penn state Rutgers Georgetown USC Texas am Utah Florida state Aubur Connecticut Wisconsin Florida South Carolina Colorado SMU BYU Clemson Arkansas Missouri North Carolina Norte dame Northwestern Michigan Duke UCLA Nebraska Ohio state West Virginia Second round Stanford Cal Virginia Georgetown Usc Florida state Auburn Florida Colorado BYU Clemson NorthCarolina Norte dame Duke UCLA West Virginia THIRD ROUND Stanford Virginia Usc Florida BYU North Carolina Duke West Virginia QTR FINAL Stanford Usc BYU West Virginia SEMI FINAL Usc West Virginia Champion USC