Entries must be posted on this thread one hour before the start of the first tournament game. That would be posted by 12:00 noon on Friday, the 10th. (Two more days.) Also, some of you have reversed your order of the seeded quadrants and are making it hard to cut and paste. Using the 32 winner 1st Round as an example, please order your vertical list of game winners with the Stanford quarter first and run straight down to your choice for the South Carolina -- Alabama State winner. Then continue with the Duke quadrant winners straight down to the UNC -- Highpoint winner. Then use the same order and format for each round thereafter. Thanks!
@Soccerhunter Thanks for doing this. It is a lot of fun. Of course I was one of those people who have not followed the rules. Sorry. I'm reposting here my bracket in the right order. GO HEELS!!!! 1st Round Stanford Auburn Arizona FSU PSU Georgetown Rutgers West Virginia UCF Tennessee South Florida Florida OSU California Wisconsin South Carolina Duke Oklahoma Clemson Texas USC Baylor Notre Dame Texas A&M UCLA Northwestern Pepperdine Virginia Princeton NCS Colorado UNC 2nd Round Stanford FSU PSU West Virginia UCF Florida California South Carolina Duke Texas USC Texas A&M UCLA Virginia NCS UNC 3rd Round Stanford West Virginia Florida South Carolina Duke USC UCLA UNC 4th Round Stanford Florida Duke UNC Final Stanford UNC Champion UNC
Well, seeing that the points are (properly) skewed toward picking early upsets, I'll go out on a limb for few 1st round surprises. It's my daughter's senior year in college ball, and although her team was not invited to the dance, many of her friends/club and high school teammates are still playing the last games of their senior year. I'm cheering for Pac 12, with hopes that this very special Stanford team (or UCLA, Cal, USC, WASU..?) takes it all. It's been a great ride. Cheers! 1st Round Stanford Hofstra Arizona Florida State Penn State Georgetown Rutgers WVA UCF Murray State South Florida Florida Vanderbilt California Wisconsin South Carolina Duke OK St. Clemson Texas USC Baylor Notre Dame Texas A&M UCLA Northwestern Pepperdine Virginia Princeton NC State Colorado UNC 2nd Round Stanford FSU Georgetown WVA UCF Florida Cal South Carolina Duke Clemson USC Texas A&M UCLA Pepperdine NC State UNC 3rd Round Stanford West Virginia UCF South Carolina Duke USC UCLA UNC 4th Round Stanford South Carolina Duke UCLA Semi Finals Stanford UCLA Champion Stanford
Sorry I think I am a violator maybe. I also took this opportunity to make a couple changes to ensure my bottom level performance. Round 1 Stanford Auburn AZ FSU PSU WF Rutgers WVU WSU (yup Gilmoy I just cursed your team) TN FGCU FL OSU Cal Wisc SC Duke OSU Alabama Texas USC Baylor ND A&M UCLA NW Pepperdine UVA Princeton NCS CO UNC Round2 Stanford FSU WF WVU TN FL OSU SC Duke AL USC A&M UCLA UVA Princeton UNC Round 3 Stanford WVU FL SC Duke A&M UCLA UNC Quarters Stanford SC Duke UCLA Semi Stanford UCLA Champion: UCLA
No Problem! It took a few minutes to get it reformatted, but thanks for the gesture. So you and I are so far the ones who have picked the Heels. That's a lonely position, but loyalty is what it is (and I respect other fans going with their heart.)
I think Stanford are the favorite for sure and I think any other opponent but UNC they win if they are in the championship game. But dude if UNC play Stanford in the championship I can see the 'heels getting it done. That would be some game.
What's the winner get--a hearty electronic slap on the back? Is this like a NCAA basketball pool with points for correct picks throughout the tourney? Just curious.
1st Round Stanford Auburn Arizona FSU PSU Georgetown Rutgers WVU UCF UT USF Florida tOSU Cal Wisconsin SC Duke Oklahoma St Clemson Texas USC Baylor ND TAMU UCLA Northwestern Pepperdine Virginia Princeton NC St Colorado UNC 2nd Round Stanford FSU PSU WVU UCF Florida tOSU SC Duke Clemson USC TAMU UCLA Pepperdine Princeton UNC 3rd Round Stanford PSU UCF SC Duke USC UCLA UNC Quarterfinals Stanford SC Duke UNC Semifinals Stanford UNC Final Stanford
@Soccerhunter Yes, I believe that UNC can win the CC (just bcz I’m so pessimistic LOL). I love the girls. However, AD has to do a serious sole searching and changes in strategy to deliver a championship. I’m not sure that he will be able to do that in his age and stage of his career.
First Round Stanford Hofstra Arizona Florida State Penn State Georgetown Rutgers West Virginia Washington State Tennessee FGCU Florida Ohio State Santa Clara Wisconsin South Carolina Duke Oklahoma State Clemson Texas USC Baylor Notre Dame Texas A&M UCLA Northwestern Pepperdine Virginia Princeton Arkansas Colorado North Carolina 2nd Round Stanford Arizona Georgetown Rutgers Washington State Florida Santa Clara South Carolina Duke Clemson USC Texas A&M UCLA Virginia Princeton North Carolina 3rd Round Stanford Rutgers Florida South Carolina Duke Texas A&M UCLA North Carolina Quarter Finals Stanford South Carolina Texas A&M North Carolina Semifinals Stanford Texas A&M Final Texas A&M
Yup, as always, the winner will get an electronic attaboy (or attagirl, for all I know.) And some of of the funniest "victory posts" have been great toungue in cheek explanations of how they carefully picked the upsets and ended up on top.
I am right with you on this. But I take heart from the fact that in past runs into the NCAA Anson has made changes in the first two rounds which worked. We also see that he has (as of last weekend) abandoned the 3 back system he has been using all season because of the injury situation and has gone to a four back alignment shifting (for the first time in her soccer career) Megan to the back line. This will take a few more games for her to get used to the position. While we fans can always hope that our favorite team will somehow come through, the reality is otherwise. We all know that regardless of great strategy, preparation, training, etc., all it takes is one silly little defensive mistake and it's all over. As I've said many times on these boards, we no longer crown a national champion on the basis of polls (or for that matter rpi or season record.) Instead we actually play the games (tournaments in particular) so as to get an the winner. It's more exciting and unpredictable.
1st Round Stanford Hofstra TCU FSU PSU Georgetown LaSalle West Virginia Washington State Tennessee South Florida Florida OSU California Wisconsin South Carolina Duke Oklahoma Clemson Texas USC Rice Notre Dame Texas A&M UCLA Northwestern Pepperdine Virginia Princeton NCS Denver UNC 2nd Round Stanford FSU PSU West Virginia Tenn Florida California South Carolina Duke Texas USC Texas A&M UCLA Virginia NCS UNC 3rd Round Stanford West Virginia Florida South Carolina Duke USC UCLA UNC 4th Round Stanford Florida Duke UNC Final Duke UNC Champion UNC
1 round Stanford Auburn Arizona FSU PSU WF Rutgers WVU UCF Tenn USF Florida OSU Cal Wisconsin SC Duke OK State Clemson TX USC Baylor ND A&M UCLA Northwestern Pepperdine Virginia Princeton Arkansas CU UNC 2 round Stanford FSU PSU WVU UCF Florida OSU SC Duke Clemson USC A&M UCLA Virginia Arkansas UNC 3 round Stanford WVU Florida SC Duke USC UCLA UNC Quarters Stanford SC Duke UCLA Semis Stanford UCLA Champions UCLA I know it's late but I'm currently in Hawaii so give me a break!
I missed the cutoff; had too much work today and yesterday. Oh well, good luck to all who submitted entries.
First upset, Vanderbilt over Ohio State 2-1. Who picked Vanderbilt? My upset pick Hofstra also lost to Auburn 1-0. I am not starting well.
I picked Vandy and Hofstra. I counted 4 entries with Vandy chosen in the first round ( there might be more). Notably 'bigwest' and 'ziggy1010' picked Vanderbilt to make it into the quarterfinals.
Wake Forest wins it in PKs 0-0 after 2OTs Wake Forest puts in a different GK for the PKs... and it paid off. She blocked 3 of Georgetown's 5 shots. Georgetown also hit the post on one shot. Georgetown's GK also did a great job - blocking 2 of the 4 Wake Forest shots taken, but her teammates couldn't get 'em in.
I'll wait to post the first round scores until Sunday late afternoon when the first round will be complete. (And the two Sunday games could make it interesting as both are like the Vandy/OSU game in that there's just enough support for the underdogs (Butler and Denver) to make those "upset" possibilities.) Some interesting stats from our entry pool. 20 out of 24 human contestants picked Duke to make the final 4. Compared to the other three quadrants of the tournament it would appear that our prognosticators think that Duke has the easiest draw as a #1 seed. By this measure, Stanford would have the second easiest time getting to Orlando with 17 votes of confidence and South Carolina 14. Our contestants voted that #1 seed UNC has the toughest bracket with only 9 votes to make it to Orlando whereas UCLA is favored to beat out UNC by 12 contestants with Virginia getting picked the other three times. But as far as who will win the 2017 national championship our prognosticators fall away into two groups: the realists and the true blue fans who simply can not bear to vote against their home team. The steely eye realists choose Stanford as the top choice with 8 votes of confidence followed by Duke with 5 picks. The hopefuls weigh in with 3 votes for UNC, and 2 for UCLA and Virginia, and the true loyalists (bless them's loyal blood) one each for FSU, PSU, TAMU, and USC. Over in the Machine/Poll division, Stanford is the unanimous #1 seed to get to Orlando, while the other #1 seeds are given a 6 to 1 chance to make it to the final four. Compared to the humans, these entries seem to illustrate the NCAA committee's wisdom in setting up the tournament with the best 4 #1 seed choices. The Machine division also seems more dispassionate about the eventual winner. 6 out of 7 show Stanford as taking it all, and only one shows the overall #2 seed, UNC, edging out the top seed. Machines and pollsters make no place for Duke, UCLA , or Virginla on the bottom line. (Pretty heartless, I'd say...)
YES! KICKITHARD, please let me know who your semifinal match winners are: From your round four results it has to be Stanford or Florida against your pick of UNC for the championship.