Hello WoSo Fans! Once again it's just about time to set up the annual NCAA Prediction Contest for women's DI soccer. And for the second year I would love someone to take it over as I continue to be too busy. So interested fans, do let me know of your interest in taking over running this contest. I'd be much obliged. For those of you who haven't participated, here are the basics. For the last four years, we had two divisions: (1)The Human Division where about 25 of us WOSO fans entered our best bracket, 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've received positive feedback on the system of scoring for the last five years that I've done this, so I'll suggest using that system once again. Recall that its major feature is 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 and FSU to play for the 2018 championship, you might have called the winners, 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. Pending on (hopefully) hearing from a volunteer, I'll communicate again on Wednesday AM with the specific rules. (Same as last year, repeated.) Cheers! Soccerhunter
OK....No takers..... I'll dive in again, but may be a little slow posting the results, so bear with me. GET YOUR ENTRIES IN! All entries must be posted on this thread by 4:00 (eastern time) on Friday. This leaves all day on Thursday and up until 4:00 on Friday to post your entry. FORMATTING ENTRIES. The format that contestants submit entries is quite important to me. If each entry is EXACTLY in the format as described below, then I will be very happy. I want to be able to "cut and paste" which is why rigorously using the format is important. Otherwise, I'd have to hand copy 63 choices per contestant into the spreadsheet. (If I have to hand copy each school name, the the chance for error seriously increases... and it takes me longer...) FIRST: State your Big Soccer SCREEN NAME. THEN leave a vertical space and type "1st Round"and then under that heading proceed to post a vertical list of your picks for each round --one school name for each match scheduled to be played. List your picks in order starting with the Stanford-Seattle winner and proceed down the left side of the bracket to the Louisville-Tennessee winner and then continue down the right side of the bracket starting with Georgetown-Cent Conn St. and ending with Howard-UNC. This exercise should yield a vertical list of 32 first round picker winners THEN leave a space ("enter") in the list, type in "2nd Round" and just below that heading proceed to post your picks for the 16 second round winners. THEN leave a space and post a vertical list of your picks for the elite 8. THEN a space and list the final 4. THEN a space and list the finalists, THEN leave a space and list your pick for the champion. As a FORMAT EXAMPLE your entry should look like this (below.) FORMAT EXAMPLE: SCREEN NAME 1st Round Stanford Clemson Wisconsin Boston College Texas A&M BYU Arizona Tennessee West Virginia etc... etc... etc... Arkansas Kansas North Carolina 2nd Round Stanford Boston College etc... etc... North Carolina 3rd Round Stanford etc... etc... North Carolina 4th Round Stanford Florida State Virginia UCLA Semi Finalists Florida State UCLA Champion UCLA So there you have the format for the contest entries! If you want to enter a bracket based on a computer calculation or even a hand calculated arithmetic ranking system, then please feel free to do so. CP Thomas and Bennett generally are the competition to beat (and CP also supplies a bracket based on the official NCAA ARPI and some other iterations.) As discussed in the first post above, the scoring system will be the same one used for four years now. Identifying the correct winner of a match will be awarded with 1,3,6,8,8,8 points for each of the 6 rounds. (eg total points available for each of the 6 rounds are 32, 48, 48, 32,16, 8. This system typically puts about 1/3 of the field into a position of possibly winning by the end of the third round. (Those who are yet in position to win the contest usually do well in the 2nd and 3rd rounds -- The "Upset" Rounds.) The "elite 8" round (round 4) does some good pruning of contestants down to 3 or 4 possible victors, and the semi finals and championship game separate those remaining viable winning contestants to find the our Champion Pronosticator. So far in the contest, I don't think that we've had a tie in the 7 years I've been participating in (or running) this contest. Our big prize for the winner is the natural opportunity to take a bow and then to explain his or her genius behind the winning picks, and then after a pause explaining what the difference was from the previous year when that same genius failed. (We've never had a repeat winner...) So sit down and fill in your brackets and send in your entry. Let the fun begin!
Round 1 Stanford Clemson Wisconsin BC Tex A&M BYU Arizona Tennessee West Va Wake Forest Penn St South Car USC LSU USF FSU Georgetown Wash ST Miss St Duke Virginia Princeton Vandy Baylor UCLA Auburn NCSt Santa Clara Texas Arkansas Kansas UNC Round 2 Stanford BC Tex A&M Tennessee West Va USCe USCw FSU Georgetown Duke Virginia Vandy UCLA Santa Clara Texas UNC Round 3 Stanford Tex A&M USCe FSU Duke UVA UCLA UNC Round 4 Stanford FSU UVA UNC Semis FSU UNC finals FSU
Tom. Pretty sure he just wants spacing between rounds and wants rounds identified. So all round 1 games then space the all round. 2 then space etc
Glove Stinks Round 1 Stanford Clemson Memphis Boston COLLEGE Texas am BYU ARIZONA TENNESSEE WEST VIRGINIA WAKE PENN ST SOUTH CAROLINA USC LSU SOUTH FLORIDA FLORIDA STATE GEORGETOWN WASH ST MISS ST DUKE VIRGINIA PRINCETON VANDY BAYLOR UCLA AUBURN NC STATE SANTA CLARA TEXAS ARKANSAS KANSAS UNC ROUND 2 STANFORD BOSTON COLLEGE BYU TENNESSEE WEST VIRGINIA PENN ST USC FSU WASH ST DUKE VIRGINIA VANDY UCLA SANTA CLARA TEXAS UNC ROUND 3 Stanford TENNESEE PENN ST USC DUKE VIRGINIA UUCLA UNC ROUND 4 STANFORD USC UCLA UNC ROUND 5 USC UNC ROUND 6 USC
Do selections have to be consistent from one round to the next? Could one, say, pick Ohio State to beat Wake Forest in the first round and then have Wake defeating West Virginia in the next round?
Playsimple 1st Round Stanford Clemson Memphis Boston College Texas A&M BYU Arizona Tennessee West Virginia Wake Forest Penn State South Carolina Southern California LSU South Florida Florida State Georgetown Washington State Mississippi Duke Virginia Texas Tech Vanderbilt Baylor UCLA Minnesota Northwestern Santa Clara Texas Arkansas Kansas North Carolina 2nd Round Stanford Boston College Texas A&M Tennessee West Virginia Penn State Southern California Florida State Georgetown Duke Virginia Baylor UCLA Santa Clara Texas North Carolina 3rd Round Stanford Tennessee West Virginia Southern California Georgetown Baylor UCLA North Carolina 4th Round Stanford Southern California Georgetown UCLA Semifinalists Stanford UCLA Champion Stanford
Kurt Kline 1st Round Stanford Clemson Memphis Boston College Texas A&M TCU Arizona Louisville West Virginia Wake Forest Penn State South Carolina Southern California LSU South Florida Florida State Georgetown Washington State Mississippi State Duke Virginia Princeton Vanderbilt Baylor UCLA Minnesota NC State Santa Clara Texas Arkansas Kansas North Carolina 2nd Round Stanford Boston College TCU Louisville West Virginia South Carolina Southern California Florida State Georgetown Duke Virginia Baylor UCLA NC State Texas North Carolina 3rd Round Stanford Louisville West Virginia FSU Duke Virginia UCLA North Carolina 4th Round Stanford FSU Duke North Carolina Semifinalists Stanford North Carolina Champion Stanford
justdoit 1st round Stanford Clemson Memphis BC Texas A&M TCU Arizona Tennessee WVU Wake Penn State South Carolina USC LSU S Florida FSU Georgetown Wash St Miss St Duke UVa Princeton Vanderbilt Baylor UCLA Minnesota NC State Santa Clara Texas Arkansas St Louis UNC 2nd round Stanford BC Texas A&M Tennessee WVU Penn State USC FSU Georgetown Duke UVa Vanderbilt UCLA Santa Clara Texas UNC 3rd round Stanford Tennessee WVU FSU Duke UVa UCLA UNC 4th round Stanford FSU UVa UNC 5th round Stanford UNC Champion Stanford
Thanks, Soccerhunter, you're a stud! Well, maybe a little past that age. For the computer division, I'll be doing the NCAA's Adjusted RPI and Adjusted Non-Conference RPI, my 5 Iteration Adjusted RPI, and Massey's ratings. I just have to finish entering Massey's ratings and I'll start posting them.
Glove Stinks Round 1 Stanford Clemson Memphis Boston COLLEGE Texas am BYU ARIZONA TENNESSEE WEST VIRGINIA WAKE PENN ST SOUTH CAROLINA USC LSU SOUTH FLORIDA FLORIDA STATE Georgetown Wash St miss st dUKE VIRGINIA PRINCETON VANDY BAYLOR UCLA AUBURN NCST SANTA CLARA TEXAS ARKANSAS KANSAS UNC rOUND 2 STANFORD BC BYU TENNESSEE WEST VIRGINIA PENN ST USC FSU WASH ST DUKE VIRGINIA VANDY UCLA SANATA CLARA TEXAS UNC ROUND 3 STANFORD TENNESSEE PENN ST USC DUKE VIRGINIA UCLA UNC rOUND 4 STANFORD USC DUKE UNC ROUND 5 USC UNC cHAMPION USC Disregard my previous entry as I made an error which could not be edited
soccerlol 1st Round Stanford Clemson Memphis Boston College Texas A&M TCU Arizona Tennessee West Virginia Wake Forest Bowling Green South Carolina USC Long Beach State USF Florida State Georgetown Washington State Mississippi State Duke Virginia Princeton Vanderbilt Baylor UCLA Auburn NC State Santa Clara Texas Arkansas St. Louis North Carolina 2nd Round Stanford Memphis Texas A&M Tennessee West Virginia South Carolina USC Florida State Georgetown Duke Virginia Baylor UCLA NC State Texas North Carolina 3rd Round Stanford Tennessee West Virginia Florida State Georgetown Baylor UCLA North Carolina 4th Round Stanford Florida State Georgetown North Carolina Semis Stanford North Carolina Final North Carolina
Crazyhorse First Round Stanford Clemson Wisconsin Boston College Texas A&M TCU Arizona Tennessee West Virginia Wake Forest Penn State South Carolina USC LSU South Florida Florida State Georgetown Washington State Mississippi State Duke Virginia Princeton Vanderbilt Baylor UCLA Auburn NC State Santa Clara Texas Arkansas Saint Louis North Carolina Second Round Stanford Boston College Texas A&M Tennessee West Virginia Penn State USC Florida State Georgetown Duke Virginia Baylor UCLA Santa Clara Texas North Carolina Third Round Stanford Texas A&M West Virginia Florida State Duke Virginia UCLA North Carolina Fourth Round Stanford Florida State Virginia UCLA Semi Finalists Stanford UCLA Champion UCLA
HeadSpun 1st ROUND Stanford Clemson Memphis BC TAMU BYU Arizona Tenn West VI Wake Penn St So Carolina USC LSU So FL FSU Georgetown Wash St. Miss. St. Duke Virg Princeton Vandy Baylor UCLA Minnesota NC State Santa Clara TX Arkansas Saint Louis UNC 2nd ROUND Stanford BC TAMU Tenn West VI Penn St. USC FSU Georgetown Duke Virg Baylor UCLA Santa Clara TX UNC 3rd ROUND Stanford Tenn Penn St FSU Duke Virg UCLA UNC SEMI-FINALS Stanford FSU Virg UCLA CHAMPIONSHIP Stanford UCLA COLLEGE CUP WINNER Stanford
karlmarx123 1st Round Stanford Clemson Memphis Boston College Texas A&M TCU Arizona Tennessee West Virginia Wake Forest Penn State South Carolina Southern California Boston South Florida Florida State Georgetown Washington State Mississippi St Duke Virginia Texas Tech Vanderbilt Baylor UCLA Minnesota NC State Santa Clara Texas Arkansas St Louis North Carolina 2nd Round Stanford Boston College Texas A&M Tennessee West Virginia Penn State Southern California Florida State Georgetown Duke Virginia Baylor UCLA Santa Clara Arkansas North Carolina 3rd Round Stanford Texas A&M West Virginia FSU Duke Virginia UCLA North Carolina 4th Round Stanford FSU Virginia UNC Semifinalists Stanford UNC Champion Stanford
crane65 1st Round Stanford Clemson Wisconsin Boston College Texas A&M BYU Arizona Tennessee West Virginia Ohio St. Penn St. South Carolina Southern California LSU South Fla. Florida St. Georgetown Washington St. Mississippi St. Duke Virginia Texas Tech Vanderbilt Baylor UCLA Auburn Northwestern Santa Clara Texas Arkansas Kansas North Carolina 2nd Round Stanford Boston College Texas A&M Tennessee West Virginia Penn St. Southern California Florida St. Georgetown Duke Virginia Vanderbilt UCLA Santa Clara Arkansas North Carolina 3rd Round Stanford Tennessee West Virginia Southern California Duke Virginia UCLA North Carolina 4th Round Stanford Southern California Duke UCLA Semi Finalists Stanford UCLA Champion Stanford
mpr2477 1st Round Stanford Clemson Wisconsin Boston College Texas AM BYU Arizona Tennessee WVU Wake Forest Penn St S. Carolina USC LSU S. Florida FSU Georgetown WSU Lipscomb Duke UVA Texas Tech Vandy Baylor UCLA Minnesota NC State Santa Clara Texas Arkansas Kansas UNC 2nd Round Stanford Boston College BYU Tennessee WVU Penn St USC FSU WSU Duke UVA Vandy UCLA Santa Clara Texas UNC 3rd Round Stanford Tennessee Penn St USC Duke Vandy UCLA UNC 4th Round Stanford USC Duke UCLA Semifinalists USC UCLA Champion UCLA