http://www.gottalk.com/index.php?autocom=s...ackets&id=2

The contest is open. Let me know if I made any mistakes, but I double checked and think I have it all aligned properly. Some brackets you will see may have it shown in a little different order, such as the game with the #2 seed at the very botom, but I don't have time to change the look at the moment.

Take note that the play in game is worth 50 points this year instead of 20 that way it will be a little more important in close finishes. A perfect bracket would still net you more than a million points this year. If anyone ever does that... they should feel depressed though since a perfect bracket on big name sites will win you a million bucks, not just points. lol

I would like to give prizes on these contests, but it's not really warranted until enough people start joining these.

I've been working hard on updating this for IPB 3.0, so I haven't had time to fine tune this 2.3 version. In a month or two I will have the new forum software here and then hopefully have a few changes in the sports betting system. In fact I already overhauled the entire system as far as the back end goes... so it's going to be more ideal on 3.0 from a performance stand point.

edit: sorry if it's annoying picking these with dropdowns. I know almost no javascript so for now it's the best way to have it. Hopefully I can improve it in the future.

So I had no problems with it, I filled out a bracket yesterday morning I assume it was recieved?

Thanks for the remiinder about it.

Yeah, I just checked in the database to be sure that all picks were filled out and so far everyone who did it finished filling them all out. If someone had not finished they could have simply gone back to the same link and it starts where you left off.

A few things I really need to do for next time though:

1. Make them editable where you can change your picks up until the end time.

2. Have the completed time listed as "in progress" if it's not completed. Currently it has the completed time even if it's not completed. It has the last time anything was selected on it.

3. Hopefully do it in a better way than dropdowns. Much nicer with the other sites which use javascript/ajax, but I don't know any so I had to work with what I knew. lol

4. Do a tie breaker. As it is now I think I made it where ties make it split the jackpot.

5. Like espn's, I should have information about the teams.

I also really need to think of some new wrinkle to make it unique. I haven't seen another game where you predict the play in winner, but otherwise it needs something else to distinguish it too!

Anyway thanks for playing it. I have it set purposely where I can't see others' picks myself unless I go in the DB and I already had filled mine out, but when I checked to be sure yours was finished I noticed we have the same national champ (as I would have guessed) and that's all I noticed.

I opened it back up until Thursday morning in case any slow person wants to still enter it... In the future I should make the picks stay invisible during that first play in game until the deadline after it.

We all got the first game correct.

I opened it back up until Thursday morning in case any slow person wants to still enter it... In the future I should make the picks stay invisible during that first play in game until the deadline after it.

We all got the first game correct.

Same NC well I figured that :-) Cool on all.

What sucks is the new version of this forum software is in BETA so I couldn't risk using that live so all these changes I made in the betting program I did in that version and not this one. I'm going to make it much easier to find everything and also try tio simplify some things both for users and the program itself...

The new forum software will be stable enough for me to use in 1-2 months most likely and so it's barely missing the time table where I could have used the new version for this tournament ahhhhhh

Anyway if you or anyone else thinks of something which would be cool and related to either sports or betting let me know. I may add some sort of fantasy sports to it once I get everything more simplified and working fine on the other software.

Robere is perfect through these first 17 games. So even including that play in game... 17 for 17. Since my brackets all ended up already having a miss I actually rooted for ucla just to keep that bracket perfect here.

Guy_Guyerson is already automatically eliminated because he didn't make picks past day 1 for some reason. So that sucks since there already weren't many people doing this, but us other three are all close so far and it's still interesting to me. lol

In case anyone wants to see stats and hasn't found their way to them through the betting system, a direct link is here:

http://www.gottalk.com/index.php?autocom=s...tstats&id=2

Well Robere got 24 correct in a row before drunk Huggins caused him to lose one since they couldn't beat Dayton.

edit: come on people don't let the admin (me) win another contest. lol Now I am only 1 pick behind the lead and every team i picked incorrectly was a team i picked to win only 1 game so none of my next round is messed up yet.

Well me and CDP had too many of the same picks from this point on so it's down to me and Robere having a chance. I'm serious when I say I don't want to win though. I was hoping CDP would still be in the running also.

I'm never going to purposely lose a contest so I picked legit picks, but I still don't like winning all of these since I'm the admin. I just treat this site differently than most admins treat their sites though, in that I like using everything as if I am a member also. A lot of admins only take care of the admin side. If it ever came down to prizes being offered I would still play and simply give the prizes to the runner up if I won.

I am barely hanging on to my lead over Robere so far.

If Louisville and Oklahoma BOTH lose later today I will win the contest.

If Oklahoma wins, Robere will wrap up the contest victory.

If Louisville wins, I will remain ahead, but then a win in the final four by Louisville would hand Robere the victory.

So bottom line, as far as the final standings go the national championship game won't matter. It will either be decided today or next Saturday.

edit: actually if oklahoma loses and louisville wins and then louisville wins again next week it STILL would not knock me out because I have north carolina winning another one.

So yes it could go down to the national championship game. For that to happen Louisville and North Carolina must win today, then they must both win again next week. Then if Louisville wins it all Robere would win and if North Carolina wins it all I would win despite not picking them.

Well I won that contest, but now second place comes down to the North Carolina vs. Villanova game. If Villanova wins then Robere finishes second. If North Carolina wins then CDP finishes second.

I should make some options for future tourneys where there can be runner up jackpots. I just wish I could get some active ones without having to sell the software and watch other sites get the activity.

Well Robere began by dominating and in the end CDP and I stormed back. So it was a close finish. We all ahve all of our teams now out of the tournament so I finished first, CDP second, Robere third, and Aaron fourth. North Carolina winning ended up padding my margin of victory and shooting CDP up ahead of Robere. Just a couple different picks for any of us and any of us could have won (and well if Aaron had even filled out his whiole bracket maybe he could have lol). So good job everybody. When I do some other contest someone eneds to make me finish last. I hate winning them on my own site, but I want to use my skills and make people earn the victory.