The selection committee has spoken, which means its time for the Seventh Annual Uncle Crappy NCAA Final Four Challenge (Brought to you by Bocktown).

Given that this our seventh year, there is a mess of you who already know the AUCNFFC drill; for those of you who don’t here’s how it works in handy bullet list form:

  • Find yourself a copy of the bracket. If you can’t manage that, you probably shouldn’t be operating a computer, driving a car, breathing, etc., but if you’re having trouble, there’s a nice PDF version provided by our friends at Yahoo! Sports here. Fill it out.
  • After consulting your bracket, pick the four teams — one from each region — that you think will win the regional championships and travel to the Final Four in New Orleans.
  • After consulting your bracket again, pick the two teams you think will win the national semi-final games on March 31.
  • Consult your bracket once more, and pick the team from your semi-finalists who will win the title game April 2.
  • How do I figure out who wins? You get two points for picking a correct Final Four team, four points for a correct semi-finalist and six points for a  correct national  championship pick. Assuming I can add correctly (and that can be quite an assumption, boys and girls), the entry with the highest point total is our winner.
  • Yes, there is a tie-breaker. When you submit your pick, please also include your project score for the championship game. If it’s necessary, the entry whose score is closest will be our winner.

Still confused? Given that I’m writing this in a hurry, that’s entirely possible. Here’s a purely hypothetical example of what an entry from this year’s bracket could look like (Note 1: this is NOT my entry. Note 2: These are the lowest seeds in the tournament; if you want to make this your entry, feel free, but do so knowing the risk of being Blutarskied):

Semi-finals:

Western Kentucky/LIU-Brooklyn

Vermont/UNC-Asheville

Championship game:

Western Kentucky/Vermont

Champion:

Vermont

Simple, right? As you begin to mull your picks, here are a couple of other things to keep in mind:

One thing to make sure you don’t do: Send me money to enter. As has always been the case, AUCNFFC is free.

In the first four years of the contest, we were competing for cheesy trinkets and I usually included a disclaimer that our FABULOUS PRIZES weren’t actually fabulous. And then Chris at Bocktown Beer and Grill blew that out of the water by putting up a gift card to the contest’s winner — as she’s doing again this year. All together, boys and girls: “Thank you, Chris!”

The tournament’s first-round games get underway around 12:15 Eastern Thursday; I’m not a huge stickler, but I’ll need to have your entries by noonish that day for you to be eligible.

How do you enter? Comment. Email. Twitter. DM. Text. Facebook. Smoke signal. Please feel free adding whatever commentary you wish regarding how you arrived at your picks; each entry will be listed in a comprehensive post that’ll show up at some point early Thursday afternoon.

The fine print (AKA The Juan Rule): As is tradition, Juan will once again be entered against his will, using either the Phil’s Mom Method or the Penny-Flipping Method.

To summarize:

Free.

Easy.

Deadline is noon Thursday.

Bocktown gift card for the winner.

Have any questions? Let me know. Otherwise, good luck to everyone — especially me.

28 Comments

  2. If I had a dog, I’d let him pick for sure. But since I have a cat, I’ll have to ask. He can be a real dick from time to time.

    Like

  3. Colonials got the shaft and Pitt blows so I will be cheering for Mississippi Valley State University!

    Semi-finals: UNC/Syracuse & Duke/Mich St
    Championship game: UNC/Mich State
    Champion: UNC

    Like

  7. Pingback: it has begun. « Uncle Crappy

  8. I never do well here, so I don’t know why I’m trying again, maybe to get my mind off of school for a hot second…

    So, here I go.

    Semis: KY/Mich St & OSU/NCU
    Finals: KY/OSU
    Winner: KY
    Score: 74-68

    Like

  9. Kentucky, Florida St., Kansas, Missouri
    Kentucky, Florida St.
    Kentucky
    68-63

    I always suck at this so my expectations match Juan’s.

    Like

  11. Pingback: actual hoopage. « Uncle Crappy
  16. Pingback: countdown. « Uncle Crappy

  18. Final Four: Ohio State/Kansas / Kentucky/Michigan State
    Final: Ohio State / Kentucky
    Winner: Ohio State: 72-69

    Like

  19. OK here are my picks. It’s usually safest to bet AGAINST me. I’m always wrong.

    Final Four: Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina, Ohio State

    Finals: Michigan State/North Carolina
    Winner: North Carolina
    Score: 81-77

    Like

  21. My dog doesn’t care & my cat is very bored by the whole thing, so I am picked myself up to the finals and then let (I kid you not) the goldfish pick the final winner:

    Kentucky vs. Michigan State and Florida State vs Kansas
    Michigan State vs Kansas
    Michigan State

    Like

  22. DUKE vs. MICHIGAN ST
    OSU vs. N CAROLINA
    DUKE vs. N CAROLINA
    DUKE wins

    72 to 67

    ( I love that you said The OHIO Bobcats will beat Michigan…)

    Like

  24. Final 4:
    Kentucky/Michigan State and Ohio State/North Carolina

    Championship Game: Michigan State/North Carolina

    Champions: Michigan State 78 to 72

    Like

Comments are closed.