CERRITOS, CA (smt)- For the second straight year, we will have six money spots as we have a record $1,340 to divvy out.  Plus the Bonus.  What's the Bonus?  Read on...

The top prize will be a record-breaking $540 which almost exactly 1/1,000,000th of the Solyndra loan debacle. The prize distribution is listed below and as always, all fee money goes into prizes.

As it has been the past eight years, the Conference Wins is the Bonus Prize (as detailed below) (aka, Bonus1). However, if no one wins it, the Bonus2 takes effect and the entry who is closest to the Total Points in Final tiebreaker gets the Bonus Prize. This is the ninth year we have used this Bonus to give hope to those who get eliminated early as only those who do not finish in the top 6 will be eligible to win. Rules follow below...

Bonus1 - Winningest Conference

When you completed your online entry and saw your picks (to print out), some of you might have been wondering what the heck "Winningest Conference(s): ?? | Wins: #" meant. And thus, subliminally, you were also picking which conference would get the most wins in the tournament and how many wins that conference would get via your direct picks. Neat, eh? So that output, which in my case (Legally Fabone), says "Winningest Conference(s): Big 10 | Wins: 12", means that by the way I picked my bracket (and don't laugh... or do), the Big 10 conference will get the most wins with 12.

The rules of how to win this Bonus Prize is as follows:

1. First Four wins do not count
2. The top 6 finishers not eligible (so no double-dipping)
3. Ties broken by championship final score total
4. If there is *still* a tie, money is split
5. If 2 (or more) conferences tie for the most wins, both (or all) conferences must have been picked correctly
6. If entry has 2 or more conferences tied for most wins, only one must be correct to win (e.g. entry picks Pac 10 and Big 12 with 11 wins a piece and the Big 12 ends up winning the most games with 11, then contestant wins)

And, the Bonus Prize is worth $40, which is four years worth of losing brackets. Last year, the Big East was the winningest conference with 13 wins. But if no one correctly picks the winningest conference and wins, then the Bonus2 takes effect.

Bonus2 - Total Points in Final

If no one wins the Bonus1, then a second Bonus opportunity takes effect. The entry closest to the "Total points in final" tiebreaker wins the $40. In order to reward better play, the tiebreaker is the higher placement in the final pool standings.

The rules of how to win this Bonus Prize is as follows:

1. The top 6 finishers not eligible (so no double-dipping)
2. "Closest" can be above or below actual total (if actual is 144, 143 & 145 are both 1 point away)
3. Ties broken by highest placement (i.e., point total) in final pool standings
4. If there is *still* a tie, money is split

Prize Breakdown

We are officially at 134 entries ($1,340). So, here is the official prize breakdown:

1st Place = $540.00
2nd Place = $280.00
3rd Place = $190.00
4th Place = $135.00
5th Place = $ 90.00
6th Place = $ 65.00
Bonus Prize =$ 40.00

Bonus1 Prize Analysis

What this means is that of the 33 entries that were eliminated from the top 6 prizes, 11 entries are back into play! So 86 of 134 entries still have a chance for Bonus1 (which is not as bad as 2010 where only 9 of 117 were alive for Bonus1).

If you don't have your bracket, then go to the "For the Record" page and pick your nickname from the drop down box. Because of the First Four, what you see might change (since the Big East's South Florida won the First Four game you'd have to add your predicted South Florida wins to your total) so go to the Bonus page for your official picks. Remember that the First Four wins do not count in the Winningest Conference calculation (that is why the Big East only shows 10 wins below where it really has 11 due to South Florida's First Four win). Right now, of the 7 conferences represented in the Sweet 16, only 3 conferences have a chance to get or share the most number of wins:

           Teams  Curr  Max Poss
Conf.      Left   Wins  Wins
-------    -----  ----  --------
BigEast      4    10^    19
Big10        4     9     19
Big12        2     6     13
x-SEC        2     5     11
x-ACC        2     5     10
x-Atl10      1     3      7
x-MAC        1     2      6
    x-Eliminated  ^-South Florida win in First Four does not count

Conf.   Teams Left (2nd Rnd W-L, 3rd Rnd W-L)
-----   ----------
BigEast CINCY, LOUISVILLE, MARQUETTE, SYRACUSE (6-3, 4-2)
Big10   MICHIGAN ST, INDIANA, OHIO ST, WISCONSIN (5-1, 4-1)
Big12   BAYLOR, KANSAS (4-2, 2-2)

Please join our Facebook HWCI NCAA Pool Group or post comments on our blog.  Here you can join the group and meet your competitors, make new friends, set up NCAA watching gatherings, and post stuff to the wall (pictures, witty comments, etc.). 

   Tids 'n' Bits- In manually entering entries thanks to Apple's incompatibility with Java, there was a missing entry, TheBuckeye23, which I finally added and is our 134th entry... We are thinking that we may add a 7th money spot if the number of entries reaches 140 or 150... we would like new Bonus type opportunities, so let us know your ideas (something that would last into the Final Four so something like best upset pick in 1st round wouldn't work)... someone should win Bonus1 unless there is a tie between conferences or the Big East gets to 18 or 19 wins or Big 10 actually gets to 19 wins... all six prize spots saw an increase from last year... we probably wouldn't top $600 just for IRS reasons, but we won't hit that until we get about 150 but if we add a 7th place prize, we could extend that longer...