2012 Charitable NCAA Pool & "Nearly" Idiot Proof Instructions

First, I'd like to dispel the rumors that I had a coronary during my beloved St. Bonventure Bonnies' victory over Xavier that miraculously put them in the Tourney. I blacked out 5 times, but at no point did my heart stop - or so I was told by my seemingly disappointed wife.

Anyway, if you are up for this year's NCAA Tourney charitable pool, please read the below rules. They are followed by "nearly" idiot proof instructions for how to enter your picks on our Yahoo site. (I've given up on simply calling them idiot proof instructions.)


1.Send Money To Gary Manis at 20 Oak Street, Natick MA 01760 – Just like last year, Gary Manis has again agreed to take full responsibility for collecting all the money. Why on earth would he do so? Not sure. My guess is that the birth of his daughter on February 27th has opened up a lot of free time. You know, the time that he used to spend sleeping.

So, if you want to make a $25 contribution/donation to this “charitable” pool, you need to make your checks out to Gary Manis and send your $ to him at 20 Oak Street, Natick MA 01760. In other words, you are not to send your dough to me.

2. Yahoo - As in the past, the pool will be run via Yahoo and in the classic "fill out the bracket" format with points doubling each round. (No points for the 4 preliminary round games.) The whole pool will be on one Yahoo site that can only hold 250 entries. You, therefore, might want to join soon to assure yourself a spot.

Also IMPORTANT to note is that every year the Yahoo Tourney site temporarily crashes - usually the day after Selection Sunday and the hour before the first round starts on Thursday. Avoid this aggravation by joining soon.

3. $ prizes - 1st place: 60% of pot, 2nd place: 20% of pot, 3rd place 10% of pot, 4th place - 5% of pot, Jimmy V Foundation - 5% of pot.

4. Cost - $25. Well, unless you don't care to receive any winnings. See, the pot for the pool, like last year, will come from all of the contributions/donations for this site that Gary Manis receives. That's right, every penny I get I'm putting toward the pot. I'm not keeping a cent. You can also join the pool for free.

However, if you don't donate $25 and you finish in 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th place, your share of the winnings will be sent directly to the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. If you donate $25 or more and you finish in 1st, 2nd or 3rd or 4th place, your share of the winnings will be sent directly to you and you can make whatever charitable donation you see fit.

Bottom Line - if you want the winnings sent to you, donate at least $25.

5. Deadline to donate - You need to have your check in an envelope postmarked on or before Thursday, March 15, 2012 if you want a shot at having a share of the winnings sent directly to you. Once again, your checks need to be made out to Gary Manis, (NOT ME) and sent to 20 Oak Street, Natick MA 01760. If you send a check with an envelope postmarked after March 15, 2012 it will go directly to the Jimmy V Foundation. If you want to confirm that Gary got your check you can email him at gary.manis@centro.net.

6.Enter With Your Actual Name - It's VERY IMPORTANT that when you create the name of your entry for our Yahoo site, you enter your actual name. Otherwise, Gary will delete you. It is a severe pain in the ass trying to keep track of who everyone is when people are not using their actual names. So, if your name is Keith Mangas create your "bracket name" to be Keith Mangas. Also, if I do not know you, you must email me at dbarend@comcast.net prior to joining to let me know who you are. If there is an entry in our pool whose name I do not recognize, Gary will delete it.

7. Multiple Entries - If you really want to submit multiple entries, then convince someone else you know to join and make the picks for that person. You might also want to try to convince that person to give you the $ if you win.

8.No Mercy For Mistakes – If for whatever reason your picks do not get entered as you hoped, you’re simply out of luck – much earlier than most. There will be no refunds for anyone who messes up his picks. This includes the sadly all too common error of failing to pick the winner of the final game. The best way to avoid this problem is to follow the below instructions and recheck your picks once you have finished.

9.Friends/Recruits - Feel free to get your friends, family members or whoever else you know to join the pool. But please make sure they realize that if they join they need to email me and let me know who they are or they will be deleted. Also, don't just forward other people the password and group id#. Make sure they get all of the rules.

10. How to Join our Yahoo group site - Though I have listed "nearly" idiot proof steps to join the Yahoo site, many of you should be able to figure it out at http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1 Go to join group. The group id # is 5729. The password is driftwood - (If you can figure out why "driftwood" i'll be impressed. Explanation is below.) Please remember that when you enter your "Bracket Name" to USE YOUR ACTUAL NAME. You also might want to remember to sign back in to the site after Sunday March 11 - so you can make your picks.

Nearly Idiot Proof instructions on joining the Yahoo Group

(1) Go to http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1. OR you can go to Yahoo, click on sport, click on fantasy, then click on Tourney Pick'em.

(2) Click on “Join a Group” (Not “create a group”)
(3) Click on “Join Group” (different screen from step 2)
(4) Enter your own personal Yahoo ID and Yahoo password on right side from your own personal Yahoo account. Note that these are NOT the same as the ones list below for entering our group. COMMON MISTAKE – is entering the info to join the site. Try not to make that mistake.
(5) If you do not have your own personal Yahoo account click on "Sign Up" under "Don't have a Yahoo! ID?" Otherwise, go to step (6).
(5b)Enter the requested personal info (name & your creation of an id and password, & code) on the page.
(5c) Write down your personal id and password then click on "agree" to the terms then click on “create my account”.
(5d) Click on “continue” to Yahoo Sports on right side of page.

(6) Enter our group id# 5729 and our password driftwood. (DO Not enter your personal Yahoo id and password.)
(6b) Click on “save and continue”. (Oh and why driftwood? That was the name of the fictional St. Bonaventure grad, with almost non-existent basketball skills and even less intelligence, in the movie The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh. Yes, I'm pretty sure I could have aced that role.)
(7) Enter your actual full name as your "bracket name". Please NO NICKNAMES!! Gary will delete entries that do not comply.
(8) Click on the box next to “Terms of Service”
(9) Determine whether you want to enter Yahoo's separate contest for $5mil - if so, enter the requested info and accept terms.
(10) Hit submit (lower left corner) – You are now in our group.

Now you need to make your picks - which, of course, you cannot do until about 6:30pm on Sunday March 11th.

(11) Click on your name in the standings. If you do not see your name, don't have a coronary. Click on "view complete standings". Ah - there it is. Now click on your name in the complete standings.
(12) You will now see an entire empty bracket. Just click on the team you want to win each game of each round in all 4 regions, the final four AND THE FINAL GAME. (Don't think that you have chosen a final winner just because you have entered a final score.) You should make 63 total picks. (Since we don't use the score of the final game as a tie breaker, filling that in really doesn't matter.)
(13) Click on SAVE BRACKET - this may be the most important thing you do all week.
(14) Look at the left side of the screen. You should see a note near a green bar stating 63 of 63 picks made. If not, you missed some picks.
(15) Log back in sometime later to make sure you Saved your Picks

Take it easy,
Dave