by chslaxcoach on Thu May 04, 2006 6:35 pm
First of all, thanks for doing this pool. I love getting my high school players involved in gambling at a young age.
Second, there doesn't need to be a prize. This is about braggin'.
You can also score the thing using para-mutual scoring. It works like this:
Let's say you have 20 people in the pool.
FSU plays BYU
5 people pick FSU
15 people pick BYU
If FSU wins, 5 people get 15 points.
If BYU wins, 15 people get 5 points.
Every correct winner you pick, you get one point for each person that had a wrong pick in that spot of the bracket. So in the later rounds, there can be more than one WRONG pick, but only one right one.
Basically, it says the more unpopular your pick, the more points you get. That seriously encourages picking true upsets. It also means that an "upset" is based on popular opinion of the prognosticators, not the pollsters.
I guess if you guys are writing the code yourself, you could use this system. I don't care how you score it, it's cool!