Bracket -and let's make it "friendly" with a wager

stebo · March 1, 2005

Ok, I know it is a couple weeks off - but I wanted to guage interest in an NCAA tourney bracket. I think we could do a $5.00 entry fee, if we get 50 people then we can have the winner get $250.00 bucks. I know that Coach usually puts together a free one each year but everyone has $5.00 to throw in. Or, if you want - we can do $5.00 each and the winner get $200.00 with the other $50.00 going to towards the Andrew Smith Memorial Fund. We could grow this each year so that maybe someday it would raise some serious money for the Andrew Smith Memorial Scholarship; but everything has to start small. I would be happy to set up a PayPal account for this so you can pay over the computer. People that pay by PayPal would need to include an extra $1.00 for processing fees. PayPal charges $.40 cents per transaction and then a percentage of amount. For instance, I just sold an old VHS tape on E-Bay and it sold for $4.99 - the guy paid with PayPal (with a credit card) and the fee I was charged (as the recipient of the money) was $.78 cents. It would be a little less depending on the card, if it is paid with an electronic funds transfer, or with an E-Check - but basically it is about a buck. Any extra amount would go towards the Andrew Smith Memorial Fund... So if everyone pays by PayPal and the fee averages $.50 cents, that will be an extra $15.00 bucks we can throw on top of the $50.00 donation.

We could use a Yahoo bracket to take care of all the bracket information and I will just set up a PayPal account to make it easy on everyone. If you don't like to mess with PayPal then you can send me a check in the mail. When the winner is decided I will cut a check to the winner and a check to the Drew Smith Memorial Fund. For those of you worried about this being illegal, bets in Texas $5.00 or less are completely legal. Awhile back the state passed a law called the Fuzzy Animal Law or something like that, basically it made it legal for the folks and Chuck E Cheese and Dave&Busters to give out prizes for game of skill - the law just says it has to be a game of skill, not of chance (like a slot machine) - and picking in an NCAA pool would be considered a game of skill because you would need to have knowledge of the teams involved, etc..

Anyways, do we have 50 people that want to play? I am in - that is one. Respond to this post if you want to play as well. I think we need at least 25 to make it fun. Also, Aaron - will you set up the bracket with Yahoo like you have done in the past? Finally - does everyone have a PayPal account? In order to get the money squared away we need to go ahead and get this cranked up now because once that first round is completed, people will be less likely to send in their money, lol...

So who is in and who can set up the bracket? Is everyone in favor of donating 1/5 of the pool to the Andrew Smith Memorial Fund (in other words, if there are 50 people playing, the pool would be $250.00 - so we would donate 1/5 of that - or $50.00 to the Andrew Smith Fund)... If there are more people then the more the merrier, if there are less, I would say that we need a minimum of 25 people to make it exciting and interesting, everyone wants the chance to win $100 - $200 bucks for playing in a NCAA pool at a $5.00 entry fee. Should really add some spice to it. Anyone else interested?

Cerebus · March 1, 2005

Or, if you want - we can do $5.00 each and the winner get $200.00 with the other $50.00 going to towards the Andrew Smith Memorial Fund.

Why dont we reverse that?

$50 win on $5 is good, and sending $200 to the scholarship fund is even better.

stebo · March 1, 2005

Well, how about we cut it in half then - if we get 50 people - that will bring in $250.00 bucks - if everyone wants to bump up the donation then we can have half of it go to the fund under the name of the winner and half of it go to the winner. If the winner wants to donate more then he/she can but everyone enters brackets at this time of year so I thought we could do something to get all the GMG posters involved - give some additional money to the Smith fund (we will already be giving about $150.00 bucks or so from the flag football game) - and still have a pretty good prize for the winner. Maybe we can get the athletic department to donate 2 season tickets for the winner and the winner of the pool can donate the entire amount for the season tickets? Just thinking out loud. I would think that some students would rather have the cash as the already pay for season tickets every year with their student service fees. I agree that the larger the donation, the better - but there has to be an adequate prize for the bracket winner or else they will just play in an office bracket instead.

MootPoint · March 1, 2005

Well, how about we cut it in half then - if we get 50 people - that will bring in $250.00 bucks - if everyone wants to bump up the donation then we can have half of it go to the fund under the name of the winner and half of it go to the winner. If the winner wants to donate more then he/she can but everyone enters brackets at this time of year so I thought we could do something to get all the GMG posters involved - give some additional money to the Smith fund (we will already be giving about $150.00 bucks or so from the flag football game) - and still have a pretty good prize for the winner. Maybe we can get the athletic department to donate 2 season tickets for the winner and the winner of the pool can donate the entire amount for the season tickets? Just thinking out loud. I would think that some students would rather have the cash as the already pay for season tickets every year with their student service fees. I agree that the larger the donation, the better - but there has to be an adequate prize for the bracket winner or else they will just play in an office bracket instead.

I recall a certain coach losing his job for being part of an NCAA March Madness pool. I would suspect the athletic department would want to have no affiliation whatsoever with any type of pool put together by the board.

Cerebus · March 1, 2005

I recall a certain coach losing his job for being part of an NCAA March Madness pool. I would suspect the athletic department would want to have no affiliation whatsoever with any type of pool put together by the board.

Good point.

gksmith · March 1, 2005

I'm in. So this is pick the entire tournament and you get points for how many you get right.

stebo · March 1, 2005

Schools have raffles and games like this all the time. Neiheisal got in trouble because his was a $10K entry fee pool. In Texas, it is completely legal to have an NCAA bracket pool as long as 3rd part source makes a profit from it. And on top of that we have put the bet at $5.00 which protects us under the fuzzy animal law. So while I think asking for the season tickets as a prize would be a major stretch - donating some of the prize would just be voluntary from the winner. But we will just all agree that when the winner is announced, I will send one check under the winner's name to the Andrew Smith Memorial Fund and one to the winner's address. There are no laws being broken or rules being violated with a $5.00 bracket pool.

So that makes TWO:

Stebo

GkSmith

I will add to this as people sign up. When you put you name down, please indicate if you are going to PayPal the money or if you are going to send it in the mail. Thanks.

Edited March 1, 2005 by stebo

eulesseagle · March 2, 2005

I didn't know Texas was a paramutual betting state???

You guys make sure you leave your names--- addresses for the cops to show up....lol

stebo · March 2, 2005

Well, as long as nobody makes a profit from it (a bookee) then it is not a bet, it is a pool. Bracket pools are completely legal. Surely there are more than 2 of us that want to test our "picking" skills against other Mean Green fans for the NCAA tourney, heck - we might be in the damn thing!