Our 2024 Conference Tournament Champion: Balls Boy (Pool Closing & Payouts)

What a great B1G game to cap off conference tournament season as (2) Illinois beat (5) Wisconsin, and a great battle between (Basket) Balls Boy and Sully. Congratulations to (Basket) Balls Boy for winning the 2024 conference tournament pool, without needing to use any tiebreakers! His final tally was 19 points and a 43.8% accuracy. These conference tournaments were more unpredictable than any other year, not one person was over a 44% accuracy. 🏆

Below are the final 2024 conference tournament championship standings:

1. Balls Boy (19 points)
2. Sully (18 points)
3. Sohler (15 Points with 13 wins)
4. Napervillains (15 points with 11 wins)

Now for the fun part, the payouts. The screenshot below shows how much money everyone is owed, and you can open the final standings via that link (or use the attached spreadsheets if you're reading the e-mail) to see the detailed breakdown. All winners, please reach out to me and confirm how you would like to be paid out. I'm happy to see so many people with some sort of payout coming to them. Hoping everyone had fun and can't wait to do it again next season! 💰

If you are interested in a bracket pool, you can join via this link, and the details are below. For those that have money coming, I can hold $20 if you'd like for the bracket pool.

Happy St Patr...Selection Sunday!

Selection Sunday is here, and we have a battle for 1st place in our pool. 24 hours ago it was Sohler, TJH, and Matthew fighting for 1st place, but I called out a few dark horses sitting in the middle of the standings. Fast forward to Sunday morning, and those three guys are out of the 1st place battle, and it is now between Balls Boy and Sully. Both of these guys made an improbably run to the top of the standings yesterday. Balls Boy is currently in the lead by 1 point, but Sully has enough points remaining to get to 20, while Balls Boy can only get to 19 points. 

For this 1st battle only 3 conference tournament championships being played today matter: Ivy League, SEC, and the B1G. The winner may be decided in the final conference tournament championship game. 😬

Her are the updated standings as we prepare for a Selection Sunday battle!

Ivy League Championship Game (11:00 AM CST)

(2) Yale will take on (4) Brown in our first meaningful conference tournament championship game of the day. We have 6 people on Yale, including Balls Boy, but Sully is already out of this conference. If Yale wins, Balls Boy will go out to a 2-point lead, making it harder for Sully to catch him. Yale is favored by 8-points, it's hard seeing Yale lose in this scenario.

SEC Championship Game (12:00 PM CST)

In a battle of lower seed teams, (4) Auburn plays (6) Florida in our second meaningful conference tournament championship game today. We do have 5 people on Auburn, including Sully. Assuming Yale wins, and Auburn wins, Sully and Balls Boy would be tied for 1st place at 18 points heading into the final meaningful game of the day. If Auburn loses, Sully is not out of the running for 1st place, it all may really come down to the B1G game. Auburn is favored by 5.5-points, and they have been playing really well, I don't see Auburn losing.

B1G Championship Game (2:30 PM CST)

Our entire pool likely all comes down to (2) Illinois vs. (5) Wisconsin in this final conference tournament championship game. Balls Boy is on the Illini, while Sully is rolling with Bucky. We have a few different scenarios where Balls Boy could win outright, Sully could win outright, both can be tied with Sully winning the wins and accuracy tiebreaker, or it could come down to the SEC game score tiebreaker. What a fantastic way to finish this pool.

          

The 3rd and 4th place battle is between 6 other people, with Whit having an outside shot of taking 2nd place from Sully, if every game goes perfect for him, and also wins the tiebreakers. This will likely be the last blog entry before the winners and payouts are announced. As always, I will post the winners and payouts blog entry late Sunday night, or even Monday, to allow me time to go through and error check everything. Happy St. Patrick's Day & Selection Sunday!

          

Upset City: Iowa State, NC State, Saint Peter's, Oregon, and Long Beach State All Win

We're still waiting for the WAC championship game to finish, but what a day of conference tournament championship games. We saw (2) Iowa State knock off one of the best teams in the country in (1) Houston, (5) Saint Peter's is back in the NCAA tournament after knocking off (2) Fairfield, and (10) NC State stunned (1) North Carolina. We also watched (4) Oregon beat (3) Colorado in the final PAC 12 conference tournament championship game ever, and (4) Long Beach State knocked off (2) UC Davis.

          

          

The standings are updated with every result except for the WAC championship, game and Balls Boy is alone in 1st place with 17 points, leading by 2 points. However, Sully is right on his tail, with opposite picks the rest of the way, so he can easily pass Balls Boy. We still have 12 people fighting for the top 4 spots, it should be an exciting finish! 😵

Howard is Dancing and Major Standings Movement

This blog entry will be quick, I wanted to get something out before the onslaught of championship games starting in a few hours throws things into chaos. Although the score looked competitive, (4) Howard easily beat (7) Delaware State to win the MEAC conference tournament championship, and sent the standings into shock. 

We also saw a few more big upsets in non-championship games. In the Big 10, (1) Purdue went down to (4) Wisconsin in overtime, and in the American Athletic, yet another top seed in (1) South Florida lost to (4) UAB. This pool has been around 14 years, 13 of those years Fuss picked Wisconsin, can you guess which year he didn't go with Bucky? 😑

                    

The standings are updated with the afternoon results, and Dan Sohler (AKA Sohler Flares 🔥), is alone in 1st place with 12 points, leading by two points. We have a 5-way tie for 2nd place at 10 points, and another 7 tied for 3rd place. It's not over for most people yet, looking at the standings I see so many unique pick combinations, which is great to ensure everyone keeps jockeying around the standings. Watch out for Balls Boy, 24 max points are possible for him, more than anyone else.

Vermont win the America East and Princeton Gets Waxed

In the America East conference championship game, (2) Umass Lowell gave it a good run against (1) Vermont, even having a half time lead, but the 1-seed ended up being too good down the stretch. Umass Lowell could not make free throws during the last minute of the game, missing 4 in a row, and Vermont took advantage of that opportunity. In our pool standings, this dropped Tina 8 spots, and we still have a 3-way tie for first between Sohler, TJH, and Matthew. We also have 26 people within 4 points, which is only 2 wins by a bonus team, so things are still really competitive. 🐱

Over in the Ivy League we had a shocker as (1) Princeton was absolutely waxed by (4) Brown, handing out a loss to 63% of the pool. The final score looked closer than this game actually was. This now gives Fuss the upper hand in this conference as he is sitting on the 2-seed, Yale. The standings are updated with both of these results, look at your own risk. 😱

Selection Sunday Eve: 13 Conference Tournament Championship Games Today

By this time tomorrow we'll know which 3-5 people, maybe a few more, will have an actual shot at winning the pool. But first, Saturday brings us 13 conference tournament championship games, almost the same number we have had over the last 11 days. The current standings are updated through all of Friday's games, even the ones that finished at 1:00 AM CST, and below I'll preview a few of the key conference tournament championships that matter the most to our pool. 

Going into Saturday, we have a 3-way tie for 1st place between Sohler, TJH, and Matthew, but 12 people are within 2 points of them. That's only a 3 or lower seed winner needed to catch them, or less for those sitting there with 8 points. Further down in the standings we have a few dark horses that could skyrocket to the top of the standings, Balls Boy with 24 max points, Sully with 23 max points, and me with 23 max points. Those 3, plus a few more, have a ton of teams/points remaining compared to the rest of the field.

America East Conference Championship (10:00 AM CST)

I was not planning on previewing this conference as a "key" championship for our pool, but because it tips off so early in the morning, and it having a minor impact to our pool, we're starting here. (1) Vermont plays (2) UMass Lowell and although 83% of our pool picks are on Vermont, Tina is on UMass Lowell. A UMass Lowell win would cause a 4-way tie for 1st place first thing Saturday morning. Vermont is only a 7.5-point favorite, so this could be a good game, and UMass Lowell has a real chance to win.

MEAC Championship Game (12:00 PM CST)

This conference was an absolute nightmare to pick, the only team left in our pool is Howard, and we have 6 people on Howard. (5) Howard will play (6) Delaware State, with a Howard win resulting in bonus points, and a log jam for the Lowest Winning Seed pot, while a Delaware State win gives nobody points. Howard is a 3.5-point favorite.

Mountain West Conference Championship Game (5:00 PM CST)

In a battle of bonus points (5) San Diego State takes on (6) New Mexico, with San Diego State accounting for 60% of our pool picks. If San Diego State wins, we are going to have a 20 way tie for a $150 Lowest Winning Seed bonus pot. With a New Mexico win, TJH catapults into 1st place alone, avoids the 20-way bonus pot tie, and becomes really hard to catch. New Mexico is only a 2-point dog, this is expected to be a close battle. All the Pitino's have been dominating this week. 

MAAC Championship Game (6:30 PM CST)

I didn't think I would be previewing a battle between (2) Fairfield and (5) Saint Peter's, but here we are. 5-seeds are dominating champ week by either already winning a conference tournament, or playing in a final today, this could be the most 5-seeds we've ever seen win/compete. With a Fairfield win, TJH increases his lead, and I suspect becomes very hard to catch. If Saint Peter's pulls out the win, Whit jumps to the very top of the standings either tied for 1st, or right on the heels of TJH, Sohler, and Matthew. The spreads on these games are so tight, they don't even matter, Fairfield is only a 2.5-point favorite.

MAC Championship Game (6:30 PM CST)

The only reason to preview this matchup of (2) Akron vs. (8) Kent State is we have 6 of the current top 10 in the pool eliminated from this conference. With a win by 4.5-point favorite Akron, this could help level the playing field in the pool. Nobody picked 8-seeded Kent State. By the time this championship game is over we could have 7-10 people tied for 1st place, and I would love that! 💖

Conference USA Championship Game (7:30 PM CST)

3.5-point favorite (3) Western Kentucky takes on yet another 5-seed in (5) UTEP for this important pool battle. The only person in the top 10 on Western Kentucky is Novakiii. A few others, a bit lower down in the standings, are also on Western Kentucky. If the Hilltoppers win, along with some of these other lower seeded teams, I may need to revise my last prediction, and we'll have 12-15 people tied for 1st place.

That is just a sample of what we have going on today, I could have previewed all 13 conferences, that is how important each final is today. I will attempt to post a few short blog entries throughout the day Saturday in an effort to keep everyone updated, but if I fail at that I will at least post multiple updates to the standings, so keep that link bookmarked. Worst case scenario, I'll post a blog entry Sunday morning with a preview of the Selection Sunday/St. Patrick's Day games. 🏀🍀

5-Seed Montana State Shocks Montana in the Big Sky Championship

In a wild game of runs Wednesday night, (5) Montana State wrecked (3) Montana in the Big Sky conference championship game that finished well after midnight central time. BI was our only person on Montana State, giving him a nice win, a bonus point, and is now tied with Matthew for the Lowest Winning Seed bonus pot. The tops of the standings remain the same with TJH, Sohler, and Matthew all tied for first place with 9 points. These are some of the righter standings we have had for a while in this pool, almost every single person has a path to victory.

Unless I get really bored, this will be last blog entry until Saturday morning as we don't have any conference tournament championship games over the next 48 hours. The standings will not change too much, but I will continue to post regular updates to the standings because Max Points, Accuracy, and Projected Totals are going to plummet over the next few days as good teams get eliminated. By Saturday morning, we'll have a good idea on where everyone in the pool stands, and who still has a path to victory.

The only conference that has not yet started is the Ivy League. Those nerds are efficient with having a 4-team tournament that starts Saturday afternoon and is complete by Sunday morning. With that, 44% of the conference tournaments are complete, which means plenty of wins and points are still out there. It will be a bloodbath over the next few days with only losses, but it should be some great basketball to watch. 🏀

I'll end this blog entry with the teams that have punched tickets over the last week, and we're only a few days away from one of the greatest days of the year, Selection Sunday! 😍

McNeese State and Colgate Advance as Expected

As expected, (1) McNeese State easily beat (3) Nicholls State in a laugher of a Southland Conference championship game. Will Wade is back! This win really hurt Fuss as he dropped from being tied for 1st place, all the way down to 7th place. 83% of the pool was rewarded with a pool win. Similarly, in the Patriot League, (1) Colgate womped (6) Lehigh, giving 93% of the pool a win. Not shocking, but an uneventful evening of conference tournament championship games thus far.

         

The current standings can be found here, and we have a fantastic race at the top of the standings. We are now down to 3 players tied for 1st place: Sohler, TJH, and Matthew. They are still in the driver's seat, but a whole bunch of people are right behind them.

We have one last conference championship tonight and you're going to want to stay up for this one in the Big Sky. (3) Montana will play (5) Montana State in what is a bitter rivalry, but this also impacts our pool in several ways. If Montana wins this game, Novakiii jumps into 1st place all alone, but only by 1 point. However, with a Montana win, Team TNT, Napervillains, and myself will catapult to the top 10 of the standings, and the race is now on! If Montana State wins, and assuming McNeese takes care of business, we'll still have a 3-way tie for 1st place. A Montana State win is still meaningful for our pool, BI is on them, and a win would put him in a tie for the Lowest Winning Seed payout. This game will end well after midnight central time, but it will be worth staying up for.

Big Sky, Patriot League, and Southland Conference Tournmanet Championships Today

We will have 3 more conference tournament championships today, before a break in the championship game action until they again resume on Saturday, which will be a day packed full of championship games. The Big Sky, Patriot League, and Southland Conference finals all take place tonight with big time impacts to our pool. Here are the current standings which include a few minor updates from the late games on Tuesday. Sohler, Fuss, TJH, and Matthew are still in a 4-way tie for 1st place. In tip off order, let's review the 3 championship games tonight...

Southland Conference Championship Game (4:00 PM CST)

This can't be real, a conference tournament championship game at 4:00 PM CST? Assuming I am looking at the correct game, and in the right time zone, the championship games are staggered nicely tonight, starting with an early matchup between (1) McNeese State and (3) Nicholls State. Looking at our 4-way 1st place tie, only Fuss selected Nicholls State, while the others are all riding with McNeese State. If Nicholls State wins this game, Fuss takes a commanding 2 point lead, but if it doesn't go his way, we're back to a 3-way tie for 1st place. McNeese State is a 16.5-point favorite (LMAO), and although miracles happen, I may just update the spreadsheet with a McNeese State win right now.

Patriot League Conference Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)

We can keep this summary short, because this game literally means nothing for our pool when (1) Colgate takes on (6) Lehigh. A staggering 93% of our pool picks are on Colgate, and the 7% not on Colgate are towards the bottom of the standings. We're all getting a win together, or we're all losing together, this won't move the needle on our standings. If you're curious, Colgate is a 6.5-point favorite, smaller than I expected, so this could possibly be a good game.

Big Sky Conference Championship Game (10:30 PM CST)

Yup, that time is accurate, this final tips off at 10:30 PM CST and you're going to want to stay up for this one. (3) Montana will play (5) Montana State in what is a bitter rivalry, but this also impacts our pool in several ways. If Montana wins this game, Novakiii jumps into 1st place all alone, but only by 1 point. However, with a Montana win, Team TNT, Napervillains, and myself will catapult to the top 10 of the standings, and the race is now on! If Montana State wins, and assuming McNeese takes care of business, we'll still have a 3-way tie for 1st place. A Montana State win is still meaningful for our pool, BI is on them, and a win would put him in a tie for the Lowest Winning Seed payout. This game will end well after midnight central time, but it will be worth staying up for.

These are not the only meaningful games going on today, we have 40+ conference tournament games being played. Most of these games are in the 1st round, and won't impact our pool, but for conferences in the 2nd round or further, the losses will rack up today. 30 out of 32 conferences are now in progress or have been completed, and we're only 5 days away from Selection Sunday. If you have not yet started to make your move in the standings, it's getting very late, and soon the sheet will be updated with those that have been mathematically eliminated. But we're not at that point yet, so enjoy the games today! 🏀

Six Seed Wagner is Going Dancing

The first of our 5 games to finish was the Northeast Conference championship where (6) Wagner knocked off (2) Merrimack. Can a team be seeded worse than a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament? If yes, Wagner would be it. This game resulted in nobody getting a win in our pool, giving new life to Fuss, TJH, and Rory & Webb. #toughness

The Horizon League wrapped up next with favorite (1) Oakland narrowly escaping with a win against (6) Milwaukee. This was a fantastic game for 38 minutes, but Oakland stepped on the gas at the end and won easily. Fuss, Iannuzzi, Doug One, and Doug Two get the win in a conference where only four people took the 1 seed for some reason. 😮 

In the Coastal Athletic conference championship game (1) Charleston went into overtime and beat (7) Stony Brook to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament. This game was the best game of the night, and I found myself rooting for Stony Brook, but they couldn't pull it off in the end. 😰

The West Coast conference championship wasn't that great of a game as (1) St. Mary's controlled everything against (2) Gonzaga and won easily. This was a pivital conference for our pool and impacted the standings. I'll recap the standings at the bottom of this blog entry. 💤

Wrapping up the night, the Summit League championship was one of the worst that I have ever watched. (1) South Dakota State pummeled (7) Denver in a joke of a game. Although, for those on South Dakota State, this was a nice relaxing game to watch, it's all about perspective. This was bad for Matthew. 😬 

The current standings can be found here, and we have a fantastic race at the top of the standings. We now have 4 players tied for 1st place: Sohler, Fuss, TJH, and Matthew. They are in the driver's seat, but a whole bunch of people are right behind them. Nobody is out of this yet, even if you're Running Hoarses in last place, we still have 21 more conference tournaments to go! We'll have 3 more conference championships on Wednesday, then we have a break for a few days. More to come in a later blog entry.

5 Conference Champions Today: Coastal, Horizon, Northeast, Summit, and West Coast

Today we will have 5 conference tournament championship games, with a total of 14 conference tournaments in progress. For this blog entry I am only going to preview the conference championship games, but we should expect many losses from other conferences in play. I'll attempt to preview each conference tournament championship game in tip off order. As expected, many of them are at the same time, so frustrating. Before we dive in, the current standings can be found here, we only had a few insignificant updates from the late games on Monday.

Horizon League Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)

(1) Oakland will play (6) Milwaukee for the championship tonight, and it has an interesting impact on our pool as not many people are left alive in this one. With an Oakland win, Fuss will move up to 6 points, and tied for 1st place, but a win by Milwaukee, and Running Hoarses takes the top spot for the Lowest Winning Seed bonus. Oakland is favored by 5-points, but Milwaukee has been hot, making this an interesting matchup.

Coastal Athletic Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)

This is a good opportunity for Matthew to take back 1st place assuming Oakland wins in the Horizon League, as (1) Charleston takes on (7) Stony Brook. As you may have guessed, nobody is on Stony Brook, but 45% of the picks are on Charleston. What makes this interesting is that only 5 people in the top 10 are on Charleston, making this a great opportunity for Matthew, and Sohler, to create more separation from the pack. Charleston is a 10-point favorite, I don't expect Stony Brook to put up a fight tonight. 

Northeast Conference Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)

Our final early game gives us another low seed in the championship game with (2) Merrimack vs. (6) Wagner, and yeah, nobody picked Wagner. In fact, 43% of our pool picks are riding with Merrimack, including 7 of the top 10 people. A Merrimack win pushes Matthew and Sohler even further from the pack, so if we want to keep the standings tight, we're going to need Wagner to pull this one out. However, that seems highly doubtful as they are 7.5-point under dogs.

West Coast Conference Championship Game (8:00 PM CST)

(1) Saint Mary's vs. (2) Gonzaga. This is the conference championship game we have been waiting for all year, and I love that our pool is split 50/50 on this one, except for BI, he went with Santa Clara. Obviously, it depends on how the early games finish, but this championship has the ability to create some separation in the pool standings with us being so evenly split, even in the top 10. I was shocked when I saw Gonzaga as a 4-point favorite, I expect this to be a tough, hard fought, back and forth game. I can't wait for this one!

Summit League Championship Game (8:30 PM CST)

I predict this is the championship game where Matthew either gets caught, or passed, and how fitting it is that it's the last game of the night. Huge Favorite (1) South Dakota State plays yet another surprise low seeded team in (7) Denver in the Summit League championship game. Almost 43% of our pool picks are on South Dakote State, except Matthew, he has already been eliminated. Sohler, Fuss, and Whit all have a shot at jumping into a tie for 1st place or holding 1st place all alone. With South Dakota State as a 10-point favorite, I am afraid we're in for a boring game, but wild pool standings.

That wraps up this blog entry, enjoy the games, look for standings updates throughout the evening, and I'll attempt to post some sort of wrap up later tonight. 🏀

James Madison and Samford Punch Tickets

The Sun Belt conference tournament championship finished first with (2) James Madison stomping on inferior opponent (4) Arkansas State 91-71. 23 people were rewarded with a pool win, including 5 cellar dwellers finally getting on the board with a point. James Madison is a team that can make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. 🏀

In the Southern conference tournament championship game, a 1-seed finally won as (1) Samford beat (7) East Tennessee State in a game that was good at times, but mostly in control by Samford. Samford is not a team that can make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, maybe they can steal a game though. However, everyone in our pool now has a win! 🏆

Other notable, crippling pool teams to lose conference games today include 4-seed St. Thomas (Summit League), 4-seed Weber State (Big Sky), and I'm sure we'll have plenty more tonight.

The current standings can be found here, Matthew is hanging on to 1st place by a thread, with Sohler, Heffron, Fuss, and Whit right behind him. Although it is early on, we can see how much it helps to go out on a limb and pick lower seeded teams that can give you bonus points. Sohler is an interesting one to watch as his accuracy is 50%, he can sneak into first very quickly with that level of accuracy.

On Tuesday we will have FIVE conference championship games, which has the capability to turn these standings upside down. I'll start pulling together a blog entry to preview Tuesday's championship games, as well as to clean up all the late night losses we're going to see tonight.

Southern Conference and Sun Belt Conference Championship Games Preview

The regular season is officially over, and every basketball game is now a conference tournament battle. For this blog entry I am only going to preview the two conference championship games this evening. No new conferences tip off Monday, so you won't see any new teams in action today. 🏀

Sun Belt Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)

I will never understand why these conferences don't get together to discuss staggering the times for their conference championship games. Both conference championships are at the same time today. (2) James Madison with play (4) Arkansas State, with James Madison being our pool favorite with almost 66% of the picks. James Madison is also the analytics favorite, having a 44% chance to win this tournament before it even tipped off. This matchup does not mean much for our pool with so much action on James Madison, but a loss by the 2-seed would be helpful for people in the top 20 like Balls Boy, Ryan, Robb, and Pizzy who were on teams that already lost. James Madison is a 5.5-point favorite, I thought they would be favored by more, but I see them winning easily tonight. 🐶

Southern Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)

This is the championship game to focus on tonight as 6 of the top 10 players in our pool are already out. It's a great opportunity for the standings to tighten up, and for a few people to catch Matthew. (1) Samford will play (7) Eastern Tennessee State in what looks to be a lopsided matchup. Samford is a 10-point favorite telling me the oddsmakers don't even think this will be a game. If that holds true, 4 people are going to be within 1 point of Matthew. Samford is our popular pool pick, and the analytics pick, everything is working against Eastern Tennessee State. However, if Eastern Tennessee State pulls off a miraculous upset, nobody in the pool gets a win, and one more conference tournament is marked complete for Matthew. 🐶

We will still have plenty of other meaningful action tonight as we have 4 conferences in the semifinals, and numerous other conferences in the quarterfinals. By action, I mean we will see plenty of losses and red on the standings. Although games don't tip off until 5:00 PM CST today, it will be a late night. In the West Coast Conference (2) Gonzaga vs. (3) San Francisco doesn't even tip off until 10:30 PM CST. 

The current standings include a few late night Sunday upsets with both (3) North Dakota and (2) Northern Colorado going down, resulting in 4 pool losses. As always, I'll update and post standings tonight when I have meaningful updates, and be on the lookout for at least one blog entry. 

MAR10 Day Update: Longwood, Stetson, and Drake Punch Tickets

With 4 conference championships in the books on this MAR10 day, our pool standings are starting to take shape. In the Big South (5) Longwood throttled (2) UNC Asheville, giving Matthew our lone pool win, and a bonus point. While over in the Missouri Valley, (2) Drake beat (1) Indiana State, and at the same time, (2) Stetson took care of (4) Austin Peay in the Atlantic Sun. Both late afternoon championships were filled with exciting comebacks and close games towards the end. I just hope we don't get deprived of Indiana States Robbie Avila, also known as Cream Abdul Jabbar, Larry Nerd, Larry Blurred, Steph Blurry, and Milk Chamberlain, for March Madness.

Other notable pool teams to lose today include 4-seed UNC Wilmington (Coastal Athletic), 5-seed Furman (Southern), 2-seed Boston (Patriot League), 5-seed North Dakota State (Summit League), 1-seed Appalachian State (Sun Belt), 3-seed Chattanooga (Sun Belt), and 1-seed Eastern Washington (Big Sky). 

The current standings can be found here, Matthew is hanging on to a 2-point cushion with his multiple bonus point wins. However, he has 8 people not that far back, waiting for him to cool off. All conference seeding is now finalized, we shouldn't see any more surprises with bonus points appearing/disappearing.

On Monday, everyone, mostly everyone, will have two more opportunities for points with the Southern and Sun Belt conference championships. This will be the last email for a few days, or maybe all week, everything will be updated via the blog and standings links.

Blog Link

https://2024conferencetournamentchallenge.blogspot.com/

 

Standings Link

2024 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament Pool

3 Conference Championships Today: Atlantic Sun, Big South, and Missouri Valley

We have a packed morning, and afternoon, of conference championship games today. I really wish they would spread these out throughout the day, but it is what it is. I'll run through the Atlantic Sun, Big South, and Missouri Valley conference championship matchups, in tip off order. The current standings can be found here, they have been updated with Denver's upset of Kansas City in the Summit League, and seeding changes for teams that wrapped up the regular season on Saturday. 💹

Big South Championship Game (11:00 AM CST)

Our first conference championship game of the day features (2) UNC Asheville vs. (5) Longwood. Only 5 people are on the 2-seed UNC Asheville, but the story here is that Matthew, who is already in 1st place, is the only person on bonus point team Longwood. If Matthew wins this one, he will take a commanding lead, and we'll all be spending our time chasing him. A UNC Asheville win keeps those standings tight, so that is what 29 of us are rooting for. UNC Asheville is only a 2-point favorite, this tells me we're going to see a competitive game.

Missouri Valley Championship Game (1:00 PM CST)

The second conference championship final to tip off today is an all chalk matchup pitting (1) Indiana State vs. (2) Drake. 27 people are still in this one, and it's fairly evenly split between Indiana State and Drake (14 on Drake/13 on Indiana State). We don't have any bonus points up for grabs in this conference, but a win is still important as we'll start to see the top performers separate themselves from the pack. Indiana State is a 2.5-point favorite, so here is hoping to a fun, close championship game to cap off Arch Madness.

Atlantic Sun Championhsip Game (1:00 PM CST)

Finally, or at least at the same time as Arch Madness is happening, we have a 1 on 1 matchup in our pool when (2) Stetson takes on (4) Austin Peay. Sully (Stetson) goes head to head with Team TNT (Austin Peay) as the only pool participants with a team at stake here. For the greater good of the pool, and keeping the standing tight, we're rooting for the team that doesn't hand out a bonus, Stetson. However, if Austin Peay pulls this off, Team TNT catapults to the top of the standings. Stetston on a 3.5-point favorite, so similar to other games today, I expect a close battle in the final game.

That is only the morning and afternoon action, we have a full day of conference tournament games across 14 different conferences. The standings will be updated numerous times throughout today, and I'll plan on posting a late night blog entry to wrap up the weekend. Good luck to everyone today, let's hope the games break in a way that keeps those standings tight.