A: Absolutely, the more the merrier. In a useless attempt to try to maintain some level of sanity, I no longer try to advertise the pool and try to find who on my team might want to be involved. That is not because I don't want them to join - it is simply an attempt for me not to send lots of e-mails to people who don't want another reminder that a basketball tournament is happening. So, yes, I am depending on past participants in order to help me spread this wonderful contest to your friends that love college basketball.
A: Not necessarily. You are welcome to join for fun! The site will track your picks and let you know where you stand, but if you end up winning in the end, you will not be eligible to win any prizes - just bragging rights. So, yes, if your five-year old wants to prove he can pick better than his daddy, or if you want to show your co-worker who is a die-hard Purdue fan that an impartial person can pick better than just blindly picking the Boilermakers to win (oh wait - that is me!), you are welcome to join us for fun.
A: That is fine - simply register them under their name and enter your email and phone number for their contact information. I know that some people have simply used their second entry for their child's entry, which also is fine. But remember there are two drawbacks to this - one is that when the second chance pool becomes available, you will only be able to enter the second chance pool once. So you will need to share the second chance pick. The other drawback is if your child's picks are winning, all the credit will go to you in the blog (since you will be the person registered to the those picks). If you are nervous for privacy reasons or for simplicity of entering picks, you certainly can choose to enter together as one person under your login. But you can certainly enter your child separately so that they also get a chance to play in the second chance pool and to get all the accolades if they end up winning the pool.
A: Hopefully not! All you have to do is enter who you think will win all the games - the same way you would if you entered something like on ESPN's or CBS's web-site. My crazy scoring systems might change your strategies, but in the end, all you have to do is pick the winners. All you have to do is get your picks entered by Thursday, March 21st at Noon EST (since we do not pick the First 4 games on Tuesday and Wednesday).
A: From past years, the most common reason for this is that you have not registered for this year's tournament. My system does not remember logins from previous years, so each year, you need to register for the new tournament. Simply go to the register link and once you enter your information, it will take you to the main page that includes the bracket entry pages. If you are sure you have registered and simply can not remember the login information, send me an email and I can lookup your login information (just do not wait until the last minute to do this - I might not see emails on Thursday morning depending on my work schedule).
A: I do send out this information through email when inviting past participants back to play. I also will send out reminders to all the entries once the games have started through email. But I know that some of you who are new to the pool and might not have the initial email with this information. In general, if you have any questions about entry fees and prizes, please reach out to me through my email - thomas@tehodgson.com
A: No - you can pay me after the tournament starts (as the last question implied, some might not know the ways to pay until I send out the email to all the final entrants into the pool). I do request that entry fees are paid before the Sweet 16 games start so that you don't forget (and that the Lunatic Collection Agency does not need to start sending you sad emails asking that you pay).
A: While I try to do my best to keep the website up-to-date, a lot of these updates happen on the days when no games are being played. Especially on the first weekend of the tournament, when there are games to blog about, handicapping to write and tons of administrative tasks such as verifying the entries are loaded, updating the standings, creating email distribution lists of the final entrants, and finalizing the prize pool, I tend to be extremely sleep deprived. And so, when it comes to the critical task of tracking payments, I tend to do this at a time that I am not half asleep (which during the tournament doesn't happen often). If you are concerned that a mistake has happened, please send me an email at thomas@tehodgson.com and I can verify your payment status for you.
A: Because this is meant to be for fun. If you are looking for a pool to win a large amount of money, you are looking at the wrong place. My goal is to pay back as many people as I possibly can, and as the pool has gotten bigger (over 300 entries), I have responded by adding even more opportunities to win such as the second chance pool. Part of me just feels that if you can get the 5th best picks out of 300+ entries, you deserve to at least get something. And the other part of me says regardless, it is just more fun when more people can win!
A: I get lots of questions like this. The reality is that I just really love college basketball and this gives me a forum to have lots of fun and talk about this great event. Fortunately, a lot of the past work with the site takes some of the most time consuming efforts away (such as collecting and scoring everyone's picks) - so now, the majority of the work is doing the part I love - the commentary about the games. However, as I realize that I have two awesome children, I have come to the conclusion that I truly am insane and that I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful and understanding wife who lets me do this anyways. I am also very glad that they have March Madness On Demand for the computer, since while my family have gotten nicer about letting me watch the games on television, I am sure that Charlie, Katie and Elizabeth would prefer to watch the game shows we tape such as the Chase, the Wall, Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy, or their favorite shows such as 9-1-1, Ted Lasso, Stranger Things, Dateline or Big Bang Theory......
A: The first Lunatic contest happened in 1993 when I was a college student at Purdue - it was just a small number of my friends who also loved college basketball. At the time, I had desires to become a sports journalist and even worked at my school's newspaper, the Purdue Exponent. But I was not lucky enough to get the college basketball stories, so I would write fake articles in emails to my friends including my own top 25 poll. Back then, we called it the Beat the Lunatic contest - to see how many of my friends could outpredict me on my favorite sport. When I started my first job at Capital One, I continued running the pool. I had even won the pool in the early years (think the last time was 2000) when there was only 20-30 people in the pool. I never imagined this 20-30 entry contest between a few friends would grow to have over 300 entries. In 2006, after multiple years of being beaten by more than 60 people for four straight years, I decided to change the name to Stomp the Lunatic - since that felt more appropriate to how I was doing in the standings.
A: In 2012, 254 of the 362 entries stomped the Lunatic, when my picks of Michigan State over UNC both lost in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 and I watched all the people who picked Kentucky destroy me. But if I were to answer this question honestly, the answer will always be 2020 - when the coronavirus pandemic cancelled the tournament. The Lunatic has never been stomped like that before, and hopefully, the Lunatic will never feel that sense of loss ever again. The Lunatic has grown to expect that many of you - maybe even hundreds of you - will stomp his sleep-deprived picks. But not getting to watch these great college athletes play basketball in March is a stomping that I will never forget.
