The best March Madness contest in the world is back for its ninth season. If you’ve played before, welcome back. I’m sure you’ve been itching for the Madness to begin.
If this is your first time, you are in for a treat. Everyone fills out a bracket. The Palestra Back Fantasy Shootout takes things up a notch.
HOW IT WORKS
To enter, you’ll chose one player from each seed line. One player from any of the four number 1 seeds, one player from any of the four 2 seeds, and on and on, all the way down to the lowly 16 seeds. You’ll finish with a 16 player team (with each playing for a different seed). The team with the most total points (and only points, no rebounds or assists or other statistics) is the winner. Everything will kick off Thursday with the round of 64, so no bonus points from guys in the First Four/play-in games.
It’s a bit like playing Daily Fantasy Sports on FanDuel or DraftKings, but instead of choosing based on fictional player “salaries”, you are limited by their team’s seeding. But in tournament play, it’s more than just points per game because we don’t know how many games each player will play. Take a solid scorer from the team you think will win it all or the high volume shooter on the team that could be bounced after a few games? That’s the decision you’ll need to make.
Go to the handy-dandy entry form and simply choose one player from each of the dropdown menus. THAT’S IT. Well, except you need to pay.
WHAT DOES IT COST AND WHAT CAN YOU WIN?
Entries will cost $20, with payouts being made to made to the top finishers (exact payouts and number of winners to be determined once all entries are received). Only one entry will be allowed per person.
Payment can be submitted in any of the following way:
Paypal: Click RIGHT HERE to submit your $20. If you don’t have a PayPal account, it’s free and easy to set-up.
Venmo: Send $20 to Shane-McNichol on the Venmo app. If you don’t have Venmo, it’s free and easy to set-up.
When sending money, please don’t include words like “basketball” or “March Madness” or “Fantasy Shootout” in the description. Both Venmo and PayPal are talking a big game about freezing the accounts of people using their service for gambling pools. Instead just go with “PBFS” or “Thank you!” or a (non basketball) emoji or your team name.
WHEN AND HOW DO I DO THIS?
Entries are open! Go to the entry form and submit your team whenever you’re ready.
All of this must be done before 10 AM on Thursday, March 21. This is a hard deadline. If your team is not in yet, your money will be refunded. If you have not paid, your team will be removed from the contest.
ARE YOU GOING TO PLAY, SHANE?
Of course. In the interest of fairness and transparency, here’s my team:
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Have fun and good luck, everyone.
While you’re here, consider following me on Twitter @OnTheShaneTrain and @PalestraBack and reading my game/tournament previews at The Action Network.
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