Reaping Rewards from Upset Madness: Introducing Dennis’s Variable NCAA Tournament March Madness Pool Scoring System

Whoever wins the NCAA Tournament this year will forever be second fiddle to the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers, who whomped the Virginia Cavaliers 74-54 in the Round of 64. It was the first time in men’s NCAA basketball that a 16-seed ever upset a 1-seed.

Every year, you (or is it just me?) forget that you can’t trust Virginia to actually be as good as advertised. Because while most of the sports media is slobbering over UVA’s blue-clad ACC counterparts, the Cavaliers somehow fly under the radar, earn a high-seed in the tournament, and then you (or is it just me, again?) think, “they’re due.”

The University of Virginia is never due.

So you picked them to the go deep in the tournament. And now your bracket looks like Trump’s hair in a strong wind.

UMBC gave us a glorious and delicious slice of history on Friday night^[1]. But what of the brave souls who picked UMBC to upend Virginia and their brackets? Most bracket pool scoring systems give a standard point value for each correct pick in a given round, with the first round receiving 1 point, and the values increasing in each round (2 points per win in the second, 3 in the third, etc.).

To put it bluntly, this is stupid and not fun.

Picking the outcome of the UMBC-Virginia game correctly should not get you the same points as picking the outcome of Villanova-Radford. There should be a much higher reward for the higher-risk pick. Sports bookies know this. It’s why the payout for picking the Orlando Magic to win the NBA Championship is higher than picking the Golden State Warriors. Why isn’t it that way in most bracket pools? As ESPN personality Pablo Torre can tell you, the statistical advantage comes with picking Goliath, not David.

But I’m here to fix it, with my Variable NCAA Tournament March Madness Pool Scoring System.

VNTMMPSS for short (patent pending). Gone are the days when picking chalk will allow you to coast to the top of the standings.

Here’s how it works. In the first round^[2], picking the higher seed gets you 1 point. Picking the lower seed gets you the difference between the seeds. Picking the 1 over the 16 would get you 1 point, and picking the 16 over the 1 would get you 15 points, all the way down until the 8 vs 9 game (which would be 1 point either way).

In the second round, like most other scoring systems, the points double. Picking the 1-seed to beat the 8-seed earns you 2 points. Picking the 8 seed to beat the 1-seed earns you 14.

The NCAA Tournament is more fun when there is chaos. Betting on chaos in your bracket needs to also be fun, instead of just a let down when you pick the correct 5-12 upset and have nothing to show for it because Aunt Gwen got all of the 8-9 games right and you didn’t.

^[1] As someone who watched UMBC beat Vermont in the American East Championship and also knows a guy who went to UMBC, I am uniquely qualified to speak on this subject.

^[2] The real first round, not that First Four nonsense. Just expand to another full round.