Awe your friends! Make your foes cower! Win stuff! Play our 2017 March Madness Bracket Pick ‘Em Contest!

THE CONTEST

It is almost upon us, America’s favorite March activity which does not involve getting drunk, wearing green and making slightly offensive Irish jokes -- that’s right March Madness.

Conference tournaments are underway/starting later this week. And, by Sunday, we’ll have our Field of Sixty-whatever selected. This obviously is your chance stake out bragging rights against your fellow competitors.

By now, you know how pick ‘ems work. So, here are the group pertinents:

Group ID: 28163

Group Name: Roll Bama Roll 2017 Pool

Password: gumpsohard

Link (AOL users copy and paste the following URL into your browser) https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/group/28163/invitation?key=b7e5f823d65ad354&soc_trk=lnk

SCORING

We like to reward the adventurous and also keep more of you entertained longer, so the scoring is not straight up one-pick-equals-one-point. Instead, we use Progressive Scoring with Upset Bonus Picks.

Progressive scores are awarded 1-2-3-4-5-6 points, depending on the round. With 1 point being for the first round and 6 points for the Final. This slightly weighs later rounds heavier to keep this game interesting for more people past the early rounds -- a bad first few days won’t wipe you out.

The Upset Bonus Multiplier works as follows: For the first two rounds, you are awarded 2 bonus points for a correct pick multiplied times the seed differential of the teams. For instance, No. 9 faces No. 8. You select No. 8 to win, and they do prevail. You receive the 1 point for the first round victory plus 2 points for the upset pick, for a total of 3 points.

For the Sweet 16 and up, there is 1-point bonus applied for upset picks. But, due to the progressive scoring, the value of the picks increase with each round. For instance, in the Round of 16 you have selected No. 12 Vermont to upset No. 5 Southern Cal. Vermont wins, and your points are calculated as: 3 points for the Sweet 16 round and then 1 bonus point x the seed difference for the upset (12-5 = 7) Therefore, you have earned 10 total points for that correct score. Fancy, huh?

This means that someone further back in the pack can rebound over the final few rounds and win out of nowhere.

The scoring rules are available on the Group Scoring tab of the homepage.

THE PRIZE

However, the prize for this year’s annual Yahoo! Bracket Pick ‘Em contest is singularly unique...

Rather than a monetary prize this year, the winner gets to select any story they wish involving Alabama, football, basketball, college athletics, create the Random 10, whatever you want that we generally do around these parts. We will research it, write it up, put it on the front page, and put your name on the byline. You can even contribute to it, if you so choose. This obviously carries some serious Gump street cred. It is the grandest prize we can give — providing you with a lifetime of notoriety to millions.

A Major Award indeed!

Anyway, get cracking, and best of luck to you all. Roll Tide.