2015 Over/Under Pool: Invitation

With the NCAA basketball tournament coming to a conclusion, I thought that I'd better update this website for the 10th annual MLB Over/Under Pool before all the madness concludes. After all, the first pitch of the 2015 MLB regular season will be thrown in only 8 days. Yikes!

In its inaugural year, we had 19 people play. Last year, we had 132 participants.

The rules are simple: For a $20 entry fee, you must predict OVER or UNDER the number of wins for any 10 MLB teams this upcoming season. You will select your 10 picks in order of confidence. You'll assign 10 points to the pick you're most confident with, 9 points for your second favorite pick, 8 points for your third choice, and so on. If you're selection proves accurate, you'll earn that many points. You can only pick each MLB team once.

The person who scores the most points wins the pool. A perfect bracket would score 55 points. Over the years, I've received 659 different brackets and only one bracket (Tyler Qualio in 2008) has proven to be perfect. Depending on the number of entries I receive this year, I'll probably pay out the top six spots, with the last place "loser" winning his $20 entry fee back.

For a $20 investment, it seems well worth the 6 months of entertainment you'll accumulate this baseball season. Last year's winner (Luke Porath) collected $900 for his efforts.

Remember - there are 30 teams in baseball - and you only need to render an opinion on 10 teams. This should be a snap, right? 

The right side of this website includes a link to an excel sheet that should be used for making your picks. If/when you have any questions, let me know. Otherwise, the excel worksheet is due back to me on Monday, April 6th - which happens to be the "traditional" opening day for most MLB teams.

Shortly after the season starts, I'll start updating this website and it will track all our picks with updated standings. Similar to the past 9 years, I plan on updating this site every day or two, so it'll be easy to follow the standings as they season progresses through the dog days of summer.

Payments can be sent via snail mail (send me an email if you need my address) or via Paypal (stvschroeder@gmail.com). If you elect to use Paypal, make sure that you "send money to friends or family." That way, neither of us will be charged any fees. Also, make sure that you don't mention anything about a pool when you send your $20 electronically. Paypal "scolded" me during the NCAA tournament for accepting payments for a pool, so I'd like to avoid another "scolding" for this pool.

Good luck! If you have any questions, just let me know.