Tourney Challenge Headline: ESPN Member Services Disappoints

I think ESPN's idea (or Disney's ad agency's, whichever of the two may deserve the credit) of the $1,000,000 payout in their Tourney Challenge for a perfect bracket (64 correct game-winning decisions out of 64) was a great one. I'm sure it brought in lots of additional entries and new members.

Unfortunately, their website service doesn't seem to be up to the task of managing the simple task of logging in members (except those who are "In" and pay up, of course). After logging in successfully and getting my picks in, I have had repeated experiences of failing to get my password accepted. I've gone through several rounds of requesting new passwords (even though I knew I was putting in the right ones) and then having those rejected. So, I can't see how I'm doing compared to my peers in such groups as "Fans of Louisville", "ESPN Sports Anchors," and "The Perfect Bracket" (my daughter's entry, more on that later).

Fortunately, I wrote down some of the basics of each entry, which I will now put "on record" (since ESPN's don't hardly count with me, since I can't see it)--each valid entrant gets up to 10 bracket entries:
Final Four /Championship game/Who?/Comment at time
1 U. of Louisville, Kansas U., Memphis U., UCLA/ MU over UL, 71-59/me/not bad
2 U. of North Carolina, USC, MU, Drake/MU over UNC, 89-84/me/Radical but grounded
3 UL, U. of Wisconsin, MU, UCLA/ UL over UCLA, 73-65/ me/wishful
4 Notre Dame, Georgetown U. , Stanford U., UCLA/ SU over GU, 70-76/my wife/I liked the 2 chalk/2 Wild Card strategy
5 UL, KU, MU, Duke U./ MU over UL, 83-80/for my daughter/for "The Perfect Bracket"
6 UNC, KU, MU, DU/ MU over KU, 82-79/my son/"chalky"
7 U. of Tennessee, UW, MU, UCLA/UCLA over UT, 89-75/me/boring
8 UL, GU, MU, UCLA/MU over GU, 71-63/me/maybe
9 ND, KU, U. of Kentucky, UCLA/KU over UCLA 77-75/balancing except UK
10 UL, USC, U. of Texas, UCLA/UCLA over USC, 69-62/me/interesting but outrageous.

With six teams left, entries 2, 6, and 9 are still alive with regard to the finalists and winner (respectively, Memphis over UNC, Memphis over Kansas, and Kansas over UCLA). All three of those are matchups of #1 seeds. I think my son's entry, which I labeled "chalky", has the highest score of the 10 at this point. None of the 10 have all four teams possibly correct.

This year certainly makes the selection of all four #1 seeds (a common and much-despised choice by people who don't know any better or care) look respectable.

I have to kick myself for not picking Davidson to beat Georgetown in one or two of the scenarios. I had a lot of good picks identified (like W. Va. in the second round, Louisville to win through a tough half-bracket, Duke out, the 1-2-3-4 Regional Semis in the Southern) but no systematically wise set of selections. I picked #8 ("Fans of New Mexico") for my official submission to the NRDC, but the Davidson-Georgetown fiasco (from the bracket's point of view) was deadly to my chances there.

Back to the $1 million

That was gone in the first round. I was very impressed to see a couple of folks had all 16 of the Sweet Sixteen, and that deserves, but will not get, some sort of prize.

ESPN may feel it has dodged a bullet with all the chalk in the late rounds, but it's really quite safe. They could insure against the million pretty cheaply and they have nothing else to worry about. I hope they bring it back, with a new website management team for next year.