>A true gambler could care less who is playing. It is all about winning your bet! Who cares about which team plays or your loyalties?

Our stupid statisticians' pool here gives all the "difference points" for upsets, say AL St. beats Duke in round 1, you would get 1+15 = 16 points. 1 for the win, and 15 for the upset spread. The round-points escalate, at least, up to 20 for the final winner.

But this method still forces you to make all kinds of weird picks that you really don't like to make, just to stay alive in the pool. Somehow this method caught on and stuck, years ago, and now no one wants to change it (except me, I guess). So usually, someone who knows absolutely *hooey* about B-ball wins, with all kinds of strange upset points accumulated.

This way *does* tend to recruit more non-sports people into the pool, I think that's the basic logic of it.