I'm running a March Madness pool again.

details below if you want to join

Hey all – and deep apologies to the 9 new subscribers since last week’s articles, on why more video views isn’t always a good thing, and how distributors should act as amplifiers, not gatekeepers – I promise this is not normally what I write about.

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Quickly popping in to let you know I just opened my 2025 March Madness pool.

It'll be $25 for 1 bracket and $40 for 2.

Winner gets 70% of the pot, 2nd place gets 20%, and third place gets 10%.

Last year saw Friend of the Mailing List Jon Zimelis and Former Coworker of the Mailing List Melanie Messinger splitting the winnings of first and second place ($2,623.50 each) in our first ever TIE at the top of the pool:

And here are the full, first four years of winnings and winners, for the mildly curious.

Not a bad ROI – that’s nearly a month’s rent in Manhattan!!

The password is zucker2025, and you can Venmo @David-Zucker-4 before the games start on Thursday morning. Below is a button to join the pool:

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I started doing this in 2021, when my alma mater – the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – was a #1 seed, and one of the favorites to win the Big Dance.

I allowed everyone to submit two brackets, the idea being that you could take Illinois in one of them, and pick who you actually thought would win it all in your other one.

That first year, we had 102 bracket submissions and a total pot of $1,750.

Despite 30+ people picking Illinois to win it all, the Illini failed to make the Sweet 16.

The pool grew to 150 brackets with a pot of $3,300 in 2022, when Illinois was a #4 seed.

Most people learned their lesson, but five entries still picked the Fighting Illini to cut down the nets in April.

Once again, they lost in the Round of 32.

In year three, we had 206 brackets, with a total pot of $4,550.

Illinois was a #9 seed, and lost in the first round to Arkansas.

Thankfully, only one person had them winning it all (any year now, Noel!)

In 2024, we exploded to 272 brackets, and a total pot of $5,830.00.

Illinois was a #3 seed, and made it to the Elite Eight. The 10 people who got suckered into taking them all the way that year will remind you the Illini were actually tied 23-23 with the eventual champion UConn, and then forget what happened after that…

This year? Who knows.

Cooper Flagg is injured. John Calipari coaches at Arkansas. Oregon and UCLA are representing the Big Ten, which now has 18 teams.

More importantly, Illinois is a respectable #6 seed, and will be playing the winner of Texas and Baylor in the Round of 64.

Once again, the password is zucker2025, and you can Venmo @David-Zucker-4 before the games start on Thursday morning.

Let's grow this to a pot of $6K+ and 300 brackets in 2025,

Click below to join my pool: