How the standings work

Every single year at least one or two people e-mail us to ask how [fill in your favorite entrant moniker here] could have six correct conference champions and have 30 points while Adams has six correct conference champs but has 33 points. Do the commissioners like Adams better than them? (And every year it's always Adams, for some reason. Isn't that weird?)

So, after 21 years, here is the answer: We get 5 points for every correct conference champion and 3 points for every team we've identified at-large who makes the field.

Still flummoxed? Well, suppose Adams picked Gonzaga to win the WCC and St. Mary's as an at-large team. Well, St. Mary's won, and thus they've made the field, so Adams gets 3 points for that, in addition to the 5 points for each of the six conference champions she has so far selected.

This seeming anomaly goes away, of course, when the entire field is chosen, because then all the people who picked Gonzaga get their 3 points. True, Adams will get 6 points (3 for St. Mary's and 3 for Gonzaga), but that's because she picked two teams who made the field while someone who picked Gonzaga to win the conference and didn't pick St. Mary's at all only picked one.

Still confused? Tough.