March Madness 2017

A few years ago, I did a March Madness blogging contest in which we all voted and through process of elimination, declared The Black Stallion to be the very best horse movie of all time. It was a lot of fun, and still one of my favorite longer-term series I've ever done on this blog.

This year, I want to do it again, and make it bigger and better! Here's the plan.

Phase 1: Choosing a Topic
Wednesday, February 15

I'll generate a short (4-6) list of topics we can use as our theme for 2017, and put up a poll. The topic with the most votes advances. If you have ideas for a theme, please leave those ideas in the comments of this post.

Phase 2: Nominating Competitors
Friday, February 17

In the comments on this post, help populate our choices - give examples of whatever theme we pick so that we can all vote on them.

Phase 3: Seeding the Tournament
Wednesday, February 22

I'll compile a poll of all of the nominated competitors. You'll vote for 5. The 16 choices with the most votes win, and are seeded according to the number of votes they receive. Ties will be broken at my discretion.

Phase 4: Announcing the Bracket + Putting Some Skin in the Game
Friday, February 24

Here's where this gets fun. On this day, I will post the final, seeded bracket. If you just want to watch and vote, then get ready!

If you want to make things a little more interesting, here's your chance. You will have until the end of the day on Tuesday, February 28, to submit your imagined bracket - how you think each voting round will go, right on down to the final. If you submit a bracket (like officially submit it, instead of just draw one up for your own fun), then you should also chip in $5 to the tournament's GoFundMe page.

At the end of the tournament, the bracket winner gets the amount that's in that GoFundMe page. It might be $15, it might be $150. I don't know - it's an experiment!

Phase 5: Voting
Wednesday, March 1

Throughout the month of March, I will run 2-3 contests a week, giving each one 72 hours to garner votes. Single elimination wins: the winner of each round advances. At the end of March, we will have crowned a champion, and one entrant will go home with a boatload (or possibly a spoonful) of cash.

Any questions? Any suggestions for themes to get started?