The winners of our College Championships games.
June 7, 2023 by in Fantasy with 0 comments
With the 2023 D-III and D-I College Championships in the book, our college fantasy competitions and games are all wrapped up. We picked the winners, guessed the props, and tried to find the upsets and which favorites to target. Hopefully, following along was fun.
But now let’s break down the results and announce the winners of #TheGame for each of the D-I and D-III College Championships, as well as the Beat Charlie Challenge for the D-I College Championships.
D-III #TheGame
The Winners
A pair of winners emerged from the pack, perfect alignment with our prize structure of awarding the topping two finishers. Dalton W. and Micah finished top in first with 565 points, the highest possible score this year. This is the first time, I believe, someone has nailed the perfect lineup. With the closer answer on Tiebreaker 1, Micah earns the first place spot. Both take home a free month of Full Subscription to Ultiworld.
There’s no way around it: D-III #TheGame was chalky. Sadly, I was able to leave this sentence from last year’s writeup. Most of the top scoring teams were the highest seeded, and when they weren’t — St. Olaf in the women’s division and Missouri S&T in the men’s division — they were the most hyped underseeded clubs. This made it really vital to avoid potential landmines like the winless Whitman men’s team. Richmond’s deep run also lends some excitement to making the right pick.
Selection Stats
Top 5 Women’s Teams
- #1 Middlebury (75.1%)
- #1 Carleton (45.5%)
- #3 St. Olaf (22.5%)
- #2 Williams (15.2%)
- #1 Wellesley (13.7%)
The women’s favorite has held over 70% selection rate for three straight seasons, but this year’s 75% for Middlebury was a teensy step back from over 76% last year. It was still prescient, of course. Carleton was in this exact spot last year, a with similar selection rate. St. Olaf and Wellesley delivered as the third and fourth highest scoring teams, while Williams delivered a solid, but unspectacular, 60 points.
Mount Holyoke 12.7
Williams 15.2
St. Olaf 22.5
Wellesley 13.7
Colorado College 11.3
Whitman 13.2
Top 5 Men’s Teams
- #1 Colorado College (46.3%)
- #1 Middlebury (45.3%)
- #1 St. Olaf (29.8%)
- #2 Richmond (26.3%)
- #3 Missouri S&T (24.4%)
The five most popular teams were also the five highest scoring. Nice job, folks! Richmond’s 115 points was the second best, rewarding the quarter of the field that showed faith in the Spidermonkeys. Missouri S&T’s prequarter win was vital to their 90 point total. Northwest duo Lewis & Clark (13.2%) and Whitman (7.3%) were the top seeds to avoid, which most entries did.
#1 Colorado College (46.3%)
#1 Middlebury (45.3%)
#1 St. Olaf (29.8%)
#2 Richmond (26.3%)
#3 Missouri S&T (24.4%)
#3 Navy (20.1%)
The Perfect Lineup
- #1 Middlebury W
- #1 Colorado College M
- #1 Carleton W
- #1 Middlebury M
- #2 Richmond M
That’s 565 points, meaning for the first time, we have perfect lineups in the field winning the contest.
The Tiebreakers
The first: what will Whitman men’s and women’s division teams’ combined point differential be for the entire tournament?
As we noted, it was a tough weekend for the Sweets in the men’s division, though -9 isn’t that bad. Fortunately, to big blowout wins for the women’s division club got them back to a combined +10. Nine entries had that exact number!
The second: how many different players will record a goal in either of the men’s or women’s D-III finals?
I quite enjoy this one, so we ran it back. The final answer was 31. That’s five more than last season. Two folks put in the right number. Many people were confused about this because they were putting in numbers in the 100s.
The third: how many points will the no.13 through no.16 seeded men’s and women’s division teams score in pool play?
The bottom seeds managed 187 points. The 106 average guess was well short of that. Root for the underdog!
D-I #TheGame
The Winners
Well, this is awkward. I incorrectly calculated our winners. This year’s winner was Gabriel B, with four of the top scorers (UNC W, UNC M, SLO M, Georgia M) and Washington W. Getting the two best sleeper picks was worth 605 points. In second place, Aarov also had both Georgia and SLO, as well as UNC W, but brought along Colorado W and UMass M. Tony C remained in the top three, in third. The previously reported winners will still be receiving prizes from us.
The UNC’s were a popular pairing, making the game mostly about who else you picked. The Colorado women’s division and UMass men’s division teams were great choices, but even better? Georgia and Texas were the highest scoring teams in the men’s division, since UNC phoned in a pool play game. Neither Cal Poly SLO M nor Georgia (10.4%) were totally off the board, but they conferred a big advantage. No entry included both. Meanwhile, Colorado M, Northeastern W, and Colorado State W were probably the weakest selections when accounting for expected value.
Gabriel B wins an Ultiworld Greatest Bag and a free month of Full Subscription from Ultiworld.
Aarov and Tony C each win a free month of Full Subscription from Ultiworld. JBeavs and David P will also receive a free full month of Full Subscription.
Selection Stats
Top 5 Women’s Teams
- #1 North Carolina (79.2%)
- #1 Colorado (24.4%)
- #2 Stanford (16.6%)
- #2 Carleton (16.4%)
- #1 UBC (16%)
It is no surprise UNC was in almost 80% of the lineups submitted, beating even last year’s tower numbers. But wow, things flattened out quickly. While Colorado was the clear second contender here, it wasn’t by a wide margin and a bunch of teams were clumped together after that. Picking your second team was really a defining characteristic.
Top 5 Men’s Teams
- #1 North Carolina (59.2%)
- #2 Brown (33.6%)
- #2 Pittsburgh (27.2%)
- #2 Cal Poly SLO (22.8%)
- #1 UMass (20.8%)
Like in the women’s division, UNC was the big favorite, though by a much smaller margin, and then things flattened out. The second seed teams were understandably quite popular, offering double the points at potentially only a marginal decrease in potential outcome. That probably led to more men’s division teams as the bonus picks, too.
The Perfect Lineup
- #1 North Carolina M
- #1 North Carolina W
- #5 Georgia M
- #1 Colorado W
- #2 Cal Poly SLO M
A total of 625 points.1
The Tiebreakers
The first: how many total blocks would be recorded in the semifinal games?
42. It is the answer to the ultimate question life, the universe, and everything, including this question (and, spoiler alert: the next one, too.) Only one entry went to this number.
The second: how many pool play games will have a margin of victory of 5 or more goals?
42. That’s more than half of the game 80 games. Two entries got it right.
The third: what will be the combined value of the seeds of the teams that win prequarters across both divisions?
Never tried this one before, so let’s see how it did. The answer was 53, a number three entries landed on. Somebody put 670.
Beat Charlie Challenge
Charlie’s Picks
103 of 416 entries outscored Mr. Eisenhood, who finished with 28 points. That puts Charlie at about the 75th percentile, still a strong score, as he has historically put up.
D-I Women’s
- Quarterfinals: #1 North Carolina, #2 Colorado, #3 British Columbia, #4 Vermont, #5 Tufts, #6 Carleton, #7 Stanford, #8 Washington
- Semifinals: #1 North Carolina, #2 Colorado, #3 British Columbia, #4 Vermont
- Final: #1 North Carolina, #2 Colorado
- Champion: #1 North Carolina
- Scored: 17
That’s some yummy chalk. Charlie rode the numbers to great success. Women’s division scores trended higher with a lack of surprises, which averaged 13.75, but Charlie outpaced even that. He and 22 others maxed out. A few too many people were distracted by picks of Carleton (36%) and Tufts (25%) to semifinals. Oregon to quarterfinals at 51% was also another source of lost points.
D-I Men’s
- Quarterfinals: #1 North Carolina, #2 UMass, #4 Colorado, #5 Pittsburgh, #6 Cal Poly SLO, #7 Brown, #11 Minnesota, #12 UC Santa Cruz
- Semifinals: #1 North Carolina, #4 Colorado, #5 Pittsburgh, #7 Brown
- Final: #1 North Carolina, #5 Pittsburgh
- Champion: #1 North Carolina
- Scored: 11
What got Charlie was performing slightly below the 11.87 average in the men’s division. Colorado (62%) and Pittsburgh (42%) were the third and fourth most popular semifinalist picks, and Chuck went down with the ship on those. He took a critical hit from having Pitt in the final. A lack of faith in Vermont also turned out to be pretty painful, as 40.6% of entries correctly selected Chill to get through quarters.
The Winners
By random selection of entrants who outscored Charlie, Nicolas S will get an Ultiworld Greatest Bag. Lige M will receive a Free Month of Full Subscription.
Feedback Welcome!
Did you play? Did you not play? Why or why not? What rules would be fun to play with? What tweaks can be made?
We want #thegame and the Beat Charlie Challenge to be fun and have different strategies be viable without being too complicated for lots of people to enter. You can contact me by emailing [email protected] or on Twitter @FullFieldHammer.
A previous version incorrectly scored both Texas M and Cal Poly SLO M, putting the former in the perfect lineup for 645 total points. ↩