Championship Fortnight is a special time in Our Game. Teams that are affiliated are striving to win their conference, and with a few exceptions (Ivies [sob] and bottom-dwelling teams in conferences that eliminate before the tournament) teams are thinking too about conference tournaments where they get a whack at the cash-filled pinata that is an NCAA bid.

We here at the 800GP have goals, too: 800 games written about, excellently.

So, to help move us toward that goal, the Golden Ticket will be morphing a bit during the Championship Fortnight.

There will be two winners of the contest: one Golden Ticket winner, same criteria as the regular Golden Ticket, and a Bleacher Bum winner for most games attended.

The Golden Ticket will be special because only one will be awarded for the two-week period, but the winner will exchange their Golden Ticket for a homemade cookie/candy/confection of their choice, made and shipped to them by me. (Lest you find yourself underwhelmed by the promise of a baked good from my kitchen rather than, say, Willy Wonka's, please note that I am so famous at work for my baked goods that they once made it into my performance review. As in, my performance as a lawyer. So yeah.)

The Bleacher Bum's prize will be a copy, not of the risible film of the same name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleacher_Bums), but of the not-sold-in-stores book Hard Promises, by a writer you may know. Missed out on your chance to get one over the summer? Want to give a copy as a gift? This is your chance!

FINE PRINT:
The duration of the contest will be February 27 - March 11. Winners will be determined from among the essays submitted by midnight TMM time (Central) on Monday March 12, so if you want to count those late-occurring conference finals, best get your recaps done in a timely manner. Any game in the time period that can count for the 800GP can count for this contest - it need not be a conference tournament game. Miles traveled will not factor in the Bleacher Bum contest - if there are more winners than books, accommodations will be made, up to and including additional baked goods.

Need some guidance on finding games to attend? Check the link in this post: http://www.tmmballyclub.com/viewtopic.php?p=2488#p2488

What about recaps submitted during championship fortnight for regular season games (i.e. before championship fortnight)?

Jen will have to give clarification on that, but I'm pretty sure that they won't be eligible for the bonus prizes, as that's not really the spirit of the award.

Sorry I was a bit unclear on this - these will count, in order to avoid anyone's recap falling into a no-man's-land of Golden Ticket eligibility since I didn't say one way or another before yesterday, and secondarily to be as fair as possible to those who are fans of teams in leagues that don't have conference tourneys (ahem).

I heard they cancelled the rest of the season, do I win the quintuple chocolate cookies by default?

Today is one of the most excruciating days in the March calendar (other than when it ends in a loss, of course), right? Waiting, waiting for the games to finally start. Succumbing to the lure of inane bracket "analysis" for lack of anything better. Well, we here at the 800GP have you covered! Instead of all that, spend some time with the work of the winners of our Championship Fortnight contest.

First, of the 135 qualifying essays, a whopping 15 of them were written by our resident Bleacher Bum, Ray Curren. He covered several NCAAT teams you'll be hearing about over the next week or so, including Iona and Loyola, so I highly commend his essays to you if you want to know how those teams got to where they now are. http://www.midmajority.com/author/raymond_curren
Hard-chargers Matt Cayuela, Gary Moore, Don Potts and Ian McCormick were all not far behind and told us great stories from all over the country. Congrats, Ray!

As if that wasn't enough, we have a Golden Ticket winner the size of a jumbo jet that captures some of the best parts of Championship Fortnight on our side of the line, by Ross Lancaster, Cortney Basham and Brendan Loy. http://www.midmajority.com/p/2848
Once you've read their story, you won't be able to help but think of the paths of Denver and North Texas, too, when you see "Western Kentucky" in the NCAAT.

We've still got a ways to go in our quest for 800, and three more weeks of lots of fun hoops, but thanks to everyone who participated in the Championship Fortnight contest. Great work everyone!