The 2022 “Lawrence Welk Bubble NCAA Basketball Bracket Bonanza” Is Here!

One thing remains the same: To win, you have to pick a better bracket than the most interesting independent sports blogger on the web!

~J-Dub

Selection Sunday is just under a week away, which means March Madness is here! The fun begins long before the first tip-off. If you’re like me, you’ve been watching the “Small” conference tournaments to see which bottom-end seed you think might pull off an upset. If you’re like me, you’ll spend the next week watching those of the “Big” conferences in the hope you’ll have an epiphany that will get you to the promised land of the “Final Four.” Again if you’re like me, at some point in the next three weeks you’ll remember how empty those hopes can be.

More importantly, March Madness brings me to the time-honored tradition here at Dubsism that serves as the demon seed for those empty epiphanies. You guessed it…all this blather means it’s time for another annual tradition here at Dubsism…our NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket challenge!

As the title implies, our chosen theme revolves around the term we all hear at this time of year…”on the bubble”  For the casual fan, that’s a phrase which refers to the teams on that tenuous border of getting into the “Big Dance.”  They could be in the tournament, or “Selection Sunday” could burst their bubble;  hence the term…and the theme.

That being said, nobody knew more about bubbles than the American television icon and maestro of “champagne music” Lawrence Welk.  Sure, most of you under the age of 146 will need to consult the interwebz to understand who Lawrence Welk was; the guy first appeared on American television in the 1950s and he remains there to this day.  What matters here is Welk’s brand of “champagne music” meant he was the pre-eminent reason bubbles hit the American conscience.

The “bubble” association makes Welk a perfect theme for a bubble-related challenge. In any event, to win our prize package of crap (valued as high as $23 US dollars), you still have to pick more winners than any of the other bubble-heads out there. Since many of them are Duke fans, your odds are much better than in most other pools!

Here’s what you can win!

A Certificate Suitable For Framing

There’s nothing quite like winning, except for when victory gets you credentialing to hang on your wall and lord over all in your domain.  Sure, you could forge something by downloading that picture and running it through a graphics editor, but we’ll all know you’re still a loser unless it has J-Dub’s authentic signature on it.

Naturally, we’ll be sure to put the correct dates on the genuine article.

A Basketball “Stress Ball”

Of course, if you win it, you didn’t feel as much stress as your competitors. But there’s always next year.

A Desktop Basketball Game

Big-time executive types all have crap like this on their desks, and being a winner of our challenge means you can act like there’s some big-time stuff going on in your cubicle.

A Finger Basketball Game

If you have a desktop game, why not go all the way.?

A Basketball “Easter Egg”

The holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ always falls right around Final Four time, so what better way to celebrate your hoop dreams coming to life?

A Basketball Night-Light

Speaking of Biblical stuff, I know somewhere in there it says something about “Let there be light.” I’m not sure where; Sunday School wasn’t really my thing.

A Basketball Bouncy Thing

If you you press on it, it jumps. That’s about all we really know. But’s it’s French, so it adds a layer of haute couture…

A Basketball-Themed Wastebasket

There’s “Alanis Morrissette”-level irony in the fact that you are winning a wastebasket into which every other contestant could shoot their wadded-up, busted bracket.

Bubbles (Obviously)

We really couldn’t have a “bubble-themed” challenge without giving away some bubbles, could we?

A Basketball Bag

With all the crap you’ve just won, clearly you need something to carry it all in.

Here’s How You Win

You can’t win if you don’t play…and playing is as easy as following these steps.

1) Click on this link

• https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=203249 (or copy and paste into your browser if the link isn’t active)

2) Enter this pool credential information

• The Pool ID is: 203249
• The Pool Password is:  You don’t need one…this pool is open to everybody
• Enter the other information as needed

3) Make your picks

• Picks will be loaded into the system on Monday, March 14^th after the full field is announced
• This pool does not pick the “First Four” games held on Tuesday, March 15^th and Wednesday, March 16th.
• The deadline for entry and finalizing your picks is 11:59 A.M. Eastern U.S. time on Thursday, March 17^th*

4) Scoring

For each successive round, points double:

• 1 point for each correct pick in Round 1
• 2 points for each correct pick in Round 2
• 4 points for each correct pick in the Sweet Sixteen
• 8 points for each correct pick in the Elite Eight
• 16 points for each correct pick in the Final Four
• 32 points for picking the correct Champion

Final Four Bonus:

• Players who correctly pick all four teams in the Final Four receive 25 bonus points

Bracket Upset Bonus (BUB):

Here’s where guys like me who think they know something about college basketball can do some serious gambling with their picks. In order to break up the log-jam the scores from the first two rounds usually create, and to encourage the picking of upsets, the BUB adds another scoring opportunity, by adding 1 point per seeding difference when a player correctly picks a lower-seeded team to win.

Example: A player correctly picks a #12 seed to beat a #5 seed. That player would receive 7 bonus points (12 seed – 5 seed = 7 points) for that win in addition to the points they would normally get for a victory in that round (1 point for the first round, two for the second round, et cetera…)

Every year, there’s at least one “Cinderella’ who makes a run deep into the “Big Dance.” If you happen to pick the right one, a couple of upsets could dramatically increase your odds of winning!

The Tie-Breaker:

The winner will be the player with the highest point total after the tournament concludes. If one or more players are tied following the Championship Game, the player with the tie-breaker number closest to the actual final score of the Championship Game (either over or under) will be the winner. If multiple players are still tied, the player whose picks were date/time-stamped first will be the winner.

NOTE: The date/time-stamp is updated every time a player’s picks and/or tie-breaker are edited, and nothing can be changed after the entry deadline at 11:59 A.M. Eastern U.S. time on Thursday, March 17^th*.

5) Invite Your Friends!

This pool is open to all, so if you enter and don’t invite your crew, then enjoying the spoils of your victory won’t be nearly as enjoyable since you won’t get the feeling of having vanquished all your friends, co-workers, or anybody else you would like to annoy with a bunch of bubbles!

Best of luck… and let the carnage begin!

---

Got a question, comment, or just want to yell at us? Hit us up at  dubsism@yahoo.com, @Dubsism on Twitter, or on our Pinterest,  Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook pages, and be sure to bookmark Dubsism.com so you don’t miss anything from the most interesting independent sports blog on the web.