Bracket contest

So our paper has an annual bracket challenge, $200 to the winner, free to enter. One entry per person is marked on the bracket.

OK, so we find a winner. I go to call the winner, congratulate him, etc. Then I ask what he liked about Duke, why he picked them, and he responds "Oh, my dad filled all that out."

So I start looking through the stacks of submissions to find out how many others the dad filled out, and I come up with 6 with very similar handwriting. Out of ~50 entrants. Each had a different name on it.

Is this wrong? My managing editor took it to our publisher, who decided what he had done is "technically OK."

Do you agree? The rules were clearly bent here, in my opinion, and I would have ruled him ineligible.

 

Probably illegal to even run that contest.

 

I would have made him ineligible just for picking Dook.

 

I won the office bracket. First I've ever won. I think I went chalk, and flipped coins for the Final Four.

And Kirk, you're uninvited from my housewarming cookout.

 

I had a feeling that was going to happen. Now who's going to bring the blue deviled eggs......

 

OK, invite back on.

 

If everyone gets an entry there is nothing wrong with the guy doing his son's entry and one for 4 other family members.

 

You suspect that he filled out 50 brackets to win $200. Think about what went into that production and his mailing costs for more than one large envelope with all the brackets in it. Somebody told this guy to get a hobby and this is what he chose.

Pay him his $200 and don't fret about it. I don't think this guy is worth any angst on your part.

 

We wanted to have a similar contest but our Ad. Dept., despite getting emails from me in January and February, claimed they didn't have enough time to find a advertiser/prize. I sent our Ad. dept. an email on Tuesday, reminding them that MARCH MADNESS 2011 is coming up in just 11 months.