The Greatest Dilemma

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#1      

FightinIllini30

FightinIllini30
Future insider
FightinIllini30
Hey all.

I recently posed this question to my college basketball friends and got some pretty interesting responses. Thought I’d drop it here if anyone is interested:

Say you made a perfect bracket up until the championship games (yes I know the odds, this is a hypothetical). You picked Illinois to make the championship game, but lose (I know we would never do this, but again, hypothetical).

The question is: would you rather Illinois win, ruining your perfect bracket and chance at a butt ton of money OR Illinois lose and you get your perfect bracket.

A couple of things at play here ethically and everything. Let me know what you’d pick and why.
 
#2      
21ChampaignSt
FightinIllini30 said:
Hey all.

I recently posed this question to my college basketball friends and got some pretty interesting responses. Thought I’d drop it here if anyone is interested:

Say you made a perfect bracket up until the championship games (yes I know the odds, this is a hypothetical). You picked Illinois to make the championship game, but lose (I know we would never do this, but again, hypothetical).

The question is: would you rather Illinois win, ruining your perfect bracket and chance at a butt ton of money OR Illinois lose and you get your perfect bracket.

A couple of things at play here ethically and everything. Let me know what you’d pick and why.
Click to expand...
Well, you've just convinced me to never, under any circumstances, take Illinois to lose in the championship. So, thank you.

But hypothetically what would I do? Drink.
 
#4      
Illini2010-11
FightinIllini30 said:
Hey all.

I recently posed this question to my college basketball friends and got some pretty interesting responses. Thought I’d drop it here if anyone is interested:

Say you made a perfect bracket up until the championship games (yes I know the odds, this is a hypothetical). You picked Illinois to make the championship game, but lose (I know we would never do this, but again, hypothetical).

The question is: would you rather Illinois win, ruining your perfect bracket and chance at a butt ton of money OR Illinois lose and you get your perfect bracket.

A couple of things at play here ethically and everything. Let me know what you’d pick and why.
Click to expand...
Simplest answer is hedge and place a lot of money on Illini, so you win near equal money regardless of outcome of game. That way you can have no competing interests.
 
#8      
ILLI die hard
FightinIllini30 said:
Hey all.

I recently posed this question to my college basketball friends and got some pretty interesting responses. Thought I’d drop it here if anyone is interested:

Say you made a perfect bracket up until the championship games (yes I know the odds, this is a hypothetical). You picked Illinois to make the championship game, but lose (I know we would never do this, but again, hypothetical).

The question is: would you rather Illinois win, ruining your perfect bracket and chance at a butt ton of money OR Illinois lose and you get your perfect bracket.

A couple of things at play here ethically and everything. Let me know what you’d pick and why.
Click to expand...
Sorry but I will take the boat load of money and run. Hey ILLINI there's always next year😎
 
#9      
Second place is 1st loser
FightinIllini30 said:
Hey all.

I recently posed this question to my college basketball friends and got some pretty interesting responses. Thought I’d drop it here if anyone is interested:

Say you made a perfect bracket up until the championship games (yes I know the odds, this is a hypothetical). You picked Illinois to make the championship game, but lose (I know we would never do this, but again, hypothetical).

The question is: would you rather Illinois win, ruining your perfect bracket and chance at a butt ton of money OR Illinois lose and you get your perfect bracket.

A couple of things at play here ethically and everything. Let me know what you’d pick and why.
Click to expand...
Please quantify what a "butt ton" of money is.

There is reality(life, family, future),

Then there is fun, entertainment and fandom.

Ultimately, one truly matters and the other doesn't.

If it's life altering money, $5M+, sorry to the players and the fans that are about to have a stroke after a tough loss, but....I don't care if we lose by 50.

Give me a chance to set up my son, his son(my grandson, etc) and provide a comfortable living, seeing the world, experiencing things that I wouldn't otherwise be able to experience for the limited time we all have on this earth.

Another way to look at it....look at the players that have come and gone over the last couple of years because of NIL. Did they give a flying eff about the program or the fans? Absolutely not. They go for generational money to set themselves up, which is exactly what they should be doing.

Again, there's reality/life and there's entertainment. The answer wouldn't take 1 second to arrive at.
 
#10      
cs04
outside of hedging strategies, etc. - Natty
 
#11      
Battle89
I must concede that 'butt ton' has to be defined, and is different for every poster.

But (using the $5M example above) any bracket with that kind of payout probably has an entrance fee alone that is out of reach for 99% of people. Or is much more widespread in participants, as snipped below. But even those do not rise to the $5M level (other than a perfect Kalshi, but good luck with that).

1773683461796.png
1773683564274.png


So at the (marginally) more realistic $1M level, pretty difficult to turn down the cash. At the $25K level, I think in my 20s / 30s I take the cash but at this stage of life I'd take the championship. I'm not quite as old as some here have said they are, but I'm still a lot closer to the end than the beginning.
 
#14      
illiniguy24
Id place a very large wager on a betting app on Illinois to win it all - then buy a 12 pack and ride
 
#15      
FightinIllini30
I used the term “butt ton” because A) it makes me laugh, and B) it is quite hard to quantify. There are things like Warren Buffetts pledge to give $1M to whoever can make a perfect bracket (pretty safe bet) and then there are other considerations. For example, every news station in the country will want to talk to you, that kind of exposure these days would inevitably lead to all sorts of deals where the sky is the limit. Think about commercials and things like that.
 
#16      
Serious Late
Illini2010-11 said:
Simplest answer is hedge and place a lot of money on Illini, so you win near equal money regardless of outcome of game. That way you can have no competing interests.
Click to expand...
This is correct. You have millions in equity, you lay off whatever amount makes cheering for the Illini reasonable from a life perspective. Lock up a huge payday either way.
 
#17      
aaeismacgychel
Illini2010-11 said:
Simplest answer is hedge and place a lot of money on Illini, so you win near equal money regardless of outcome of game. That way you can have no competing interests.
Click to expand...
When I read the OP, this was my thought as well. Immediately look to hedge. Typical rewards for a perfect bracket are $1M of which you'll get what, $600k after taxes? So if you assume betting for the title game is a pick 'em, if you bet $300k on Illinois and they win, you'll get maybe around $180k after taxes if Illinois wins and you'll make about $300k after taxes and losses if Illinois loses. That's just an example, but if Illinois is an underdog that raises your potential winnings as well. And you can switch it up too that if Illinois wins you would make more than if they lose. But yeah, correct answer is hedge. Win win.
 
#19      
TheChief4Life
The only dilemma here is do the people responding lie and say “Illinois winning!”, or tell the truth: money. Every time.
 
#25      
Fly Illini Fly!
FightinIllini30 said:
Hey all.

I recently posed this question to my college basketball friends and got some pretty interesting responses. Thought I’d drop it here if anyone is interested:

Say you made a perfect bracket up until the championship games (yes I know the odds, this is a hypothetical). You picked Illinois to make the championship game, but lose (I know we would never do this, but again, hypothetical).

The question is: would you rather Illinois win, ruining your perfect bracket and chance at a butt ton of money OR Illinois lose and you get your perfect bracket.

A couple of things at play here ethically and everything. Let me know what you’d pick and why.
Click to expand...
I’d be smart enough to create two brackets with the exact outcome up until the championship game — one with IL winning and the other with the other team winning.
 
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