Official Rules

64 finalists will be chosen. $20,000 scholarship is on the line. March Madnezz style tournament. The vote is in your hands. You, the Zinch people are going to help us choose the scholarship winner. We narrowed it down to 1700+ qualified winners. We believe all of these students are qualified to win the scholarship, but we want you to help us decide.

To become one of the 64 finalist and compete in the tournament, the semi-finalists will have to get through a state round and regional round.

OVERVIEW:
Zinch is awarding a single $20,000 scholarship (the “Scholarship”) to a registered Zinch user. The scholarship finalists were selected by the Zinch Scholarship Selection Committee. Selection criteria included academic achievement and the embodiment of Zinch’s motto that students are more than a test score. Six additional students are selected through the Cinderella 6, a process defined below that rewards creativity and networking. The winner of the Scholarship will be determined by popular vote through a bracket-style selection. The popular voting consists of three rounds; two preliminary rounds (“States” & “Regionals”) and the third, final round, the 64-student bracket (the “Final Bracket”).

PROGRAM DURATION:
The Scholarship voting begins on February 25, 2009 at 12:00:01 a.m. Mountain Standard Time (MST) and will end April 10, 2009 at 12:00:00 p.m. MST. The winner wil l be announced April 15, 2009.

HOW TO WIN THE SCHOLARSHIP AWARD:
Each Scholarship finalist was selected on the criteria defined above and has been identified as a worthy candidate to receive the Scholarship. The student with the most votes in each round advances to the next round. The student with the most votes in the final round (the “Championship Round”) of the Final Bracket is the winner and will be awarded the $20,000 Scholarship. No other scholarships will be awarded.

STATES VOTING:
All finalists will be grouped by state. Some states have more finalists than others, based upon state population, and thus will have more students move on to Regionals. A minimum of one student from each state will move on. An equal percentage of students from each state will move on to Regionals. Two-hundred and thirty students (230) total will advance past the States.

REGIONALS VOTING:
Regionals will begin with the 230 students that advance from the States’ round to compete in the Regional round. Voting will follow the same pattern, and 44 students will qualify for the field of 64 based on peer votes. 14 more will be chosen by the Zinch Scholarship Selection Committee and the last six will be made up from the Cinderella 6. This constitutes 64 total students that will advance to the Final Bracket.

REGIONALS VOTING:
Regionals will begin with the 230 students that advance from the States’ round to compete in the Regional round. Voting will follow the same pattern, and 44 students will qualify for the field of 64 based on peer votes. 14 more will be chosen by the Zinch Scholarship Selection Committee and the last six will be made up from the Cinderella 6. This constitutes 64 total students that will advance to the Final Bracket.

FINAL BRACKET VOTING:
The 64 students will each compete one-on-one through the Final Bracket. The highest vote-getter moves onto the next stage of the Final Bracket. The Final Bracket is made up of six total stages. Each round will cut the finalists in half. Each registered Zinch user gets one vote per stage, per match up.

CINDERELLA 6:
Six students can qualify for the Final Bracket by either referring the most people to Zinch, through the Referral Process (detailed below), making the best YouTube video about Zinch (best as decided solely at the discretion of the Zinch Scholarship Selection Committee), or create the most popular Facebook/MySpace group, as determined by the number of registered Facebook/MySpace users in the group. The top students in each of these three categories will be advanced to the Final Bracket, with an additional three students from any of the categories will be selected by the Zinch Scholarship Selection Committee to advance to the Final Bracket.

REFERRAL PROCESS:
To complete a referral to Zinch through which you may become eligible for the Cinderella 6, you must invite your friends to register at Zinch through your unique URL. Referrals are not eligible if not referred to the website through your unique URL. No exceptions. You can track everyone you have invited through your unique URL who has registered with Zinch.

VOTING:
All voting is public. Voters must create a Zinch profile and confirm their email address to vote. To do so visit the March Madnezz page and find the current round and stage and click “vote”. We encourage all Zinch members to have their voices be heard; tell us who you think deserves to win the Scholarship. The person with the most votes at the end of round and stage moves on. Votes are cleared back to zero after each round and after each stage.

Any form of cheating will not be tolerated. Any suspicious activity, as determined solely by Zinch, will lead to disqualification.

VERIFICATION:
All finalist will have the opportunity to tell the world why they deserve the scholarship in three ways: the about me section, the activities section, and by answering a random question. Finalist can find this in the menu when logged in. All this information must be accurate and all 64 finalists will have their information verified through their school counselor before the tournament. The winner will also be verified at the end. If there is any false information, the student will automatically be disqualified and replaced.

ROUND AND STAGES TIMELINE:
Start date is February 25, 2009 for States. The winner will be announced April 15, 2009.
+ STATES: Feb 25th (9am MST). Ends March 4th 9am MST.
+ REGIONALS: March 4th (1pm MST). Ends March 11th 9am MST.
+ Stage 1 (64 students) will start March 18th at 9am MST and end March 23rd 9am MST.
+ Stage 2 (32 students) starts March 23rd 1pm MST and ends March 27th 9am MST.
+ Stage 3 (16 students) starts March 27th 1pm MST and ends April 1st 9am MST.
+ Stage 4 (8 students) starts April 1st 1pm MST and ends April 6th 9am MST.
+ Stage 5 (Final Four) starts April 6th 1pm MST and ends April 10th 9am MST.
+ The Championship Round is from April 10th 1pm MST and ends April 15th 12pm MST.

ODDS:
Odds of winning the Scholarship may be increased by the number of Friends correctly referred to Zinch and the number of votes procured. However, such odds will be affected by Friends’ desire to participate in the Program. ALL FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL TAXES, AND ANY OTHER COSTS AND EXPENSES, ASSOCIATED WITH THE RECEIPT OR USE OF ANY SCHOLARSHIP ARE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE WINNER. The Scholarship is provided WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, express or implied, without limitation. Any Scholarship won by an eligible minor will be awarded in the name of a parent or legal guardian.

PAYMENT DIRECTIONS:
Zinch will pay the Scholarship directly to the accredited college or university of a winning Eligible Participant, paid evenly over the full course of the participant’s tenure in college. Eligible Participants who are in high school will have all awards paid over the first four years of university study, in four equal annual payments. Current college students will have the awards paid over the remainder of their university studies, paid in equal annual amounts.

GENERAL:
A potential winner may be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, a Liability Release, and, where legal, a Publicity Release. By entering, participants (1) agree to be bound by the official rules and the decisions of the Zinch which are final and binding in all respects; (2) agree to release Zinch, and its employees and agents from any and all liability, loss, damage or injury resulting from participation in the Program or awarding, receipt, possession use and/or misuse of any prize awarded herein and acknowledge that Zinch and its employees and agents have neither made nor are in any manner responsible or liable for any warranty, representation, or guarantee, express or implied, in fact or in law, relative to any award; and (3) consent to use of his/her name, photograph and/or likeness for advertising and promotional purposes in connection with the Program without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law.

DISPUTES:
This Program is governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Utah, without respect to conflict of law doctrines. As a condition of participating in this Program, participants agree that any and all disputes which cannot be resolved between the parties, and causes of action arising out of or in connection with this Program, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, exclusively before a court located in Utah having jurisdiction. Further, in any such dispute, under no circumstances will participants be permitted to obtain awards for, and hereby waive all rights to claim punitive, incidental or consequential damages, including attorneys' fees, other than participant's actual out-of-pocket expenses, and participant further waives all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.

MISCELLANEOUS:
Zinch reserves the right to modify the Scholarship Program if fraud or any other factor beyond Zinch’s reasonable control impairs the integrity of the Program as determined by Zinch in its sole discretion.

QUESTIONS:
For questions, contact marchmadness@zinch.com.