With the "first four" games this year, how are you running your brackets?

• gorocks99

  

  Are people choosing the winners of the first four along with the winners of the rest of the games (thus getting their brackets into you by Tuesday afternoon), or are people picking "play-in winner" and you're giving them until Thursday morning to pick?
  
  I run the brackets in my office and I'm trying to decide the best way to do it. Given that we usually have 75-100 people join I'm not sure how feasible it will be to have everyone turn in their brackets by Tuesday afternoon but it's also a bit more tenuous than just having the 16 seed be "play-in winner" since that's basically a given loss for that team. A 12 seed, not so much.
• SportsAndLady

  

  I'm saying get em in by Tuesday's play in games...it's a bracket, not a 25 page research paper, you can get it done in less than 48 hours lol
• dave

  I'm letting people decide whatever they want, the first (play in) games and round 2 (really round 1) all count as 1 point. If you think it's better to skip out on the potential for the first 4 points because you think a #12 will go deep then that is your choice.
  
  2 deadlines, Tuesday by 5pm and Thursday by noon.
  
  Hopefully this makes sense.
• dave

  SportsAndLady;702321 wrote:I'm saying get em in by Tuesday's play in games...it's a bracket, not a 25 page research paper, you can get it done in less than 48 hours lol

  
  easier said than done when money is involved and no everybody works the same hours.
• slingshot4ever

  I run my brackets at work (150 people) and I am ignoring all play in games as I have done in the past.
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  Don't want to pirate this thread, but I was in this really fun NCAA pool a few years ago, and I would love to get in another (my friends are lame, and its hard to drum up the interest). Basically, we took the 64 teams (before expansion), and had a draft. So if there were 10 people, each would draft 6 teams (with 4 teams not drafted). Anyway, for every win, you would get the points of their seed, so for example if you drafted a 4 seed and they won, that is 4 points. It was a blast, but I haven't been in once since ... so if anyone is up for running it, I would be down!
  
  It was always interesting: what is the better pick? A team like Duke (back then), that was the favorite to pick up 6 points (1 point for the 1 seed, x 6 wins) OR a team like Tulsa, who I think was a 12 seed back then (And won a few games, but thats the key, finding those teams!)?
• vball10set

  slingshot4ever;702512 wrote:I run my brackets at work (150 people) and I am ignoring all play in games as I have done in the past.

  
  this, but with only 40 people
• dave

  BigAppleBuckeye;706523 wrote:Don't want to pirate this thread, but I was in this really fun NCAA pool a few years ago, and I would love to get in another (my friends are lame, and its hard to drum up the interest). Basically, we took the 64 teams (before expansion), and had a draft. So if there were 10 people, each would draft 6 teams (with 4 teams not drafted). Anyway, for every win, you would get the points of their seed, so for example if you drafted a 4 seed and they won, that is 4 points. It was a blast, but I haven't been in once since ... so if anyone is up for running it, I would be down!
  
  It was always interesting: what is the better pick? A team like Duke (back then), that was the favorite to pick up 6 points (1 point for the 1 seed, x 6 wins) OR a team like Tulsa, who I think was a 12 seed back then (And won a few games, but thats the key, finding those teams!)?

  sounds pretty cool, almost seems like going after the 11 and 12 seeds was the way to go. Do you remember how it turned out?
• gorocks99

  

  Our brackets are run such that each first round game is worth 2 points, but in the first round if you call an upset and get it right, you get 2 points plus the difference in seeds (if you call a 12 to beat a 5 and get it right, for example, you get 9 points). It makes for some interesting strategy right off the bat.
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  dave;706656 wrote:sounds pretty cool, almost seems like going after the 11 and 12 seeds was the way to go. Do you remember how it turned out?

  
  I remember the guy who picked Tulsa won the whole thing, he got a ton of points from them, I think they won like 3 games. This year, for example, a 4 seed like St. Johns (if they are in the Newark region, basically a home game for them) could be an interesting pick.
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  gorocks99;706662 wrote:Our brackets are run such that each first round game is worth 2 points, but in the first round if you call an upset and get it right, you get 2 points plus the difference in seeds (if you call a 12 to beat a 5 and get it right, for example, you get 9 points). It makes for some interesting strategy right off the bat.

  
  That is sweet! I would think it would be hard to keep track of though? Do you have an automated system (I assume yes)?
• gorocks99

  

  BigAppleBuckeye;706666 wrote:That is sweet! I would think it would be hard to keep track of though? Do you have an automated system (I assume yes)?

  
  Yeah, we set up an excel sheet macro in which people use drop-down menus to make their picks which submits to myself (the guy running the thing) a list of numbers that correspond to picks in all 63 games (each team is given a value, 1-64, starting in the top left of the bracket). Those numeric values are entered into our master excel, and we use formulas to calculate the point values as the tournament progresses - basically since each underdog is an "even" value team, if the even value team in the first round wins, we assign the two points plus the difference in seeds.
  
  Something like =IF($B78=E78,$C78+IF(ISEVEN($B78),OFFSET($C$7,$B78,0)-OFFSET($C$7,$B78-1,0),0),0) where row 78 contains the result (B) original point value of 2 (C) and pick (E, in this case) of the top left game, and column C, rows 7 through 71 have the teams and their seeds listed (hence the offset formulas).
  
  Yes, I'm nerding it up up in here.
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  gorocks99;706673 wrote:Yeah, we set up an excel sheet macro in which people use drop-down menus to make their picks which submits to myself (the guy running the thing) a list of numbers that correspond to picks in all 63 games (each team is given a value, 1-64, starting in the top left of the bracket). Those numeric values are entered into our master excel, and we use formulas to calculate the point values as the tournament progresses - basically since each underdog is an "even" value team, if the even value team in the first round wins, we assign the two points plus the difference in seeds.
  
  Something like =IF($B78=E78,$C78+IF(ISEVEN($B78),OFFSET($C$7,$B78,0)-OFFSET($C$7,$B78-1,0),0),0) where row 78 contains the result (B) original point value of 2 (C) and pick (E, in this case) of the top left game, and column C, rows 7 through 71 have the teams and their seeds listed (hence the offset formulas).
  
  Yes, I'm nerding it up up in here.

  I may need to hire you to do my media budgets! haha ... anything past "=sum" is getting in the deep end for me
• Wooball

  

  BigAppleBuckeye;706523 wrote:Don't want to pirate this thread, but I was in this really fun NCAA pool a few years ago, and I would love to get in another (my friends are lame, and its hard to drum up the interest). Basically, we took the 64 teams (before expansion), and had a draft. So if there were 10 people, each would draft 6 teams (with 4 teams not drafted). Anyway, for every win, you would get the points of their seed, so for example if you drafted a 4 seed and they won, that is 4 points. It was a blast, but I haven't been in once since ... so if anyone is up for running it, I would be down!
  
  It was always interesting: what is the better pick? A team like Duke (back then), that was the favorite to pick up 6 points (1 point for the 1 seed, x 6 wins) OR a team like Tulsa, who I think was a 12 seed back then (And won a few games, but thats the key, finding those teams!)?

  
  Just got an email from a guy that runs a huge survival pool for the NFL regular season. For the NCAA tournament he runs 6 different style pools.
  #1 - Basically your normal bracket sheet, except along with the points you get for picking the correct winner, you also get the points of the winning teams seed. So if you pick #8 seeded Tennessee in round 1, you could get 10 points (2 points for their win plus 8 for their seed)
  #2 - Almost what you described. You can select any 5 teams from the tournament field, and every game your teams win, you get the points of their seed. So a #1 seed can score up to 6 points, a #4 seed has a possible 24 points, etc.
  #3 - Pick 16. In each region, pick 1 team from seeds 1 through 4, 1 team from seeds 5-8, 1 team from seeds 9-12 and 1 team from seeds 13-16. For a total of 16 teams. You can only select one #1 seed, but you can take all 4 #5 seeds if you desire. You receive 1 point for each win from one of your teams
  #4 - Random pool w/ spread - They take 64 entries. Once he fills up all 64 spots, they have a random draw of teams. Your team must cover the spread published by USA Today to advance. If your team covers, but loses the actual game, you take the winning team in the next round (so say you have Montana +25 v Pitt. Montana covers, but loses the game. You would have Pitt in the next round.) They have payouts once you make it to the elite 8.
  #5 - Suicide Pool. You must select 1 winner straight up each day (not each round). You can not pick the same team twice. Picks must be emailed 30 minutes before the 1st game each day.
  #6 - Squares - 50 units per square. Your square is for every game. Winners score is the top line, losers score is the bottom line. 30 units for round 1 winners - 730 units for championship game winner.
  
  Let me know if you are interested, I can PM you the info