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NCAA College Basketball Office Pools
Learn how to run a popular March Madness office pool and follow your favorite teams to the Final Four.
The first NCAA basketball tournament was played in 1939 and featured only eight teams. As hard as it is to believe today, the
NIT (National Invitational Tournament) was a much bigger deal to be invited to than was the NCAA College Basketball Tournament.
The tournament has undergone many changes throughout the years, growing from the initial eight team format of 1939 to the
current 64 team format that was instituted in 1985. Technically speaking, there are actually 65 teams invited to the Big
Dance each year. Two teams square off in the Play-In Game to set the field of 64. Apparently the NCAA hates the term
"Play-In Game." For the teams involved in the game, it is a great thrill to win the game and the right to get hammered
by a number one seed.
The NCAA's March Madness tournament is one of the most widely anticipated sporting events of the year. It seems that the
pundits and bracketologists begin their speculation regarding not only who will make the tournament, but also how the seedings
will play out, earlier and earlier every year. It all draws to a close with the airing of the NCAA Tournament Selection Show
on the Sunday prior to the beginning of the tournament.
Once the brackets are announced, odds makers and basketball junkies can get on with the business of handicapping and playing
March Madness bracket pools.
March Madness Brackets Pool
TThe March Madness Brackets Pool is arguably the most popular office pool game ever. Super Bowl enthusiasts may disagree, but hey, we said arguably. The beautiful thing about playing a brackets contest is that it lasts for the full three weeks of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, resulting in long-term drama and "madness."
The goal of the March Madness Brackets Pool is to accrue the most points by correctly forecasting the straight up winner of as many of the tournament games as possible. The game, as we said before, last for the full three weeks of the tournament. You need at least two players to run this type of contest, but ideally you will have many, many more. One of the things that makes for a popular office pool is the ability for a complete novice to participate. The March Madness Bracket contest lends itself perfectly to this. In fact, it seems as though the winners of bracket pools, Super Bowl office pools, Bowl Bonanza college football office pools, NFL suicide office pool, and any other major office pool, is always won by people who know little or nothing about the sport that the pool applies to.
The first step in running a March Madness Brackets Pool is to have a set of brackets for contestants to complete. Fortunately, Sports Betting Acumen has the March Madness brackets you need to play. If you desire larger brackets you can always check out a newspaper such as USA Today on the Monday before the tournament opens. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to complete your own brackets.
With brackets in hand, you are now ready to distribute the brackets to the people whom you wish to enter your contest. Our March Madness brackets are in PDF format making them very easy to either print or attach to an e-mail. The next step is to have each contestant fill out their brackets all the way through the tournament. The players should also provide a score for the Championship Game as a tiebreaker. In the event of a tie, the total score of the NCAA Championship Game should be used.
Note: Some contests use the Play-In Game as part of the contest while others do not. We recommend that you go ahead and use the Play-In Game in your contest. The winner of the game will play the number one seed and be eliminated anyway (a number 16 seed has never beaten a number 1 seed since 1985 when the tournament went to the current format), thus, a contestant will only gain or lose one point based on their prediction. The primary reason for including the Play-In Game is that the tournament brackets are released on the Internet on Sunday and in newspapers on Monday. The Play-In Game does not take place until Tuesday. It is wise to include the game for time issues alone.
Players score points for each game in which they correct predict the winner. Each successive round of the tournament should award a higher number of points for each game a player gets right. There are several ways of scoring the tournament. Some of the more popular methods are listed below:
| |
1st Round |
2nd Round |
3rd Round |
4th Round |
5th Round |
Championship |
| Pts. |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
10 |
| Pts. |
1 |
3 |
5 |
10 |
20 |
30 |
| Pts. |
1 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
16 |
32 |
| Pts. |
*Seed x 1 |
Seed x 2 |
Seed x 3 |
Seed x 4 |
Seed x 10 |
Seed x 12 |
We recommend using the scoring method in the first line of the table. Players would receive one point for each victory in the 1st round, two points for each victory in the 2nd round, three points for each 3rd round victory, four points for a 4th round victory, five points for a 5th round victory and ten points if they correctly guess the National Champion. The winner of the tournament is the player with the most points.
Obviously, it helps to be a fan of college basketball when it comes to filling out tournament brackets. It also doesn't hurt to use good information whenever possible. Sports Betting Acumen has information available to help you not only win your Brackets Pool contest, but that will also help you cash your bets on the tournament. We have a wealth of College Basketball betting information for you.
March Madness Bracket Tips
Tips for Completing Your NCAA Tournament Brackets - NCAA tournament brackets are part art and part science, but there are some numbers and trends that can assist you in filling out your brackets.
More Office Pool Rules and Templates
College Football Office Bowls - Have you ever played a college football bowl office pool contest? If not, you are missing out. We'll tell you how play these fun pools. College football bowl contests add a lot of fun to the Holidays
NFL Football Office Bowls - Pro football office pools make for an entertaining Sunday of football viewing. We offer information for playing all of the popular football office pools including the ever-popular football square pool complete with template, suicide pool, and weekly pick'em contest.
NCAA Baskeball Pools - The NCAA Basketball Tournament - also known as March Madness and the Big Dance - provide an amazing opportunity for office pool enthusiasts. Filling out tournament brackets for office pool contests has become as much a right of spring as baseball. Learn how to run a popular March Madness office pool and follow your favorite teams to the Final Four.
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