How to Create a March Madness Pool
Mentions: Office Pools
Starting a March Madness Pool is a great way to stir things up at the office and to better network with your coworkers. Whether you are a college basketball fan or not, as soon as a little bit of money or simply bragging rights are on the line, everyone seems to become interested in the tournament.
First things first, decide whether or not you want to be responsible for managing the pool manually (downloading the bracket, distributing it to your friends, as well as calculating results and payouts) or having the pool managed online (e.g., Yahoo! Sports, AOL Sports, and CBS Sportsline all offer great tournament software that will take the hassle out of managing your pool).
If you plan to manage your pool the old fashioned way, then find and download the bracket from a site such as espn.com. Now, you need to assign point values for teams winning in each round. There are three commonly used scoring options:
Straight Pick 'Em
» 1 point for each correct pick
Progressive Pick 'Em
» 1 point for each correct pick in Round 1
» 2 points for each correct pick in Round 2
» 3 points for each correct pick in Round 3
» 4 points for each correct pick in Round 4
» 5 points for each correct pick in Round 5
» 6 points for the correct Champion
Extreme Progressive Pick 'Em
» 1 point for each correct pick in Round 1
» 2 points for each correct pick in Round 2
» 4 points for each correct pick in Round 3
» 8 points for each correct pick in Round 4
» 16 points for each correct pick in Round 5
» 32 points for the correct Champion
A quick suggestion: Do not simply double the points awarded for each round... Picking the Champion should not be relatively as important as picking all of the first round winners. We use the "Progressive Pick 'Em" strategy for our office pool.
Next step: distribute two copies of the bracket to anyone who is interested in playing and instruct them to fill out both copies with the same picks (in pen) and to return them to you prior to the first tip off. The participants should also denote their guess as to what the combined score of the two teams in the Championship Game will be. When players return the bracket, they should pay an entry fee associated with the pool ($5, $20, $100...), if your office is playing for more than simply bragging rights.
Buy some snacks, beers, and get ready to camp out to watch some b-ball! After the Champion is known, the participant with the most points, generally, wins the sum of the entry fees (of course, there are a number of potential pay out structures- e.g., 75% to the winner and 25% to the runner up).
In case of a tie for points, choose the winner based on which of the participants had the closer guess to the total point score for the Championship Game.
Live life well,
Ronin
First things first, decide whether or not you want to be responsible for managing the pool manually (downloading the bracket, distributing it to your friends, as well as calculating results and payouts) or having the pool managed online (e.g., Yahoo! Sports, AOL Sports, and CBS Sportsline all offer great tournament software that will take the hassle out of managing your pool).
If you plan to manage your pool the old fashioned way, then find and download the bracket from a site such as espn.com. Now, you need to assign point values for teams winning in each round. There are three commonly used scoring options:
Straight Pick 'Em
» 1 point for each correct pick
Progressive Pick 'Em
» 1 point for each correct pick in Round 1
» 2 points for each correct pick in Round 2
» 3 points for each correct pick in Round 3
» 4 points for each correct pick in Round 4
» 5 points for each correct pick in Round 5
» 6 points for the correct Champion
Extreme Progressive Pick 'Em
» 1 point for each correct pick in Round 1
» 2 points for each correct pick in Round 2
» 4 points for each correct pick in Round 3
» 8 points for each correct pick in Round 4
» 16 points for each correct pick in Round 5
» 32 points for the correct Champion
A quick suggestion: Do not simply double the points awarded for each round... Picking the Champion should not be relatively as important as picking all of the first round winners. We use the "Progressive Pick 'Em" strategy for our office pool.
Next step: distribute two copies of the bracket to anyone who is interested in playing and instruct them to fill out both copies with the same picks (in pen) and to return them to you prior to the first tip off. The participants should also denote their guess as to what the combined score of the two teams in the Championship Game will be. When players return the bracket, they should pay an entry fee associated with the pool ($5, $20, $100...), if your office is playing for more than simply bragging rights.
Buy some snacks, beers, and get ready to camp out to watch some b-ball! After the Champion is known, the participant with the most points, generally, wins the sum of the entry fees (of course, there are a number of potential pay out structures- e.g., 75% to the winner and 25% to the runner up).
In case of a tie for points, choose the winner based on which of the participants had the closer guess to the total point score for the Championship Game.
Live life well,
Ronin
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