March Madness will be here in a matter of days. And while most see March 17th through April 4th as a time that will test players and ultimately decide the college basketball champions, we see it a little differently. This tournament is a great way to promote team spirit and friendly competition in the office. These values are best promoted when money isn't involved. Betting can make things a little too competitive.
Organizing brackets in an office used to be a mess of pens and papers, but new online sources have made it much easier. The following step-by-step guide will lead you through the process of creating and running your office's March Madness bracket.
1. Collect Names of Everyone Involved
You'll want to know who's playing. To help stoke interest, it may help to have some sort of prize for the winner or top three. It's up to you what that prize will be! A simple sign up sheet will suffice when it comes to gathering names. You can either print one and post it somewhere everyone will see it or use an Excel file if your office utilizes a cloud file-sharing service. Make sure everyone signs up before the tournament starts on March 17th!
2. Decide Who's in Charge
The person who suggests the office should take part in March Madness is probably the most qualified to run the whole thing. They will decide the best host website for your group and create a private group within that host that everyone will join.
3. Pick a Host
The host is the where the bracket-making and point-tallying will take place. These sites will run the show, making the whole process incredibly easy. A few good ones are listed below:
These websites all work in very similar ways, so choosing one is just a matter of preference. Let whoever is in charge pick so any confusion is avoided.
4. Sign Up
Everyone playing will need to create an account on whichever host website you chose. This is a quick process that should only take a few minutes.
5. Create a Group
Having everyone in a group (or pool) will make it easy to keep track of the leaders. The process for creating a group is different for each host website, but regardless of host, you will want to make the group private. This will require everyone who joins to provide a password that the creator of the group will set.
It would be helpful to give your group a distinguishable name so everyone knows it is the official office group. Users can search for and join the group after they sign up. The creator of the group has the option of inviting users as well.
6. Make Bracket
The official tournament bracket is released on March 13th, so that is when you will be able to create your winning bracket. Making a bracket is fun and very easy. You go game-by-game and pick the team you think will win. When you get to the end you will make your decision on who will win the championship game. Think carefully on this one because it is worth the most points and can make up for some poor choices earlier on. Brackets can be changed and edited up until tip-off, which is currently scheduled for March 17th. That gives you four days to create the ultimate bracket!
7. Earn Points
Each host has a different scoring system, but most of them work the same way. We will use the ESPN system, but the others can be found on their respective websites.
Scoring starts in the Second Round, which is the first round in which every team plays. Every correct pick in this round earns the player 10 points. In the Third Round, a correct pick is worth 20 points. Points gained per game continue to double each round until the National Championship (finals) game, where a correct pick is equal to 320 points. Below is a screenshot from ESPN's "How to Play" page.
You will not need to worry about tallying all the points yourself, as the hosting website will do that automatically. The group leaderboard will update after each game, showing where everyone stands.
8. Have Fun!
You may choose to have a prize pool with gift cards, lunch-choosing privileges, or a designated "March Madness Winner" parking spot. If not, a year of bragging rights is usually a big enough incentive to get your whole office involved.
We hope this guide helps your office start an organized and fun competition. Let the madness begin!