The 2026 Men's and Women's NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page.
Please contact me with any bugs you find and I'll try to fix them (i.e., testing in production).
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Monday
NCAA 2026 Excel bracket and pool manager files
NCAA 2025 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2025 Men's and Women's NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page.
Please contact me with any bugs you find and I'll try to fix them (i.e., testing in production).
Sunday
NCAA 2024 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2024 Men's and Women's NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page.
Please contact me with any bugs you find and I'll try to fix them (i.e., testing in production).
NCAA 2023 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2023 Men's and Women's NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page.
No enhancements this year. But, some fans of the files have started doing their own tinkering, so maybe I'll be able to integrate their efforts into a future year's files.
Please contact me with any bugs you find and I'll try to fix them (i.e., testing in production).
NCAA 2022 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2022 Men's and Women's NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page.
No enhancements this year. But, some fans of the files have started doing their own tinkering, so maybe I'll be able to integrate their efforts into a future year's files. Too bad GitHub doesn't work for Excel files or the collaborative development process would be a lot easier.
Please contact me with any bugs you find and I'll try to fix them (i.e., testing in production).
NCAA 2021 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2021 Men's NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page. The women's bracket will be available after the selection show for the women's tournament.
Only enhancement is cleaning up the Leaderboard HTML file a little bit. I realized that I wrote that code while CSS 3 was still in draft form, so I gave it a slight readability update this year. It's still not good, but it's ever-so-slightly better.
Please contact me with any bugs you find and I'll try to fix them (i.e., testing in production).
NCAA 2019 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2019 NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page.
For pool managers, will you please post a comment here answering these questions? It would help with my future development.
1) What is the oldest version of Excel used by any of your participants? More importantly, does anyone use a version of Excel older than 2007?
2) Does anyone still use the v7 pool manager and brackets?
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
For pool managers, will you please post a comment here answering these questions? It would help with my future development.
1) What is the oldest version of Excel used by any of your participants? More importantly, does anyone use a version of Excel older than 2007?
2) Does anyone still use the v7 pool manager and brackets?
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
NCAA 2018 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2018 NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page. Only one change from last year -- participants no longer need to get the 'play-in' game correct. They just choose that team combo to advance (e.g., ASU/Syracuse) and will get the points if ASU or Syracuse knocks off TCU.
Favor: Please take this 5-10 minute survey on rivalry in men's DI basketball, and ask others (e.g., people in your pool) to do so as well. My day job is a sport management professor and my research area is in sport rivalry, so gathering more opinions would be valuable; you can see more about the research at knowrivalry.com.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Favor: Please take this 5-10 minute survey on rivalry in men's DI basketball, and ask others (e.g., people in your pool) to do so as well. My day job is a sport management professor and my research area is in sport rivalry, so gathering more opinions would be valuable; you can see more about the research at knowrivalry.com.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Monday
NCAA 2017 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2017 NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page. No new functionality from last year, but at least the new teams are loaded. I promise - once my kids are older and I have tenure [got the tenure letter last week! So that bodes well for future improvements], I'll make the long-awaited improvements. In the meantime, enjoy March Madness!
Favor: Please take this 5-10 minute survey on rivalry in men's DI basketball, and ask others (e.g., people in your pool) to do so as well. My day job is a sport management professor and my research area is in sport rivalry, so gathering more opinions would be valuable; you can see more about the research at knowrivalry.com.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Favor: Please take this 5-10 minute survey on rivalry in men's DI basketball, and ask others (e.g., people in your pool) to do so as well. My day job is a sport management professor and my research area is in sport rivalry, so gathering more opinions would be valuable; you can see more about the research at knowrivalry.com.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Sunday
NCAA 2016 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2016 NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page. Only a little bit of new functionality from last year (Final Four teams visible on leaderboard), but at least the new teams are loaded. I promise - once my kids are older and I have tenure, I'll make the long-awaited improvements. In the meantime, enjoy March Madness!
Favor: Please take this 5-10 minute survey on rivalry in men's DI basketball, and ask others (e.g., people in your pool) to do so as well. My day job is a sport management professor and my research area is in sport rivalry, so gathering more opinions would be valuable; you can see more about the research at knowrivalry.com.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Favor: Please take this 5-10 minute survey on rivalry in men's DI basketball, and ask others (e.g., people in your pool) to do so as well. My day job is a sport management professor and my research area is in sport rivalry, so gathering more opinions would be valuable; you can see more about the research at knowrivalry.com.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Monday
NCAA 2015 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2015 NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page. No new functionality changes from last year, but at least the new teams are loaded. I promise - once my kids are old enough for school and I have tenure, I'll make the long-awaited improvements. In the meantime, enjoy March Madness!
Favor: Please take this 5-10 minute survey on rivalry in men's DI basketball, and ask others (e.g., people in your pool) to do so as well. My day job is a sport management professor and my research area is in sport rivalry, so gathering more opinions would be valuable; you can see more about the research at knowrivalry.com.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Favor: Please take this 5-10 minute survey on rivalry in men's DI basketball, and ask others (e.g., people in your pool) to do so as well. My day job is a sport management professor and my research area is in sport rivalry, so gathering more opinions would be valuable; you can see more about the research at knowrivalry.com.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Sunday
NCAA 2014 Excel bracket and pool manager files
The 2014 NCAA Tournament Bracket and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page. The pool manager file includes the minimal enhancements that were introduced late last year, but for the most part this is the same file. Sorry there weren't more improvements, but at least the new teams are loaded. Enjoy March Madness!
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Thursday
NCAA 2013 Women's basketball tournament bracket
The Excel brackets for the 2013 NCAA Women's Tournament are now available on the brackets page. Thanks to user Steve, who populated the teams.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Friday
I for one welcome our new playoff overlords
The highest level of college football is finally getting a playoff. This is something for which I have advocated, including co-developing the Enhanced Bowl Season to incorporate a 12-team playoff within the existing constraints of the power structure. The conference commissioners did better by ceding a little power/control for the long-term good of the sport (and ultimately themselves). I still have issues with a 4-team system, but many of the flaws I noted can be reduced by breaking with the status quo.
I've disagreed with some actions of Jim "the bulldog" Delany and Mike Slive over the years, but there is no denying the deftness with which they've navigated many competing interests. They're smart men and have done an excellent job representing their conferences' interests. By moving to a playoff, they continue to do so - Delany estimates that this will bring 3-4 times the current revenue, an estimate that may be conservative. Further, this will make the regular season even better by keeping more teams in the hunt for a national championship longer into the season. More importantly, it may help stem the tide of cupcake scheduling for fear of getting a loss.
It looks like there will be a selection committee to choose the four tournament teams. There are many problems with that, but a positive will be removing the influence of the polls. They will still exist, but they will go back to being interesting fodder for debate. The selection committee will surely be influenced by them, but will process them through mental filters.
To be clear, this change is the result of pressure from the outside:
The new playoff won't be perfect. It may not even be good. Fans, pundits, and critics will still rightfully howl. Biases will still permeate the selection committee and power interests will still work to be maintained. But it will be better. This is progress toward fairness on the field. Decades of lowering my expectations make me happy about that. But watch this space sometime after 2014 for more complaints.
It looks like there will be a selection committee to choose the four tournament teams. There are many problems with that, but a positive will be removing the influence of the polls. They will still exist, but they will go back to being interesting fodder for debate. The selection committee will surely be influenced by them, but will process them through mental filters.
To be clear, this change is the result of pressure from the outside:
- Pollspeak.com shed light on the inherent flaws of human voting and advocating for transparency. The world is better when those with power provide transparency (c.f., Arab Spring, US government, Google).
- Playoff PAC consolidated the opposition and put forth a focused counter case.
- The media played a huge role with blogs (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BCS) and books (Death to the BCS)
- Larry Scott brought cultural change and the willingness to take on sacred cows.
- Federal & state governments got involved
- And don't discount the bowls who sewed the seeds of their destruction through avarice and corruption.
The new playoff won't be perfect. It may not even be good. Fans, pundits, and critics will still rightfully howl. Biases will still permeate the selection committee and power interests will still work to be maintained. But it will be better. This is progress toward fairness on the field. Decades of lowering my expectations make me happy about that. But watch this space sometime after 2014 for more complaints.
Thursday
A selfish Combs would turn down UCLA scholarship
UCLA is getting some negative press for awarding a scholarship to Justin Combs. Justin is the son of very wealthy rapper Sean Combs (née P. Diddy, née Puff Daddy).
By most accounts, Combs is worthy of the scholarship. His Scout and Rivals ratings, while modest, aren't abnormal among UCLA recruits. Plus he brings intangibles, such as attention to a program desperate for relevance in the shadow of USC.
The scholarship offer is a nice, validating gesture on the part of the Bruins. But the selfish (and best) thing for Combs to do is not take the money.
The NCAA limits scholarship athletes on a roster. If Combs wants UCLA to do better, he should give up his scholarship so it can be assigned to someone else (perhaps he could have a hand-shake agreement that it won't be another cornerback). The better the team does, the better it is for Combs, and that one extra scholarship might make the difference. We've seen this before with NFL players, who also face an artificial labor restriction in the form of a salary cap.
There's no denying the intelligence and savvy of Combs' father. Don't be surprised if Justin doesn't take that scholarship after all.
By most accounts, Combs is worthy of the scholarship. His Scout and Rivals ratings, while modest, aren't abnormal among UCLA recruits. Plus he brings intangibles, such as attention to a program desperate for relevance in the shadow of USC.
The scholarship offer is a nice, validating gesture on the part of the Bruins. But the selfish (and best) thing for Combs to do is not take the money.
The NCAA limits scholarship athletes on a roster. If Combs wants UCLA to do better, he should give up his scholarship so it can be assigned to someone else (perhaps he could have a hand-shake agreement that it won't be another cornerback). The better the team does, the better it is for Combs, and that one extra scholarship might make the difference. We've seen this before with NFL players, who also face an artificial labor restriction in the form of a salary cap.
There's no denying the intelligence and savvy of Combs' father. Don't be surprised if Justin doesn't take that scholarship after all.
Sunday
NCAA 2012 Pool Manager
The 2012 NCAA Brackets and Pool Manager files are now available on the brackets page. This year pool managers have the option to include scoring for the "First Four" matchups.
Image courtesy of david.dames under a Creative Commons license
Tuesday
Why Fiesta Bowl shenanigans might benefit Jerry Jones
The CEO of the Fiesta Bowl, John Junker, was fired for paying employees to make political contributions and then covering it up. This is in addition to a host of other offenses, like using Fiesta Bowl money to pay for a strip club visit (pdf of full report). Junker was already a popular target for his nearly $600,000 per year compensation at a tax-exempt, non-profit organization. Who might stand to win from this executive shake-up? Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones.
Already talk has swirled about the Fiesta Bowl losing its place among the BCS bowls. Should that happen, the Cotton Bowl is well positioned to take its place (the game, not the facility). The Cotton Bowl Classic is played at the palatial Dallas Cowboys stadium, and prior to the BCS, was one of the highest prestige bowls.
Some (including your author) have felt it would work its way into the BCS mix somehow even before the Fiesta Bowl scandal - now it might have an even easier path. Or the BCS committee (made up of the six BCS conference commissioners and the Notre Dame A.D.) may just use its leverage to negotiate concessions from the Fiesta Bowl to stay in the mix, such as a more generous pay out to participating conferences.
The benefit of having the Cotton Bowl as a desirable alternative is the same benefit that professional sport leagues see to having "open markets" for teams: leverage. For example, the NFL benefits by not having a team in Los Angeles because it can use that as a bargaining chip when trying to get public funding for stadiums in existing locations. "If you Minnesotans don't pay more in taxes to fund a new stadium for the Vikings, we'll just move the team to L.A." (hey, it's happened before).
This idea, part of the larger topic of franchise free agency, is how one party can gain negotiating power (i.e., leverage) over another. If there weren't viable places into which teams could move, the threat of them leaving town is an empty one. For the Fiesta Bowl, the threat of losing its BCS status is very real because of the attractiveness of the Cotton Bowl Classic as a bowl destination.
Already talk has swirled about the Fiesta Bowl losing its place among the BCS bowls. Should that happen, the Cotton Bowl is well positioned to take its place (the game, not the facility). The Cotton Bowl Classic is played at the palatial Dallas Cowboys stadium, and prior to the BCS, was one of the highest prestige bowls.
Some (including your author) have felt it would work its way into the BCS mix somehow even before the Fiesta Bowl scandal - now it might have an even easier path. Or the BCS committee (made up of the six BCS conference commissioners and the Notre Dame A.D.) may just use its leverage to negotiate concessions from the Fiesta Bowl to stay in the mix, such as a more generous pay out to participating conferences.
The benefit of having the Cotton Bowl as a desirable alternative is the same benefit that professional sport leagues see to having "open markets" for teams: leverage. For example, the NFL benefits by not having a team in Los Angeles because it can use that as a bargaining chip when trying to get public funding for stadiums in existing locations. "If you Minnesotans don't pay more in taxes to fund a new stadium for the Vikings, we'll just move the team to L.A." (hey, it's happened before).
This idea, part of the larger topic of franchise free agency, is how one party can gain negotiating power (i.e., leverage) over another. If there weren't viable places into which teams could move, the threat of them leaving town is an empty one. For the Fiesta Bowl, the threat of losing its BCS status is very real because of the attractiveness of the Cotton Bowl Classic as a bowl destination.
Sunday
Notre Dame - National champions!
Congratulations to the men and women of the Notre Dame fencing team. The Irish took first place at NCAAs, holding a consistent lead throughout the tournament and beating Penn State by 7 bouts. This is head coach Janusz Bednarski's third championship, and Notre Dame's second national championship this year (women's soccer).
Friday
Basketball isn't the only NCAA championship
However, the format of determining the national champion in fencing is unique in that the men's and women's scores are combined. By aggregating the scores, it means that schools must have a strong men's and women's team in order to win.
This seems like great system to encourage equity between male and female student-athletes. Concerns about Title IX can be partially alleviated when performance by both sexes is required to achieve success. The women are just as important as the men in terms of winning a national championship. On the other hand, a school like Northwestern will never win a title: it has a very strong women's team, but its men's program is only club level and thus does not compete at NCAAs.
Is this a good system? Is it fair to Northwestern? Are there any other NCAA sports that operate in this fashion?
Saturday
New NCAA bracket - what to do?
The NCAA men's basketball tournament will include 68 teams this year. The "First Four" games will be played on Tue and Wed (Mar 15-16), then the "second round" starts on the traditional Thursday (Mar 17).
What do you think I should do about the 68 teams in terms of the Excel bracket? I was thinking to leave it as is (just 64 with placeholders), since most people's pools won't start until Thursday anyway. But those first four games are likely going to be toss-ups (bubble teams vs. "weaker" conference champions) and generate interest among fans. The "right" thing for me to do is to create the bracket with 68 teams and build a way for people to select 64 or 68 team brackets on their own, but that's a lot of work to build in the dual flexibility. That said, I want this to continue to be useful and accurately represent the competition.
What should I do? How are you going to do your pool/brackets? Vote below, and put your thoughts in the comments section.
By the way, when the brackets are available, I'll put them on a separate tab on this blog at the following link:
http://whistleblows.com/brackets/
[polldaddy poll=4468978]
What do you think I should do about the 68 teams in terms of the Excel bracket? I was thinking to leave it as is (just 64 with placeholders), since most people's pools won't start until Thursday anyway. But those first four games are likely going to be toss-ups (bubble teams vs. "weaker" conference champions) and generate interest among fans. The "right" thing for me to do is to create the bracket with 68 teams and build a way for people to select 64 or 68 team brackets on their own, but that's a lot of work to build in the dual flexibility. That said, I want this to continue to be useful and accurately represent the competition.
What should I do? How are you going to do your pool/brackets? Vote below, and put your thoughts in the comments section.
By the way, when the brackets are available, I'll put them on a separate tab on this blog at the following link:
http://whistleblows.com/brackets/
[polldaddy poll=4468978]
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