How do I run a simple online NCAA Tournament pool?

March 13, 2006 4:19 PM

What's the easiest and least-intrusive way to run an NCAA tournament pool online?

I may get stuck running my office's NCAA basketball tournament pool this year. Traditionally, it is administered using paper entries. This requires a lot of manual labor to tally up the picks for each round of games and to calculate overall results.

I would love to be able to set up an online pool that would allow people to submit their entries on a website, and that would automatically tally up the results and show the standings. ESPN and CBS Sportsline have services like this. However, those sites require registration, and I fear that many of my colleagues, some of whom are not internet-savvy, will balk at having to register to enter the pool (and, more importantly, will come complaining to me about having to do so).

Are there any websites that would allow me to run the pool as described above, but would not require users to fill out detailed registration forms? It doesn't have to be fancy or secure -- just simple and non-intrusive.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

posted by brain_drain to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 comments total)

Our office pool uses Yahoo fantasy sports. Many people have Yahoo IDs already, and others don't seem to mind much.
posted by JMOZ at 4:42 PM on March 13, 2006

If you can't get them to sign up and fill out the online entry themselves, just do it for them. It may be additional work for you at the outset, but it will save you from manually scoring all the sheets, and keep you from making errors. That is what I have done in past years.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:57 PM on March 13, 2006

I should clarify -- have them make their picks on paper and then you copy them into the online entry. Don't actually make their picks for them.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:58 PM on March 13, 2006

I built an Excel sheet for this (for a job interview, actually). It worked pretty well for 8 people.
posted by sachinag at 6:47 PM on March 13, 2006

We've built our office pools using this for a couple of years now. Works quite well, but requires a bit server abilities to set it up.

Your co-workers will just have to go a website that you host, fill out who they are and their picks, and you're set.
posted by Steve3 at 6:53 PM on March 13, 2006

Try out foxsports fantasy sports, or last year ESPN had a great online site as well.

On re-reading, you don't want people to register... nevermind.
posted by jerryg99 at 7:23 PM on March 13, 2006

If you have a spare hour, I recommend taking responsibility and using this guy's Excel solution.
posted by Kwantsar at 8:14 PM on March 13, 2006

I just saw this online, but there are: Microsoft Office Bracket Templates

These would seem to be perfect for you.
posted by bove at 8:42 AM on March 15, 2006

Thanks for all the suggestions! I followed some of these leads and ended up going with Turbo Tourney, which is pretty slick, easy to manage, and produces a wide variety of standings and updates.
posted by brain_drain at 10:56 AM on March 18, 2006