UPDATE (3/19): Round of 16 Bracket Released. Please note that Saint Louis and Missouri will play their Round of 32 game on Tuesday night. The winner will face Missouri State in a Round of 16 poll starting late Tuesday.
UPDATE (3/15): Round of 32 Bracket Released:
KPI Manager Games Rankings as of March 11, 2018 6 p.m. ET (End of Regular Season)
The 3rd Annual Manager Games Postseason Tournament will again culminate at the NCAA Final Four. Manager Games has again partnered with the NCAA to assist with both funding and programming around the Final Four. This year’s event will take place at the NCAA Fan Fest at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio beginning on Friday, March 30. More details will be announced in the coming days.
To advance through the bracket, teams have two options. Option 1 is to play the game (two 20-minute halves, 2’s and 3’s, clock stops last two minutes, common fouls in last two minutes are 1-and-1). With geography part of the bracketing process as the postseason begins, the hope is several games can take place. Option 2 is determining the winner 50% by expected score of the game at a neutral site (by KPI) and 50% by fan vote. This allows for a team’s performance to be quantified as well as for managers to help generate fan votes for their school and managers. The expected score of the game (and hence 50% of the vote) is listed on the bracket for each matchup. Twitter polls will be used to determine the 50% fan vote and are going live with the bracket release on the afternoon of Monday, March 12.
Voting for the first round will run through Wednesday, March 14 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Voting and deadlines for future rounds will be announced as the tournament continues. Online polls can be found by following @ManagerGames_. The final eight teams left after three rounds of will advance to San Antonio to compete for the Manager Games National Championship.
Teams must play at least five (5) Manager Games to be selected into the tournament field. The top 64 teams by KPI to have met the minimum of five Manager Games by Sunday, March 11 will qualify for the Manager Games Postseason Tournament. The teams will be bracketed into four regions of 16 teams each using KPI Rankings. Conference matchups and geographical rematches will be encouraged to increase the chances of playing. Teams will be able to move up or down one seed line in the interest of geography. The Manager Games Postseason Tournament bracket will be announced Monday, March 12 so that matchups may overlap postseason tournaments.
172 schools from 25 Division I conferences participated in 387 Manager Games this year. Thanks to everyone for a great regular season, and good luck in the postseason!