With the help and support of the NCAA, the #managergames semifinals will be played at the NCAA Fan Fest at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston on Friday, April 1. Tip time is tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT.
A GoFundMe account has been established to cover travel expenses for the four semifinalists to get to Houston as they pursue the 2016 #managergames championship. The goal of the fund is $10,000, with 100% of funds raised being split evenly four ways among the four semifinalist schools to minimize travel costs. Click here to donate to the #managergames Fund.
Manager Games were featured on College Gameday on March 12:
Current third round matchups run through Wednesday, March 16 at 11:59 p.m. ET:
- WEST REGION: (1) Kansas vs. (5) Dayton
- WEST REGION: (2) Georgia Tech vs. (6) Pittsburgh
- MIDWEST REGION: (1) Wisconsin vs. (5) Michigan
- MIDWEST REGION: (6) Michigan State vs. (7) Nebraska
- SOUTH REGION: (8) Virginia vs. (12) Georgia
- SOUTH REGION: (3) Tennessee vs. (7) Tennessee Tech
- EAST REGION: (5) Wichita State vs. (9) Iowa State
- EAST REGION: (2) Arkansas vs. (3) West Virginia
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, the hope is several games can take place (Georgia and Vanderbilt played their first round game in Nashville at the SEC Tournament). 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 live now. Entering Wednesday, March 16, the Twitter polls have generated nearly 100,000 votes.
In order to be eligible for the 2016 Manager Games Postseason Tournament, teams had to play a minimum of four games and be among the Top 64 teams ranked in KPI by Saturday, March 5. At midnight Saturday night, scores became official. The teams were bracketed into four regions of 16 teams each using KPI Rankings to determine a 1-64 seed list. NCAA Tournament bracketing principles were used with one exception: conference matchups and geographical rematches were encouraged to increase the chances of playing. 12 teams moved up or down one seed line in the interest of geography. In all, 137 schools from 25 different conferences took part in 275 Manager Games this year. Many thanks to ESPN.com, the New York Times, and several others for incredible features on Manager Games.
For more information on Manager Games, follow @B1GManagerHoops and @KPISports on Twitter.