With the continued help and support of the NCAA, the Second Annual Manager Games Postseason Tournament will again culminate at the NCAA Final Four. This year’s event will take place at the NCAA Fan Fest at the Phoenix Convention Center beginning on Friday, March 31.
While there is reason for optimism about sponsorship to help cover costs related to the event in the future, that does not appear to be on track until the 2018 Manager Games Postseason Tournament. In the interim, a GoFundMe account has again been established to cover travel expenses and send managers to Phoenix. Our goal is $25,000 to cover air and hotel costs. Knowing that travel to Phoenix is a bit more challenging, we are hopeful that each team of managers will help us raise $300. Please list your favorite school in the comments section of the donation. All funds will be split evenly among the teams participating in Phoenix. Click here to donate to the Manager Games Postseason Tournament Fund. Thank you for your help in making this event a success.
If we are able to raise enough money prior to reaching the quarterfinals, we have plans in place to send as many as eight teams to Phoenix. This is contingent on being able to cover the travel costs.
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 12 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 13 so that matchups may overlap postseason tournaments.
Mock Bracket (as of Feb. 27)
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. 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 again be used to determine the 50% fan vote. Nearly 150,000 votes were cast during the inaugural 2016 Tournament.
As an example, the expected score of Western Kentucky and Florida State is Western Kentucky 68, Florida State 67. WKU would have 50.3% of the expected score, and FSU would have 49.7%. When adding the fan vote, the team with the most combined percentage points will win. The expected score (based on 100 total points) will be posted with the matchup when fan voting begins.
All results of regular season games will be official at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 12. It is the responsibility of each team to check for any errors in reported results. Information on voting will be released with the bracket.
As of February 27, 163 schools from 27 conferences have participated in 344 Manager Games across the country. 68 schools are already eligible for selection into the Postseason Tournament by having played five games entering the stretch run.
For more information on Manager Games, follow @ManagerGames_ and @KPISports on Twitter.