International disclaimer: The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), the body that regulates college sports in the US, starts its national college basketball tournament today. Popularly known as “March Madness”, the 64-team, single-elimination tournament is often the subject of office betting pools. Like other popular office pools, many of the participants may have only a passing knowledge of the game.
I don’t follow college ball, have never worked where anyone runs a tournament bracket pool, and wouldn’t play if I did. I’ve got a stupid question on how these work, strictly from a operational interest. What determines who wins the pool?
Say I pick the tournament winning team through its six games but get the entire rest of the bracket wrong. Say someone else picks all the games correctly except the final one. I picked the tournament winner, but he picked the most correct games. Do I win or does he? Or does it vary, determined by who’s running the pool?
