This year, trade in your March Madness bracket pool for a fantasy draft!
Just about everyone does a March Madness bracket these days. You gotta do it. March Madness comes in like a lion and takes over the sports zeitgeist in those last few weeks before the NBA playoffs and baseball’s first pitch.
Look, brackets are great. You fill in 63 tiny lines with winners and root them on all the way to the Final Four, racking up points amidst an orgy of games. Great fun, really. But in the end, that one final line trumps everything else. If you don’t pick the right champion, you’re not winning your bracket pool. For all the talk of Cinderellas and sleepers, you get that last pick right or go home a loser.
Isn’t that a bit unfair? Aren’t you still a little upset you got no recognition despite nailing 7-seed South Carolina’s Final Four run AND throwing 11-seed Xavier into your Elite Eight? It felt so good getting those sleeper picks right, but it was all for naught when your champ Louisville lost opening weekend.
Enter the March Madness draft, where picks are rewarded not just for winning a lot of games but also for overachieving expectations. Picking a North Carolina vs. Gonzaga final last year was smart, but it was also boring. Anyone can pick 1-seeds to win a bunch of games. Shouldn’t you be rewarded for your sleeper picks? And wouldn’t it be more fun if you could claim South Carolina as a sleeper all to yourself?
Besides, who doesn’t love a good fantasy draft? Here’s how it works…
The Rules
You and your friends draft March Madness teams once the bracket comes out. Each team gets one score at the end of the tournament based on how much a team outperformed its seed expectations. Most total points wins. You need at least four drafters, and you can use any number up to about 16, odd or even.
Your draft should be long enough so about 55 to 60 teams are taken. If there’s six of you drafting, do 10 rounds. If there’s 12 drafters, you each get five picks. You do the math. Don’t draft all 68 teams. No one knows anything about the last few teams anyway, and you shouldn’t get huge points because you lucked into some random 16-seed winning a game with the #64 pick. If you want that deep sleeper, pick them earlier.
Draft snake-style. Whoever picks last in the first round leads off the second round. It’s not as big an advantage to pick first as you think.
You can decide what you’re playing for. If you need a little cash on the line, put everyone in for five or ten bucks and give the whole purse to the winner. Or just play for pride. Whatever works.
The Scoring System
The key to this entire thing is the scoring setup. The better a team’s seed, the fewer points they can earn. Everyone knows 1- and 2-seeds are supposed to win a bunch of games. The goal isn’t just to pick teams that go far, but teams that outperform expectations.
Last year, a 1-seed won the whole tournament, but that happens fairly often. The more shocking event was a 7-seed making the Final Four for the third time since 1985. South Carolina joined 2014 Connecticut and 2015 Michigan State to make it three of the past four years for 7-seed Final Fours after none in the first 29 years of the 64-team bracket. SC’s run was worth 20 points, just as much as 1-seed North Carolina’s 20 points for winning it all.
Remember, you get one final score for each team at the end of their run. Here’s our scoring system, set to mirror history and the odds of a seed making it to each round.
1-seed
Round of 32 — 0 Sweet 16 — 2 Elite 8 — 4 Final Four — 7 Runner-up — 12 Champion — 20
2-seed
Round of 32 — 1 Sweet 16 — 2 Elite 8 — 5 Final Four — 9 Runner-up — 14 Champion — 23
3-seed
Round of 32 — 1 Sweet 16 — 2 Elite 8 — 6 Final Four — 12 Runner-up — 16 Champion — 25
4- or 5-seed
Round of 32 — 1 Sweet 16 — 3 Elite 8 — 8 Final Four — 15 Runner-up — 20 Champion — 30
6- or 7-seed
Round of 32 — 1 Sweet 16 — 4 Elite 8 — 10 Final Four — 20 Runner-up — 28 Champion — 35
8- or 9- or 10-seed
Round of 32 — 2 Sweet 16 — 5 Elite 8 — 12 Final Four — 25 Runner-up — 35 Champion — 45
11- or 12- or 13-seed
Round of 32 — 3 Sweet 16 — 6 Elite 8 — 15 Final Four — 30 Runner-up — 40 Champion — 50
14- or 15-seed
Round of 32 — 5 Sweet 16 — 12 Elite 8 — 20 Final Four — 32 Runner-up — 40 Champion — 50
16-seed
Round of 32 — 10 Sweet 16 — 20 Elite 8 — 35 Final Four — 50 Runner-up — you win Champion — whatever
So if you pick a 2-seed that loses immediately, you get nothing. Lose their second game, and you get a point. Two wins is two points. Making it to the Final Four and losing is worth nine, and winning the whole thing is worth 23.
Notice what sort of things are worth the same number of points. We already noted 1-seed UNC winning it all being worth the same number of points as 7-seed South Carolina making the Final Four. You could also get those 20 points from a 5-seed runner-up or from a 14-seed run to the Elite 8.
Just one win by a 15-seed is worth five points, while your 8-seed has to win twice. Makes sense, right? Your 15 has to beat a 2-seed to earn those points, and your 8 has to beat a 1-seed. Both are rare but not impossible. A 2-seed must make it to the Elite 8 to earn those five points, and a 1-seed has to make it all the way to the Final Four to best the total.
In the end, every pick matters. North Carolina went first in our draft last yea, but South Carolina netted just as many at pick #47 and Xavier was the third leading scorer at pick #33. Here are last year’s results:
Last Year’s Draft Results
Avery — 35
(1) North Carolina — Champion — 20 (3) Oregon — Final Four — 12 (5) Virginia — Round of 32 — 1 (6) Maryland — 0 (9) Michigan State — Round of 32 — 2 (14) Kent State — 0 (10) VCU — 0 (13) Winthrop — 0
Strategy — Avery won our 2017 draft on the strength of her top two picks, but she needed every point from her two Final Four teams. North Carolina turned out to be the correct #1 pick overall as they scored 20 points to lead all teams, but Oregon’s Final Four run was nearly as valuable for Avery.
Brian — 28
(1) Gonzaga — Runner-up — 12 (4) Purdue — Round of 32 — 1 (4) Butler — Sweet 16 — 3 (4) Florida — Elite 8 — 8 (3) Baylor — Sweet 16 — 2 (8) Arkansas — Round of 32 — 2 (10) Oklahoma State — 0 (9) Seton Hall — 0
Strategy — Brian made the chalkiest picks of the draft, with five top-4 seeds. Each of his top six picks won at least one game. Gonzaga was his only team to win more than twice, but still he would have been the champion if Gonzaga had come through in the final game. Turns out all those points add up.
Chris — 19
(2) Arizona — Sweet 16 — 2 (3) UCLA — Sweet 16 — 2 (10) Marquette — 0 (11) Xavier — Elite 8 — 15 (13) Vermont — 0 (9) Vanderbilt — 0 (14) Iona — 0 (9) Virginia Tech — 0
Strategy — Chris went all-in on the PAC-12, going with Arizona and UCLA before loading up on a slew of mid-range sleepers. Xavier was one win away from winning him the contest, but they also knocked out his top pick Arizona.
Dory — 6
(2) Duke — Round of 32 — 1 (4) West Virginia — Sweet 16 — 3 (5) Iowa State — Round of 32 — 1 (14) Florida Gulf Coast — 0 (5) Notre Dame — Round of 32 — 1 (6) Creighton — 0 (12) UNC Wilmington — 0 (5) Minnesota — 0
Strategy — Dory ended up with six teams seeded 6 or higher, but only one of them made the second weekend. Turns out there was a reason everyone passed on all those 5- and 6-seeds. That’s what you get for taking Duke.
Eric — 34
(2) Kentucky — Elite 8 — 5 (1) Villanova — Round of 32 — 0 (7) Michigan — Sweet 16 — 4 (3) Florida State — Round of 32 — 1 (6) Cincinnati — Round of 32 — 1 (8) Miami — 0 (7) South Carolina — Final Four — 20 (11) USC / Providence — Round of 32 — 3
Strategy — Eric was the leader heading into the final game thanks to a USC double-down to end his draft. All but one of his teams won at least one game, but none of that would’ve meant much if not for South Carolina’s deep run.
Fergie — 12
(1) Kansas — Elite 8 — 4 (2) Louisville — Round of 32 — 1 (8) Wisconsin — Sweet 16 — 5 (12) Princeton — 0 (7) Dayton — 0 (8) Northwestern — Round of 32 — 2 (14) New Mexico State — 0 (15) Northern Kentucky — 0
Strategy — Fergie went with an interesting strategy, using her first two picks to double down on the 1- and 2-seeds in the Midwest quadrant. Most drafters tend to spread their picks out across the bracket, and when neither Kansas nor Louisville won the Midwest, Fergie was doomed.
Geoff — 9
(6) SMU — 0 (10) Wichita State — Round of 32 — 2 (7) St. Mary’s — Round of 32 — 1 (12) Middle Tennessee State — Round of 32 — 3 (11) Rhode Island — Round of 32 — 3 (11) Kansas State / Wake Forest — 0 (16) Texas Southern — 0 (13) Bucknell — 0
Strategy — It was sleepers or bust for Geoff, and he busted. It actually looked pretty good after one round with wins by 7, 10, 11, and 12-seeds, but none of Geoff’s teams advanced past the first weekend and that was that.
The Strategy
The most valuable picks last year were North and South Carolina, followed by Xavier, Oregon, Gonzaga, and Florida.
The most valuable pick in 2016 was 10-seed Syracuse, who scored 25 points for their shock Final Four run, taken #57 in the draft. Champion Villanova scored 23 as the 13th pick of the draft. The wildest draft was 2014, when chaos erupted and pitted 7-seed Connecticut with 8-seed Kentucky in the finals. Both were worth a whopping 35 points. These top-scoring picks came from here and there, throughout our drafts.
So what’s the best strategy?
Easy — pick teams that go far, and pick ones that go far unexpectedly. Anyone can put all 1- and 2-seeds in their Final Four. Do you think your favorite 12-seed could make it all the way to the Elite 8? Do you have this year’s sleeper 7-seed that could make it all the way to San Antonio? You’ll bust if you’re wrong, but those teams might make great second or third picks here.
You should probably spread your teams out across the four quadrants. No need to corner yourself and put all your eggs in one basket. And don’t just blindly pick the top seeds just because they’re available! Sometimes they’re available for a reason.
Other than that, it’s up to you. You can tweak the scoring or make your own if you like. Go ahead, have some fun with it. And may the best drafter win!
Follow Brandon on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, humor, TV, pop culture, and life musings. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here.
Thanks to drafters Richard, Luke, Tyler, David, Mike, and wpwells, whose names were changed to avoid completely embarrassing Wes for absurdly awful drafting.
