Here at Box Seat Banter, we primarily focus on baseball, but that is not our only focus. For the glorious month of the sports calendar that runs from mid March through mid April, a large focus of our attention is on March Madness.
The NCAA Basketball Tournament is the most exciting postseason format in sports, and millions of people fill out brackets, trying to predict the winners of every game. While it can be fun to fill out a bracket, highlight all of your winning teams, and hope to get four teams into the Final 4, even more fun can be had with a Player Pool.
A Player Pool is essentially fantasy sports for March Madness. Players are drafted (the method of draft can be up to you, but auction and snake drafts are the most common) and teams are assembled. The amount of participants can vary, but we have found 10 participants, each drafting 10 players, to be the sweet spot. Whichever team has the most points scored at the end of the Tournament is the winner. Unlike other fantasy sports that take months to complete, with rosters that have to be monitored almost daily, a Player Pool is a set it and forget it model. Once your team is drafted, there is no work to be done, no lineup to be set. And the NCAA Tournament is a flash of excitement that takes place over three weekends, keeping participants fully engaged the entire time.
Participating in a Player Pool creates a whole new dynamic to watching the Tournament. There are more layers to watching compared to just wanting your alma mater or favorite school or the teams you picked or the big underdogs to win. You now want the schools your players are on to win, but also want your players to get plenty of shots and points. Since we only track points, assists, rebounds, and other stats are somewhat inconsequential. Sure, they may help the team win, which helps get your player more opportunities to score, but points are the bottom line.
It should be noted that a Player Pool could be run where rebounds, assists, and other stats are counted. Points only, however, is the most popular and straightforward way to run a Player Pool.
Participating in a Player Pool also gives the people a feeling of exclusivity. Everyone, from the President to co-workers, fills out a bracket. People even find ways for their toddlers and pets to fill out brackets. Only a few people are in Player Pools. It is far easier than it seems, too. You do not need to watch college basketball from October through March, and have a full understanding of the rosters of all 64 (or even 68) teams in the Tournament. Being able to identify who top scorers on teams that make deep Tournament runs is really all that is needed. Most of this is done looking at a stat sheet without ever seeing most of the players play until the Tournament actually starts.
We have been running our Player Pool since 2009, making some minor changes along the way. We started with only 4 people in our inaugural year, expanding along the way until finally reaching 10 members. Some of the members have come and gone, but one constant is everyone who plays is all in on the Player Pool. Linked below are a few spreadsheets with some historical data from our Player Pool. The Player Pool Retrospective has the standings for every Player Pool, as well as some other relevant information. The Player Pool Charts has graphs for each year, as well as the entirety of the Player Pool, that show performance based on auction price. Finally, the Player Pool Individual and School Scoring Leaders has individual stats as well as school stats for all players drafted in the Player Pool era.
I hope you enjoy looking into our Player Pool world, and maybe you will be inspired to participate in your own Player Pool. Feel free to reach out with and questions or comments about Player Pools, whether you need help getting started, you want to share your experiences with Player Pools, or you have some advice for us to implement in our Player Pool.
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