How to Follow the NCAA Playoff Pod System

By eHow Sports & Fitness Editor

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In the NCAA men's basketball tournament, a so-called pod system is used to regionalize four 16-team fields. Each region sends a representative team, its champion, to play in the penultimate and highly anticipated Final Four.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Understand the Pod System

Step1

Identify each of the four regional brackets of the NCAA basketball playoff tournament field. Each is comprised of 16 teams and 4 pods.

Step2

Learn to follow the pod seedings. Pod 1 is comprised of the number 1 seeded and the number 16 seeded teams, who meet in the first round, and the number 8 and number 9 teams, which also battle. Pod 2 is made up of number 2 vs. number 15 and number 7 vs. number 10. Pod 3 includes number 3 vs. number 14, and number 6 vs. number 11, while Pod 4 holds number 4 vs. number 13 and number 5 vs. number 12.

Step3

Notice that the pods are structured to ensure that the top 4 teams cannot possibly meet each other until there are only 4 teams left alive in the region.

Step4

Follow your team by learning the traditional schedule of the March Madness tournament. The tournament typically starts near the weekend, with its first-round games being held Thursday and/or Friday, and the second-round games going on Saturday and/or Sunday.

Step5

Watch the NCAA basketball tournament knowing that teams are not re-seeded in later rounds. In the pod system, a number 16 team can meet a number 15 team in the second round if both lower-ranked clubs upset their higher-ranked opponents in the first round.

Step6

Follow the tournament as it unfolds, watching for any Cinderella teams gaining momentum thanks to breaks they catch in the pod system. Because the NCAA men's basketball tournament has a single elimination playoff format, it is possible for a team with low expectations to advance very far by hitting a hot streak.

Tips & Warnings

Work your knowledge of the NCAA's playoff pod system into any sports pools in which you might be taking part. Work through all the possible combinations of winning teams to make your predictions for the second round.
The Final Four pairings have changed to reseed the Final Four teams against each other. This ensures that the two top teams in the Final Four do not meet in the semifinals.
Don't bet on a number 16 team upsetting a number 1 team in the first round of the tournament.