home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Share Gallery 1
/
share_gal_1.zip
/
share_gal_1
/
HD
/
HD064.ZIP
/
NCAAPOOL.DOC
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-07-24
|
18KB
|
523 lines
NCAAPOOL 1 version 3.0
NCAAPOOL
A Pool Management Tool
by
Tom Cunningham
1 Introduction.
If you've ever organized a pool on the NCAA basketball
tournament, you know what a hassle it can be. First the easy part:
You make a lot of copies of the tournament tree from the newspaper
and distribute them and get everyone to fill them out and returned
to you in time. Then the REAL hassles start: Every round you have
to check a couple of dozen of these sheets and tabulate the results
in some sort of meaningful way. You give out the results and
everyone wants to know why they aren't winning. You have to spend a
couple of hours compiling detailed individual statistics for each
round to keep everyone satisfied. It's a hassle. NCAAPOOL was
created to eliminate that hassle.
NCAAPOOL was created to manage office pools for the annual
NCAA basketball tournament. Pool participants would fill out the
tournament tree found in any newspaper's sports section, selecting
who they think would win each game and each resulting game between
winners in previous rounds until the final tournament winner
emerged. There are currently 64 teams that start the
single-elimination tournament, so 63 games over the span of 6
rounds, taking about two weeks, need to be played to determine the
ultimate winner.
The problem is that the pool participants want to know how
they are doing as the tournament progresses, and taking out their
choice sheets and marking them against the progress of the
tournament is a time-consuming pain. The problem gets worse when
different participants use different newspapers to get their
tournament tree setups, so there are different forms that slow the
tallying process and encourage mistakes.
Out of this came NCAAPOOL. Once the basic first-round team
structure is entered, everything is automatic. The pool
participants' choices are easy to enter even if they are using
different basic forms (since the underlying structure of the
tournament is set by the first-round pairings which NCAAPOOL tracks
automatically). The results of the tournament can be entered on a
round-by-round basis, and reports for both individuals and the
overall pool generated as you desire. NCAAPOOL takes the hassle
NCAAPOOL 2 version 3.0
(and a good many of the potential mistakes) out of organizing a
pool.
2 Licensing Agreement and Registration.
NCAAPOOL has taken many hours to program and debug. It is
copyrighted software and it is not in the public domain. It is
distributed under the Shareware concept. You may try out the
program and distribute it freely (so long as both the program and
this documentation file are distributed together). You have a
limited license to use NCAAPOOL on a purely trial basis. If you
continue to use NCAAPOOL you must register it by sending a check for
$20 to:
Tom Cunningham
P.O. Box 3015
Atlanta, GA 30301-3015
When you register, you gain the right to continue to use this
software. In addition, I will send you the latest, registered
version of NCAAPOOL, and further updates will be made available at
nominal cost.
This version of NCAAPOOL only supports fifteen participants.
The registered version of NCAAPOOL extends that to 300.
You may distribute copies of NCAAPOOL only under the condition
that the program is unmodified and this complete NCAAPOOL.DOC file
is included.
Your registration makes products like these possible. Thank
you for your support!
NCAAPOOL 3 version 3.0
3 Registration Form.
To register NCAAPOOL (and NFLPOOL) fill in the information on
this page and send it in.
_____ I would like to register NCAAPOOL and receive my own
copy of this registered version of the program. I enclose a check
for $20.
_____ I would like to register my use of NCAAPOOL and NFLPOOL
(described below). I enclose a check of $29 (normal registration of
both would be $40).
Note: If you want Express Mail delivery (I have been amazed at
the number of people that do), please add $10. Otherwise the
registered version will be sent First Class.
Send checks to:
Tom Cunningham
P.O. Box 3015
Atlanta, GA 30301-3015
NAME: _____________________________________________________
ADDRESS: __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
COMPUTER: _________________________________________________
WHERE DID YOU GET NCAAPOOL: _______________________________
DISK SIZE: 5.25" 3.5"
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS:
NCAAPOOL 4 version 3.0
4 Legal Disclaimer.
This software is provided strictly on an "as is" basis. I
make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including, but
not limited to, any warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for
any particular purpose. I shall not be liable for any damages,
whether direct, indirect, special or consequential, arising from
failure of the product to operate in the manner desired by the
user. I shall not be liable for any damage to data or property
which may be caused directly or indirectly by the use of this
product. I shall not be liable to the user for any damages
including, but not limited to, any lost profits, lost savings, or
other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use
of, or inability to use, the product, or for any claim by any other
party.
5 Running NCAAPOOL.
To start NCAAPOOL, simply copy the program NCAAPOOL.EXE onto
the disk or directory you intend to use (it is never a good idea to
work from your original disk. Always work with a copy). Make sure
the logged directory corresponds to the location of the program
(i.e., if you are running the program from the A: disk drive, make
sure you have the program on the disk in A: and have an A> prompt,
or put the program in, say, C:\NCAAPOOL, and change to that
directory), and type NCAAPOOL. The program takes it from there,
creating the necessary data files and moving on to setting up the
tournament.
5.1 Setting up the tournament.
The NCAA tournament is comprised of four divisions: the East,
the Southeast, the Midwest, and the West. Each division has 16
teams, making a total of 64. The four division winners are then
paired in the semi-finals, and those two winners play in the
finals.
NCAAPOOL asks you to enter the 64 team names according to
their first-round sequence. It begins with Division 1 (see the next
NCAAPOOL 5 version 3.0
paragraph for an explanation of Divisions), team 1. Type in the team
name and hit <return>. You are then asked for team 2, which plays
team 1 in the first round (the team numbers are NOT the seeding in
the tournament). Similarly, team 3 plays team 4, 5 plays 6, and so
on. Thus in round 2 (which NCAAPOOL handles for you -- you only
enter team names once) the winner of the 1 versus 2 game meets the
winner of the 3 versus 4 game. All that is happening is that you
are entering the first round teams in the sequence in which they
appear in the beginning of the tournament tree. You do the same
thing with Division 2, 3, and 4 (the team numbers continue through
64 rather than resetting with each Division -- I have found this to
be less confusing). Every 16 teams you are asked to check your
work, since everything in the program works off of this initial
tree. The team names should appear in the same order as in the
tournament tree in the newspaper (with the teams in the first round
games appearing next to their opponent). See the following
example.
EXAMPLE:
DIVISION 1
__(team 1 name*)___
__(team 2 name*)___ > --(winner of 1 v 2)--
> -- winner ... etc...
__(team 3 name*)___
__(team 4 name*)___ > --(winner of 3 v 4)--
.
.
.
*You enter only these names. NCAAPOOL tracks the rest of the
tournament for you.
Why NCAAPOOL does not use division names: The pairings in the
semi-final round are not always the same. That is, the winner of
the East division may play the winner of the Southeast division one
year, and next year play the winner of the West, or the Midwest, or
even the Southeast again. Because of this, I haven't given the
divisions names, just numbers. The winner of Division 1 is assumed
to meet the winner of Division 2 in the semi-finals (and Division 3
meets Division 4). Look at the organization of the tournament this
year and make sure that you make the correct pairings of divisions,
as, again, entering the 64 teams in the proper initial order is
critical. For example, if the semi-finals have the winner of the
East meeting the winner of the Midwest and the winner of the
Southeast meeting the winner of the West, then the East and the
Midwest must be Divisions 1 and 2 (or 3 and 4) and the Southeast and
the West must then be Divisions 3 and 4 (or 1 and 2).
NCAAPOOL 6 version 3.0
EXAMPLE:
Semi-Finals Finals
__(Division 1 winner)___
__(Division 2 winner)___ > --(winner of 1 v 2)--
> --WINNER
__(Division 3 winner)___
__(Division 4 winner)___ > --(winner of 3 v 4)--
You really shouldn't worry too much about making a mistake in
setting up the tournament. As soon as you start entering
participants' choices, you'll see if you got it right. If you make
a mistake, simply exit NCAAPOOL and delete all the files except
NCAAPOOL.EXE.
5.2 Entering participants' choices.
After you have entered the tournament structure, you are asked
if you wish to enter participants choices. You then enter the
number of pool participants, their names, and their choices. Since
the entire structure of the tournament is determined by the
first-round setup you've already entered, entering the choices of
the participants is easy! Round 1 consists of 32 games, the winners
of which enter round 2. The 16 round 2 winners move to round 3. The
8 round 3 winners go to round 4, etc. NCAAPOOL tracks the outcomes
of the games chosen and presents you, the pool manager, with the
appropriate team names from which to chose for each game of each
round. When you have finished entering the participants, and every
time you re-start NCAAPOOL, you will be asked if you wish to enter
additional participants. NCAAPOOL allows you to add participants at
any time, though how you wish to deal with latecomers is up to you.
5.3 Entering and updating the tournament results.
After the tournament structure and participants' choices are
entered the pool is set up and NCAAPOOL will ask if you have round 1
results. If not, simply answer no, and run NCAAPOOL when you get
the first round outcome. Whenever you re-start NCAAPOOL, it
automatically brings you to the latest round for which it does not
have results. For example, if you exited NCAAPOOL after you had
everyones choices, but the tournament had yet to start, when you
NCAAPOOL 7 version 3.0
re-start NCAAPOOL it will ask for round 1 results. If you had
already entered results for some rounds, it will ask immediately for
the appropriate round (if NCAAPOOL has the complete tournament
outcome, it will skip this entirely). Again, since the tournament
structure is determined by the first round, NCAAPOOL will track the
winners and the match-ups and simply present you with the
appropriate choices for the game.
5.4 Getting the results.
Any time you finish entering results, NCAAPOOL asks if you
would like results printed. First, NCAAPOOL asks if you would
consensus picks. This lists the participants' choices for the Final
Four, the Final Two and the ultimate winner of the tournament. You
really only need to print this once, and probably ought to do it
immediately after you've entered all your participants' choices, so
you can keep track of the big upsets as the tournament progresses.
(This is something you might want to photocopy for everyone, so they
can see where their choices match up with everyone else's.)
Next, NCAAPOOL asks if you would like individual results.
This prints the results for each individual's choices for the
tournament so far. If you would like results for individual
participants, they must be printed because the results cannot be
meaningfully displayed on the screen (for example, if you print
individual results at the end of the tournament, each participant
will see the result of 63 choices spread over 6 rounds).
After NCAAPOOL asks about individual reports, it offers a
tally of the overall pool, showing the number of correct choices
everyone has made. (This is the whole point of the pool!) This can
be printed, or displayed on the screen, or both. The registered
version of NCAAPOOL provides for a weighting system that you select
that allows for different rounds to be given different values (i.e.,
each correct pick in each round may be given a different value that
correct picks in other rounds).
5.5 Resetting NCAAPOOL for another tournament.
Whenever NCAAPOOL is started it checks for the existance of
some data files. If it doesn't find them it will create them. To
re-use NCAAPOOL for another tournament, simply erase all the files
except NCAAPOOL.EXE.
NCAAPOOL 8 version 3.0
6 A Plug for NFLPOOL.
NFLPOOL is quite similar to NCAAPOOL in that it helps you keep
track of participants' choices through the entire NFL season. It
will help you manage football pools that are organized along two
separate lines: week-by-week choices as the season progresses, or a
full-season pick occuring at the beginning of the season (or any
combination or permutation along the way). You can start the pool
in any week, and skip weeks, or whatever. NFLPOOL is designed to be
as flexible as possible to make it as useful as possible!
Normally NFLPOOL registration is $20, but if you register
NFLPOOL and NCAAPOOL together, the fee is $29, a savings of 27% on
both.
Thank you for using and registering NCAAPOOL!