NCAA men's college basketball

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Fill out your bracket. Battle local fans round by round. Turn every upset, buzzer-beater, and big win into more money for charity.

Nothing to join right now.

Dates for the next one are to be decided. They appear here as soon as they are — or pick another sport below, which may well be running.

What you buy

One buy-in covers the whole tournament, start to finish. You make every pick in one sitting, and that is the last thing it asks of you.

The tournament

once a season

You pick all sixty-three games of the bracket, in one sitting, before a ball is tipped.

5 battle rounds inside it, each against a fan from your own city — or, once in a while, a rivalry battle against another city altogether.

Round 1 (64 teams)20% at stake
Round 2 (32 teams)20% at stake
Round 3 (16 teams)20% at stake
Round 4 (8 teams)10% at stake
Round 5 (semifinals and championship)10% at stake

Banked for your charity the moment it locks10%

Mad4Change, which is what pays the card fees10%

That is the whole of it: 20 + 20 + 20 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 100. The first 10% is your charity’s whatever happens next, and we never ask you to cover the card fee on top. From $20, in whole dollars, and you can top it up until it locks.

The field

Who you are picking between, and what it took them to get there.

teams are invited

Thirty-two of them win their conference and are in automatically. A committee picks the other thirty-six on the strength of their season, and announces the whole field on one Sunday in March.

start the bracket proper

Four opening games cut sixty-eight down to sixty-four over two nights. Those four are not picked and are not battled — your bracket starts at sixty-four, with the winners already slotted in.

games to call

Four regions of sixteen, seeded one to sixteen. Every game knocks a team out, so the whole thing is sixty-three games and seventeen days.

How it works

Pick the winner of every game in the 64-team tournament bracket, and change it as often as you like until the opening round tips off.
Five battle rounds: tournament rounds 1 to 4, then the semifinals and championship together.
From that first tip-off your bracket is fixed — the one you lock in is the one you live with. Each battle compares the correct picks in that round's games.
Leave a game blank and your backup rule fills it in: the better seed, or the better record. We never use betting lines.

Every round is a new battle

Each round, you face one other fan. Pick more games correctly and you take a bigger share of the round for your charity. Then the slate resets, the matchups change, and you battle someone new.

Round 1new opponent
Round 2new opponent
Round 3new opponent
Round 4new opponent
Round 5new opponent

Round 1, Philadelphia

Made-up example

BlitzForGood

Won the round

Playing for Hometown Food Pantry

Correct picks

Stake

$20.00

SteelCitySteve

Lost the round

Playing for Kids' Hospital Fund

Correct picks

Stake

$20.00

BlitzForGood picked more games right, so the two stakes of $20.00 come together as $40.00:

$28.00

banked for Hometown Food Pantry

Guaranteed. It can never be lost again.

$12.00

carried into round 2

BlitzForGood starts the next round with more at stake.

SteelCitySteve keeps every dollar already banked for Kids' Hospital Fund, and still has a stake waiting in rounds 2 to 5.

Level on correct picks? We look at your score across every round so far, then at who called the games fewer fans got right. If you are still inseparable it is a genuine tie, and each of you keeps your own stake — split the same way a win is, so you both carry something into the next round. In the last round there is no next round, so it is all banked.

Who do you battle?

Your friends, in a group

Start a group, send the link by email or text, and you are matched inside your group first. It is the office pool, except the bragging rights come with donations.

Set your own buy-in for the group, at or above the $20 minimum.
Four ready members and your group plays on its own.
Friends in another city can join and you all battle each other — each of you still playing for a charity where you live.

Your city, in the open pool

No group? You are matched with another fan from your city. Different charities battling each other is the whole point, so the money moves around the city rather than in a circle.

Matched with someone who gave a similar amount, so it stays fair.
We avoid pairing you with the same charity, or the same opponent twice.
Odd number of fans? Three of you battle, and the top score takes both stakes.

Where a $100 donation goes

When the tournament starts, your donation gets put to work. Some is locked in for your charity right away, some is set aside for each battle round, and a small portion helps keep Mad4Change running.

Then the fun starts. Each round gives you a chance to steal a bigger share of the money for your charity. Lose one battle? No problem. You’re back the next round with a new opponent and another shot to take more for your cause.

An example of how a stretch like this one splits. Each stretch carries its own figures, and you will see them before you donate to it.

Block	Share	Amount
At stake in Round 1 (64 teams)	20%	$20.00
At stake in Round 2 (32 teams)	20%	$20.00
At stake in Round 3 (16 teams)	20%	$20.00
At stake in Round 4 (8 teams)	10%	$10.00
At stake in Round 5 (semifinals and championship)	10%	$10.00
Banked for your charity right away	10%	$10.00
Mad4Change operational expenses	10%	$10.00

Win a round and you take your opponent's stake for it: a percentage is banked for your charity and the rest carries into your next round. The last round banks everything.

What if I win every round?

Assuming each opponent staked the same as you. This is the best case, not a promise.

Round	You stake	Round total	Banked	Carried
Banked at the start	—	—	$10.00	—
Round 1 (64 teams)	$20.00	$40.00	$28.00	$12.00
Round 2 (32 teams)	$32.00	$64.00	$44.80	$19.20
Round 3 (16 teams)	$39.20	$78.40	$54.88	$23.52
Round 4 (8 teams)	$33.52	$67.04	$46.93	$20.11
Round 5 (semifinals and championship)	$30.11	$60.22	$60.22	—
Total for your charity			$244.83

Lose every round instead and your charity still keeps the $10.00 banked at the start, while your stakes bank for other fans' charities. Either way, 90% of every dollar reaches a charity.

Worth knowing about NCAA men's college basketball

Busted stays busted

The whole bracket is picked before a ball is tipped and then fixed, so if your teams go out early there is no re-picking. That is the game rather than a failure of it: the stake you lose goes to your opponent's charity, which is another charity in your own city, so the money never leaves the cause — it only changes which one.

When it runs

2026 tournament
Registration opens
March 1, 2026
First game
March 17, 2026
Last game
April 6, 2026
2027 tournament
Registration opens
March 1, 2027
First game
March 18, 2027
Last game
April 5, 2027

Dates are from the published schedule and can move for television. Picks close the moment your first game starts, and we remind you before that.

City vs city

Example — the real race starts when the first season opens

Battle local fans. Back local charities. Keep the money in your city.

Then, when a rivalry battle comes up, your city gets a chance to steal a bigger share from another city’s total — all while competing to see which city can raise the most for home.

Philadelphia

Leading

Philadelphia and South Jersey

$6,417.50

banked for Philadelphia charities

Fans playing: 174
Per fan: $36.88

Pittsburgh

Western Pennsylvania

$4,863.00

banked for Pittsburgh charities

Fans playing: 118
Per fan: $41.21

Philadelphia: $6,417.50
Pittsburgh: $4,863.00
Combined: $11,280.50 for local charities

Philadelphia leads on the total, but Pittsburgh fans bank more each ($41.21 per fan). Bring more fans and the total follows.

Not in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh? You can still play: pick the city you want to raise money for.

The other sports

NFL football NCAA college football MLB postseason NBA playoffs NHL playoffs International soccer