How NCAAB Survivor Upgrades March Madness

Everybody fills out a bracket. You, your brother, Aunt Tina, that smelly guy who sits across from you at work. I can say with certainty that you know at least two dogs in your life that have filled out NCAA Tournament brackets, maybe even a cat, depending on the circles you run in. Whether you breathe college basketball or think Izzo is a Jay-Z bar, March means acquainting yourself with the magic of the Madness.

From now on, there’s even more to look forward to in March. This spring, Splash has unveiled NCAAB Survivor, adding another exciting layer for fans of the Big Dance. The way it works is simple: pick one winner on each day of the tournament, without double dipping, and let your clairvoyance carry you to the cash. If there comes a point where you have no active teams left available for you to pick, you will also find yourself on the outside looking in as if you had lobbied for a loser.

The rules are basic, but the strategy isn’t. When do you use the No. 1 seeds? When do you risk your survival on a Cinderella? What qualities should you consider when making your picks?

There are plenty of avenues to explore in NCAAB Survivor, and the route you take is up to you. I’m not here to develop a strategy for you. I’m here to explain why Splash’s latest innovation upgrades what is already the sports calendar’s greatest event (in my humble and objective opinion).

Survivor Paints a Picture

The people who perform the best in March Madness bracket pools every year are the ones who can correctly predict the teams still dancing late into the month and in April. Sure, it’s nice to pick up a point that most competitors won’t by accurately assessing which No. 13 seed will shock its No. 4 seed, but the people who foresaw Connecticut’s coronation in 2023 were the ones adding money to their bank accounts. That is simply the nature of the beast.

NCAAB Survivor can help you look at the future in a different way that can come in handy in your bracket contests, too. When making Survivor selections, you have to think ahead. You have to plan out, or at least have a rough idea, of which teams you intend to pick as the rounds rotate. Once you attack the tournament through this lens, it provides an alternate perspective on how to approach your predictions. Rather than get wrapped up in filling out your bracket in an ad hoc manner, you can use your Survivor road map to paint a wider picture of the grand scheme. 

When done in conjunction with one another, planning out a Survivor strategy and dissecting the bracket go hand-in-hand. Don’t get me wrong - just because you enter into an NCAAB Survivor contest does not mean you are guaranteed success in your bracket pool or pools. But shifting your angle can be incredibly insightful, both for seeing into the March Madness crystal ball and in life as a whole (who knew there would be life advice in this article? You’re welcome.).

Survivor Streamlines

The first round of the NCAA Tournament includes 64 teams, and the six standard rounds of the event manifest through 63 games. Every single one of those will impact your bracket, whether you know anything about the teams, care to watch the games, or even remember their happening at all.

Suppose your focus during the season only extends to one or two conferences. Maybe you only branch out to a few teams. Survivor allows you to take advantage of that specialized expertise in a way that a regular bracket can’t.

Suppose as well that you have a life, and even though you may love college basketball, you can’t spend hours on end for days in a row mainlining the chaos on courts across the country. With Survivor, you can have one game on each day of the tournament that means everything to you, or at least means more to you than the rest. For someone short on time this March, the ability to circle one contest that you are sure to catch can add an incredible amount to the experience.

Nothing Is Lost

Splash’s NCAAB Survivor does not take anything away from filling out and submitting a bracket or 20 into all the pools that your heart desires. Go wild picking that No. 14 seed to go all the way to the Elite Eight, or yet again put your eggs in the Big Ten basket. You can make all the same classic mistakes in your bracket, but as long as you get it right each day in Survivor, you will remain alive and well. 

Survivor is a bonus. It detracts nothing from the roller coaster ride offered from traditional bracket pools. It only enhances the spectacle of March Madness, especially if you’re good at evaluating the matchups and thinking ahead. It’s just one more way to enjoy the annual celebration of basketball. 

Engage with Friends in a New Way

Growing up, I was the guy who ran the school’s bracket pool. I would collect the cash buy-in by hand, and the entrants would turn in their handwritten brackets that I would progressively grade manually as the tournament wore on. I would periodically update the masses on the standings in that year’s Facebook group, and those lucky few who finished in money positions would receive their winnings in-person, probably on school premises. Those were the dark ages. 

If only 15-year-old me had access to Splash and NCAAB Survivor. Not only would it have saved me and the competitors hours of time and energy, it would have opened us up to a totally new  world.  

Survivor can transform how you and your friends interact with the madness of March. You can customize your contest to fit your exact needs, like how many of the tournament’s 10 days to include or opting in to the infusion of the double picks wrinkle, which forces entrants to survive with two selections in a given day or round. Buy-in collection is a breeze, and you can always access our Knowledge Center for help with management and more. We’ve come a long way since the 2000s. 

There Is $100,000 on the Line

You don’t need to host your own competition or know someone who is to make six figures on your college basketball knowledge this March. Splash is hosting the $100K NCAAB Survivor contest, a winner-take-all marathon that will handsomely reward the person who can navigate the Big Dance the longest. 

Each entry costs $25, and you can enter up to 133 times. That means that you can improve your chance at winning the $100,000 almost as much as you want. Splash has never allowed entrants an opportunity like this before. Go crazy!