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How to create a playoff bracket for a division

  • Updated

Tick Playoff on the division's 1 Configuration page and choose the bracket settings, then click Create on 4 Create Schedule > Playoff. TeamSideline puts the bracket games in the weeks after your regular season. Adjust the weeks and time slots, then click Calc & Save. With seeding by standings, team names fill in once every regular-season game has a result.

Applies to: Admins and schedulers · All plans (2nd Playoff: Enhanced plan and up; 3rd and 4th Playoff: Elite plan and up) · League divisions (tournament divisions build brackets on their own pages)

Where: Schedules > Leagues & Divisions > (division) > 1 Configuration > Scheduling, then 4 Create Schedule > Playoff

Step 1: Set up the playoff

  1. Go to Schedules > Leagues & Divisions and click the division's Edit Division icon (pencil).
  2. On 1 Configuration > Scheduling, under Division Schedule Types, tick Playoff. For more brackets in the same division, also tick 2nd Playoff, 3rd Playoff and 4th Playoff; each needs the one before it.
  3. Under Playoff Configurations, choose the Playoff Type, such as Single Elimination No Consolation, Double Elimination or Manual.
  4. Choose the # of Playoff Teams.
  5. If Playoff Version appears, choose a bracket layout. It appears only when the type and team count have more than one layout.
  6. Choose the Playoff Seed Method: By Standings (places come from the regular-season standings), Manual (you pick the first-round teams) or Manual Across Divisions (you pick from teams in this sport's other divisions too).
  7. With By Standings, choose the Playoff Seed Source: Top - Regular Season. For a 2nd, 3rd or 4th bracket, Next - Regular Season seeds the teams that come after the earlier brackets' teams in the standings.
  8. Check that Day of First Game is set, then click Save.

Step 2: Create the playoff schedule

  1. Check that 2 Teams has at least the # of Playoff Teams (not needed with manual seeding) and that 3 Time Slots has at least half that number of time slots. Playoffs use the same time slots as the regular season.
  2. Go to 4 Create Schedule > Playoff (or 2nd Playoff, 3rd Playoff or 4th Playoff).
  3. Click Create. If the Playoff Type is Manual, click Manual instead and add each game with Add Game.

What you'll see: "Your playoff schedule has been created for you to review." The games are grouped by round. Round 1 is in the week after the last regular-season week (after the 2nd half, if the division has one, and after any blocked weeks at the end), and each later round is a week later. Each round's games are placed in your time slots in list order. A Division Playoff Brackets diagram appears below the games, except for Manual and Position Rounds playoffs.

Change playoff game weeks and dates

  1. For each game, choose the Week and the Time Slot in its dropdowns. In the Time Slot list, + means the location is free that week and - means it's already in use.
  2. To set a specific day, time and location instead, click the game's menu icon and choose Edit Game. A day, time and location that isn't already a time slot is added to 3 Time Slots.
  3. Click Calc & Save. The dates change to match the weeks and time slots you chose.

For example, to finish an 8-team bracket in two weeks, move the round 2 games into the round 1 week (in later time slots) and leave the final in the following week. A red Week cell means the game falls on or before the last regular-season game. The game menu also has Swap Teams to switch home and away.

Build a bracket before dates or teams are known

  1. In Step 1, choose Manual as the Playoff Seed Method.
  2. On 3 Time Slots, click Add Time Slot, tick the TBD option ("If you do not know the day, time or location, check to create a TBD Time Slot.") and click Add.
  3. On 4 Create Schedule > Playoff, click Create.
  4. Choose TBD in each game's Time Slot dropdown, leave the first-round Home and Away set to TBD (or pick the teams you know), and click Calc & Save.

When the details are known, pick the real time slots and teams and click Calc & Save again.

When team names appear

With By Standings, playoff games show standings places, such as 1st and 4th, until every regular-season game has a result. Games still Not played or Scoring in progress hold the bracket back, so on Edit Scores set any game that won't be played to Canceled or Score not kept. Winners then move through the bracket as you enter playoff scores. Until a bracket is seeded, its games have no teams, so they don't show on any team's Team Site or in the TeamSideline app. To put the playoff dates on every Team Site sooner, click Add Calendar Event in Content > Calendar and set Show on Team Sites to Yes.

Show the bracket on your website

On 1 Configuration > Display, set Show Playoff Brackets to Yes to show the bracket diagram, and Show Playoff Grid to Yes to show the playoff game list. The Playoff Schedule 1–4 and Playoff Brackets 1–4 name fields set each bracket's heading. For leagues linked to a registration program, Publish Playoff Schedules on 5 Team Sites adds all four playoff schedules to Team Sites.

If it doesn't work

  • There's no Create button. The page says to "complete all required Division Configuration page items, create a minimum of Teams on the Teams page based on your playoff configuration, and create the minimum number of Time Slots on the Time Slots & Location page." Check that the Playoff Type isn't N/A, the team count (unless you seed manually) and the time slot count.
  • "The Division Playoff section has 4 configurations -- Playoff Type, Number of Playoff Teams, Playoff Seed Method, and Playoff Seed Source. To enable Playoffs for this Division you need to make a selection from all 4 configurations." Complete every playoff dropdown.
  • "Review your Division Playoff 'Playoff Seed Source'. A selection is required." Choose Top - Regular Season.
  • "Review the start of your Playoff Rounds. There is at least one Playoff Round that starts before the end of your Regular Season." Every playoff game must come after the division's last regular-season game. Pick later weeks or time slots for the playoff rounds. If a late makeup game is in the way, move or delete it, create the playoff schedule, then add the game back with Add Game on the regular-season schedule.
  • "You must have a Playoff to enable the 2nd Playoff." Tick the earlier brackets first.
  • The playoff settings are grayed out and say "To change, delete playoff schedule first." Click Delete on the playoff page, change the settings and click Create again. Delete disappears once any playoff game is played or forfeited.
  • The bracket still shows places instead of teams. See When team names appear above.

Good to know

  • Every current plan (Core, Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise) includes larger brackets, up to 32 teams (48 with Best Match), and more Playoff Types, such as Single Elimination With Consolation, 2 Game Guarantee, 3 Game Guarantee and Position Rounds (up to 20 teams). Sites on an older package get these with the Tournament module; without it, brackets have up to 16 teams.
  • Delete Game is offered only on Manual playoff schedules and on optional "if" games that haven't been played. To drop a game from a generated bracket, delete the playoff schedule and create it again.
  • For a Manual playoff, Copy Games copies the playoff games from another division.

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