2021 PickHoops Missed Games Policy

The NCAA has a team replacement policy in place if a team cannot participate or must drop out.

If a team is determined ineligible after the bracket announcement, but prior to Tuesday March 16, 6pm Eastern, a substitute team from that conference will be replaced into that spot in the bracket. After this time, a team that drops out will forfeit its next game.

The bracket will not be reseeded or reorganized after it is announced on Selection Sunday.

Team Replacement

Any brackets entered into PickHoops before a team is replaced will simply have picks for the replaced team changed to picks for the replacement team. It is up to bracket entrants to edit their bracket before the entry deadline on Friday, March 19 when games begin (Sunday March 21 for the women's bracket) if they wish to make a change.

Team Forfeits

If a team drops out after Tuesday March 16, that teams forfeits and their opponent will advance to the next round. This will be considered a victory for the advancing team and points will be awarded as usual.

Game Cancellation

If a game is canceled entirely (meaning both teams cannot play and there is no victor), no points will be awarded for that game. The next game in the bracket will result in a victory-by-forfeit for the team that would have played the canceled game's winner.

Extra bonuses

Some rules systems use "extra bonuses" like choosing all first round games in a region correctly. A victory-by-forfeit will count as a regular game result for the purposes of these bonuses. A canceled game will be excluded from evaluating the bonus.

For example, assume a group awards a bonus for choosing all 8 v 9 seed games correctly, a bracket chooses all four 8 seeds to win their first games, and three of the 8 seeds win their first games.

If the last 8 v 9 seed game ends in a forfeit with the 8 seed advancing, the bonus is applied to that bracket. If the last 8 v 9 seed game ends in a forfeit with the 9 seed advancing, the bonus is not applied. If the last 8 v 9 seed game is cancelled entirely with no winner, the bonus is applied because the other three 8 v 9 games were chosen correctly.

Scoring tiebreakers

If the championship game results in a forfeit, tiebreakers that rely on the score of the championship game will not be applied.

Tournament Cancellation

In the unlikely event that the NCAA cancels the tournament before the title game, meaning that no champion is decided, group owners will be given the choice between a full refund and rolling over their group to the following year for free and with a free upgrade in size.

Having lost $750 million in TV revenue last year, one expects that the NCAA will be motivated not to let this happen.