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Excel - Join MrExcel's Free NCAA Pool! Download the Bracket and Win Books! - Episode 461

865 views · Published 18 May 2009 · 3:29 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial - Join MrExcel's Free NCAA Pool! Download the Bracket and Win Books!

Welcome to the MrExcel netcast, where we discuss all things Excel. I'm Bill Jelen and today we're talking about March Madness. Whether you're a basketball fan or not, the next three weeks in the United States will be filled with excitement as 64 men's college teams compete in the NCAA basketball tournament to become the national champion. 

About 15 years ago, I was put in charge of running the office basketball pool. As a young analyst, I used Lotus 1-2-3 to keep track of everything. But a few years ago, I dusted off the old system and brought it into Excel. And now, I want to invite you to join my basketball pool. It's completely free and the winner gets their choice of books from the MrExcel store. 

To enter, simply go to MrExcel.com/NCAA.html and download the bracket. I want to take a moment to talk about some of the Excel magic behind this bracket. Now, this is Friday and I don't know what the selections are yet. These are last year's selections. But on Monday morning, the real bracket will be available with the selections for 2007. 

To make your selections, you'll use the drop-down menu in column B. The list is smart enough to know which teams you've already chosen, making it easy to fill out your bracket. And the best part? The data validation is set up using workbook level range names, so you can have the list on a hidden sheet and it will still work. 

Even if you know nothing about basketball, I encourage you to download the bracket and enter. Some years, the most unexpected outcomes happen and those who know nothing about basketball have the best chance of winning. And don't forget to check out MrExcel.com/NCAA.html for updates on the pool and to see some of the behind-the-scenes spreadsheets we use to generate reports after each round. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.

Buy Bill Jelen's latest Excel book: https://www.mrexcel.com/products/latest/

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You are invited on Monday to download MrExcels NCAA bracket and enter his free NCAA pool. The winner will get their choice of books from the MrExcel store. In todays Episode 461, we will take a look at the Data  Validation commands used to make the NCAA bracket selection worksheet work.

This blog is the video podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel from MrExcel. Download a new two minute video every workday to learn one of the 277 tips from the book!

Table of Contents:
(00:00) Introduction to the MrExcel netcast
(00:21) March Madness and the NCAA basketball pool
(00:33) Running the basketball pool for the office
(00:54) Invitation to enter the basketball pool
(01:04) How to enter the pool at MrExcel.com/NCAA.html
(01:14) Explanation of the bracket and team selections
(01:57) Using data validation to choose teams
(02:47) Invitation to play, even for non-basketball fans
(02:59) Tracking results and discussing backend spreadsheets
(03:10) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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