Monday, March 18, 2024

2024 March Madness Brackets and Basketball Squares

If you're looking for 2024 March Madness Brackets, no, I won't be posting any here or making my own. Once again, I will be using the best March Madness brackets in Excel, created by David Tyler (and I will continue to use his until he decides to no longer update them). They’re very polished and easy to use. There are only 68 teams in the field but the spreadsheet is already setup to handle up to 128 teams, if they expand in the future. There are two sheets: the bracket and the pool manager. Instructions are included but its very intuitive. Take a look:

 

As I’ve said countless times before, you can learn a lot by looking at Excel templates made by others. Here are 5 things I do when examining a new spreadsheet using David's March Madness brackets as example.

March Madness Squares

When I created my new Super Bowl Squares Unlimited spreadsheet for last month's football game, I had the goal in mind to be able to use the same sheet for other sports, like basketball. I tweaked my template a little and now you can use it for March Madness Squares!



There's multiple ways you could go about playing March Madness Squares:

1. Everyone keeps the same random numbers for every game
2. The random numbers change for every round
3. The random numbers change for every game

Here's a quick demo of how to use squares for basketball:



You can play either way with my spreadsheet. I designed it to be very versatile. Payout percentage can change per round as well. Update the settings how you want them then you click Generate Scoreboard once for every game, so 32 times in the first round. There are a lot of other options built in that can be ignored - it's all up to you!

Will you be playing 2024 March Madness Brackets, March Madness Squares, or both? Let me know in the comments below.

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Super Bowl Squares 2024 - The BEST Excel Templates

It's finally time to play Super Bowl Squares! As the biggest sporting event of the year approaches, hardcore football and casual fans alike gear up for an unforgettable Super Bowl experience. To add an extra layer of excitement to your game day festivities, I'm here to introduce you to the magic of Super Bowl Squares and simplify the process with my specially crafted and powerful Excel template. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to this classic game of chance, my template is designed to make organizing and tracking your Super Bowl Squares pool a breeze. Let's get to it!

I’ve been making Super Bowl Squares templates available for you to download since 2012 and the latest versions are the most versatile yet. There are two templates to choose from, I'll explain the pros and cons of each.

2024 Super Bowl Squares - 54 Ways to Play

Released in 2021, this is the more "classic" and straightforward way to play. When you first open the sheet, it has a nice clean look with only one sheet visible. You select the options for how you want to play, click Generate Squares, and it sets up the sheet exactly for the version you want to play. 

excel file for superbowl squares template


The way it works is all the scoring systems are already built into the sheet. If you go to the Squares or the Manager sheet you will find many hidden rows or columns. The Generate Squares macro simply hides or unhides the data based on the user’s selections.


Download 2024 Super Bowl Squares here


Super Bowl LVIII Squares Unlimited

54 ways to play apparently wasn't enough as I still received numerous requests for customizations and more features. This lead to the creation of a new approach to the template: Super Bowl Squares Unlimited. The main difference in how it works is there are no pre-built scoring systems. Instead, they are built on the fly by macros based on the user's input; therefore there are an infinite number of ways to play.


This sheet offers the most flexibility but might take some getting used to. At first it may be a little difficult to understand how the scoring works, so I recommend you watch this video:


Friday, January 19, 2024

Girl Scout Cookie Tracking Spreadsheet Template

My daughter is in Girl Scouts and her troop wanted to sell Girl Scout cookies for the first time this year. In order to sell Girl Scout cookies you need an adult to be the TCPC: Troop Cookie Program Coordinate. Or as my daughter said, "We need you to be the Cookie Daddy!" I figured all this meant was they needed someone to manage an Excel spreadsheet for all the cookie sales so I agreed.

Little did I know what was in store as there is much more to it. First is all the training and webinars, background check, volunteer forms, etc. Then when it comes to finally sell cookies, there are no spreadsheets; they've got Digital Cookie online selling platform and eBudde management system. While the eBudde system and tools seem to have all the information needed on the backend, the front end is very confusing for a new user. It's very confusing and cumbersome and the key information the TCPC needs to know is spread out over different pages. Seriously, if you have to have numerous training sessions to explain how everything works and people are still asking tons of questions, your system is too complicated.

So I decided to make a spreadsheet!

Introducing the Girl Scout Cooking Tracking Template:


With this spreadsheet you still have to manually input all the cookie sale information from eBudde but now all the information you need to know is shown visually on just two sheets and is easy to understand. Here's how to use the cookie tracker:

On the sales summary page, copy and paste your Girl Scouts. Then input each of their Digital Cookie sales, which are broken into four categories: 

1. Cookies to be hand delivered (from the Initial Orders page in eBudde)
2. Donated cookies for Operation Salute
3. Any cookie sales from paper order forms that need to be input manually
4. Orders that will be shipped direct from the bakery (from the Girl Orders page)

Next, you can input each Girl Scout's goal for how many packages they want to sell. These will add up at the bottom to show the overall Troop Cookie Goal. There is a donut graph to show the troop's progress towards their goal.

On the right it shows the Instant Rewards and how many packages it takes to reach. Once a girl has reached the goal, the formula automatically shows as having achieved it.



On the next sheet, we have a breakdown of how many of each type of girl scout cookie has been sold (thin mints being the most popular, obviously). As the cookie daddy and the person responsible for picking up the cookies from the cookie cupboard to distribute to the troop, the most important info is the number of cases of each type of cookie I need to pickup. 

There is another sheet in my template that explains some of the terminology, the key being the word "box" is never used. The girls sell "packages" of cookies and 12 of those packages make up a case. The cookies are never mixed up in different cases and if you only sell one package of LemonUps, you have to pickup an entire case of LemonUps.


The Girl Scout Cooking Tracking Spreadsheet shows you exactly how many cases of each cookie you need and how many unsold packages in each case. The unsold cookies from the initial order can be used to sell in-person during the booth phase.


I added a sheet you can use as a template for booth signups.

Download the Girl Scout Cookie Tracking Spreadsheet Template here.








Sunday, December 3, 2023

2023 College Football Bowl Prediction Pool

The college football conference championships were played this past weekend which means the 2023 NCAA college football bowl season is here again! Therefore, it’s time to make your picks and predictions about who you think will win each bowl game. One of the best times of the holiday season (other than giving and receiving gifts) is being able to talk trash to your relatives about their terrible bowl picks.

This year has the added bonus of not just single bowl games but the tenth and final year of a four team playoff to determine the national champion. Starting in 2024 the college football playoff will expand to twelve teams (couldn't have been one year earlier, could it). Can't wait to see how that plays out!


But let's not get ahead of ourselves and just enjoy that fact that the SEC was ALMOST left out of the playoff for the first time. It's good to see at least one new team make the CFB playoff. Here's the full breakdown of bowl teams per conference:

There are multiple ways to play Bowl pick'em. Features for this year's bowl prediction pool over the previous college football bowl pool manager spreadsheets include the following:

  • Easy method to make each bowl game worth a different point value, so the national championship game and semi-finals can be worth more points, or however you want to customize it.

  • Updated leaderboard tab with new stats

  • Separate entry sheet to pass out to participants or co-workers that can be imported automatically by a built-in macro

  • Complete NCAA college football bowl schedule with game times and TV stations

  • New stat sheet to track each conference's record during bowl season. Graph shows total conference teams and total conference wins

The bowl prediction sheets include the football helmet designs for every team (taken from my college football helmet schedule spreadsheet), their win-loss record, and the logo for all bowl games. I added the helmets so those players who aren't big college football fans can pick a winner based on their favorite helmet design!

Download the CFP Pool Manager and Single Entry Form here

Bowl Pick'em Game For Google Sheets

Unlike many of my other spreadsheets, macros are not critical for the Bowl prediction pool. If you have a Google drive account you should be able to upload the pool manager and use it inside Google sheets. Participants can make their picks directly in the sheet using the drop down lists and everyone can see the scoreboard update in real time. All the formulas should work. Insert new columns where it says in order to add more players. The macro to import single player picks won't work but it is not needed. Try it if you want to play that way and let me know if you find any issues in Google sheets.

College Football Bowl Pick'em with Confidence Points

If you watch the video above you can see how this works. Each player can select confidence picks where they rank each game according to how confident they are in their pick. If you're super confident Georgia is going to roll over Ohio State you would rank that game 42 from the drop down list and would receive 42 points if you're correct. If you're not so sure Michigan will beat TCU you might only rank that game 1 or 2 points. 

Download the 2023 CFP Bowl Prediction Pool Manager.xlsm file here

Have fun! As always, I welcome any feedback or ideas for improvement.


Friday, May 12, 2023

2023 NFL Helmet Schedule Spreadsheet

The 2023 NFL schedule was released yesterday and since I used my Excel skills to automate the creation of this spreadsheet I was able to create the NFL Helmet Schedule in less than a minute! All 32 teams, all 18 weeks of the season (now 17 games plus one bye week), all in one spreadsheet:


A job that used to take hour by moving helmets manually is now so easy to do. Yes, that's why I love the power of macros and automation. I wrote the macro myself but nowadays you could probably just ask ChatGPT to write the macro for you.

On previous versions of the sheet I divided out the two conferences on separate sheets: NFC and AFC. This year, I’ve put all the teams into one sheet. However, there is a new filter option where you can filter by NFC or AFC or even by division: AFC North, AFC South, etc.

Download the 2023 NFL Helmet Schedule Spreadsheet here


Watch the video below to see how the filter works. I also so a tip in Excel how to select multiple objects at once with the mouse. And I walk through the populate helmets macro code as well. Lots of good stuff here!

As you can see, the NFL helmet schedule is printable too. You can save the spreadsheet as a PDF file or print it out and pin it up in your cubicle at work. If you do, please email or tweet me a picture of it hanging up - I'd love to see it!

Please note, an email is required to download it. I do this so you will be automatically updated you if changes or additions are made and will update you when the next year’s schedule is ready. I do not use your email for anything else.

As always, I welcome any comments or suggestions about how to fix or improve the sheet! How can I improve this football spreadsheet into something you’ll use all the time during pro-football season? What future features would you like to see?

Saturday, March 11, 2023

2023 March Madness Squares

When I created my new Super Bowl Squares Unlimited spreadsheet for last month's football game, I had the goal in mind to be able to use the same sheet for other sports, like basketball.  I tweaked my template a little and now here it is for the first time - March Madness Squares!


Super Bowl squares are a popular game often played during the Super Bowl where participants select squares on a grid, with each square assigned a specific combination of numbers. The goal is to correctly predict the final score of the game based on the last digit of each team's score.

While Super Bowl squares are typically played during the Super Bowl, the concept can also be applied to March Madness. To play this game, you can create a grid with 100 squares, just like in the Super Bowl squares game. Instead of using the final score of the game, the grid will be based on the final score of each March Madness game.

Each square in the grid represents a combination of the final score of the two teams playing in the game. For example, if the final score of a game is 85-76, the winner would be the square where the "5" intersects with the "6" on the grid. You can assign a prize to each square, and participants can buy as many squares as they want.

There's multiple ways you could go about playing March Madness Squares:

1. Everyone keeps the same random numbers for every game
2. The random numbers change for every round
3. The random numbers change for every game

You can play either way with my spreadsheet. I designed it to be very versatile. Payout percentage can change per round as well. Update the settings how you want them then you click Generate Scoreboard once for every game, so 32 times in the first round. There are a lot of other options built in that can be ignored - it's all up to you!


Download March Madness Squares here.

Usually, when it comes to March Madness I use David Tyler's incredible brackets in Excel. I'll still be using them this year but in addition I plan on trying March Madness Squares for the first time. Have you ever played before?

Try it and let me know what you think!

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Super Bowl Squares 2023 - Unlimited Ways to Play

Since 54 ways to play still wasn't enough, I've created a new version of my Super Bowl Squares template that should allow nearly limitless ways to play. I'm going to show you how to use it and what make it awesome. But first, let's take a quick look back at the evolution of my football grid game template.

I’ve been making Super Bowl Squares templates available for you to download for over 10 years now. The first version in 2012 was very plain and simple and was basically just meant to be printed.


I started adding more features and automation in 2014, beginning with a button you would click that runs a macro to generate the random numbers. 

The problem I soon discovered is there are countless ways to play Super Bowl Squares. Initially, I tried to account for different ways to play by having multiple sheets within the workbook. But this got very messy very quickly. A new user would open the template and could be very confused by all the sheets. I wanted a better solution.

In 2021, I released a new version that featured 54 different ways to play Super Bowl Squares all contained within one easy to use spreadsheet. When you first open the sheet, it has a nice clean look with only one sheet visible. You select the options for how you want to play, click Generate Squares, and it sets up the sheet exactly for the version you want to play.


The way it works is all the scoring systems are already built into the sheet. If you go to the Squares or the Manager sheet you will find many hidden rows or columns. The Generate Squares macro simply hides or unhides the data based on the user’s selections.

54 ways to play is a lot – but it is still not enough. Over the years I continued to receive countless requests for different ways to play. I don’t have time to make very specific sheets for each individual request – I needed a solution to account for unlimited ways to play. 

That’s when I had the idea for Super Bowl Squares Unlimited. The main difference in how it works is there are no pre-built scoring systems. Instead, they are built on the fly by macros. 


If you’re using iOS or cannot enable macros you will not be able to use this sheet, sorry. The is a simple printable PDF in the download and here is a Google sheet.

The first thing you’ll want to do is go to the Manager sheet and complete columns B and C by inputting all the player names and using the drop down to select how many squares for each. You can type the names manually into each square but you would also have to list the names on the Manager sheet and make sure they match (no typos). 

Back to the Squares sheet, the buttons in the Grid Tools box are pretty self explanatory. On the squares sheet, click the Random Names button to populate the grid with the player names in random positions. Click Randomize Numbers to generate the list of random numbers. Similar to previous sheet.

The main difference that gives this sheet more flexibility is the score boards are not built in, they are generated when the user clicks the Generate Scoreboard button every time there is a scoring event. Meaning, the settings can be changed. Let’s look at some examples.


So that’s how you use the Super Bowl Squares Unlimited spreadsheet template. I’m excited to hear your thoughts. Is it better than the previous sheet? This is brand new and hasn’t been tested too much so there could be some bugs. But I’d love to know your thoughts on which sheet you will use and why so leave me a comment or email. Thanks for watching and have fun playing Super Bowl Squares!