A Team Wins pool has no weekly picks. You build a portfolio of teams once, before the season, and from then on every win those teams earn scores points for you until the championship is decided. This page is the rulebook: how a portfolio is built, what each kind of win is worth and what the settings change.
For how Team Wins compares to the other formats, see Pool Formats: Explained.
The standard rules
- Before the pool locks, every entry builds a portfolio: a set number of teams from each division (NBA) or conference (college basketball), plus Wild Cards.
- You can save and change your portfolio as often as you like until the lock. After that it is fixed for the season.
- Every win by a team in your portfolio earns points, from the lock through the end of the postseason. A loss never costs you anything.
- There are no weekly picks and nobody is eliminated. The standings update on their own as games finish.
- The entry with the most points when the season ends wins.
Building a portfolio
Two settings decide how many teams a portfolio holds. Teams per Division (NBA) or Teams per Conference (college basketball) is how many teams you take from each group, and Wild Cards is how many extra teams you add on top. The default is one team per group and two Wild Cards. A full portfolio holds the teams per group times the groups in play, plus the Wild Cards.
| Sport | Groups | Default picks |
|---|---|---|
| NBA | All six divisions | One per division plus two Wild Cards: 8 teams |
| College basketball | The conferences the commissioner puts in play | One per conference plus two Wild Cards |
These rules hold in every Team Wins pool:
- A team can appear in a portfolio only once. Two entries owned by the same person can hold the same team.
- A team you pick for a division or conference slot has to belong to that group.
- A Wild Card can come from a group you have already picked from.
- A partly built portfolio can be saved. Whatever is empty at the lock simply scores nothing, so fill every slot.
Portfolios stay hidden from the rest of the pool until the lock, then everyone can see them.
Which teams are in play
The commissioner shapes the pool of teams with four settings. Each of them is fixed once the pool locks.
- Conferences in Play (college basketball only). The commissioner chooses which Division I conferences the pool uses, and entrants pick from those conferences only. Every NBA division is always in play.
- Allow Any Wild Cards (college basketball only). Off by default, so Wild Cards come from the conferences in play. When on, a Wild Card can come from any conference, including ones that are not in play.
- Restricted Teams. Teams that no entrant may pick, either for a division or conference slot or as a Wild Card. They stay on the pick page, greyed out.
- Either/Or Teams. The commissioner pairs two teams so that no portfolio can hold both.
How a win is scored
Each win by a team in your portfolio is worth the points for the kind of game it was. A game counts once, in the highest category it fits, and a category the commissioner sets to 0 is switched off. These are the NBA categories, highest first, with their default values in the Points per Win setting:
| Kind of win | Default | Which games |
|---|---|---|
| Playoff win | 5 | Every playoff game, in every round |
| Postseason Play-in Games | 0 | The Play-In Tournament |
| NBA Cup win | 3 | Every NBA Cup game, from group play through the Championship |
| In-conference win | 2 | A regular-season game between two teams from the same conference |
| Non-conference win | 1 | Every other regular-season game |
The college basketball categories work the same way:
| Kind of win | Default | Which games |
|---|---|---|
| NCAA Tournament win | 5 | Every NCAA Tournament game from the first round on |
| Postseason Play-in Games | 0 | The NCAA Tournament opening games (the First Four) |
| Conference tournament win | 3 | Any conference tournament game |
| In-conference win | 2 | A regular-season game between two teams from the same conference |
| Non-conference win | 1 | Every other regular-season game, including wins over teams outside Division I |
Point values are whole numbers from 0 to 99, and every playoff or tournament game is worth the same no matter the round. The NIT and other postseason tournaments are not scored. At least one category has to be worth points.
In-conference scoring in the NBA
NBA portfolios are built by division, but regular-season wins are scored by conference. A game between an Eastern Conference and a Western Conference team is a non-conference game.
For example, Boston beating the Knicks or the Hawks is an in-conference win, even though the Hawks are in a different division. Boston beating the Lakers is a non-conference win.
A worked example
Take an NBA pool with the default scoring (5 playoff, 3 Cup, 2 in-conference, 1 non-conference) and a portfolio that holds Boston and Oklahoma City.
- Boston beats Atlanta in November: both are in the East, so it is an in-conference win. +2
- Boston beats the Lakers in December: different conferences. +1
- Oklahoma City beats Denver in an NBA Cup group game. Both are Western teams, but a Cup game takes the higher category. +3
- Oklahoma City loses to Houston. 0
- Oklahoma City wins a playoff game. +5
That is 2 + 1 + 3 + 0 + 5 = 11 points from those five games. Every other team in the portfolio adds to the total the same way.
Lock time
A Team Wins pool has one lock for the whole season, set with the Lock Time setting. The commissioner has two options:
- First game of the season (the default). Picks lock at the first tip-off.
- Custom. Any date and time, earlier or later than opening night.
Games that tip before the lock do not count toward anyone's score. A pool cannot be joined after the lock either, though the commissioner can still add an entry and set its picks.
Changing picks after the lock
Entrants cannot change a portfolio after the lock. The commissioner can edit any entry's picks at any time, before or after the lock, from Commish Mode on the pick page. That is for fixing a mistake or filling in for someone who missed the deadline, and the pool's feed records that it happened.
Standings and ties
The standings rank every entry by total points, with a column for each scoring category and the entry's record. Entries with the same score share a rank, so two entries tied for first are both ranked 1 and the next is ranked 3. A pool that only counts wins can end up tied, so if ties matter for a prize, decide the split before the season starts.
When the pool ends
The pool ends once the last game of the postseason is final: the NBA Finals, or the national championship game in college basketball. It never ends at the end of the regular season. The commissioner can also end the pool manually.
Prizes
A Team Wins pool is scored over a single season, so there is no weekly prize: prizes are paid on the final standings. Commissioners can choose Winner Take All or pay out several places, and can offer multiple buy-in tiers with their own prize pools if they are using ALA's finance-tracking tools.
Play a Team Wins pool
ALA hosts Team Wins pools for the NBA and college basketball. To set one up, see the settings in Pool Settings, or go straight to Create a Pool. Unfamiliar terms are defined in the glossary.
Keep reading
Ready to set one up? Create a pool. Creating one is free, and the commissioner's pool fee is due 7 days after the pool starts.