Church league playoff, 3v3 fundraiser, AAU weekend, or the office March bracket that got out of hand — a basketball tournament needs a bracket everyone can see. Single elim, double elim, or round robin pools for 2–64 teams, printable and live-updating.
Create your basketball tournament
any size · 3v3 and 5v5
Formats by Tournament Type
3v3 (half court): games to 21 or 15-minute cap, FIBA 3x3-style. Fields of 8–16 teams run clean single elim in an afternoon — a 16-team single elim is 15 short games.
5v5 rec / church league playoffs: single elimination seeded by regular-season record. That is what playoffs are; the season was the round robin.
Youth / AAU weekends: pool play into a bracket, so every team gets 3+ games. Split into pools of 3–4, advance by pool record into gold and silver (consolation) brackets.
One-day fundraiser: single elim, shortest viable games (to 11 or 15 by ones and twos), and a printed bracket at the scorer's table.
Scheduling a Court
The binding constraint is court-hours. A full-court 5v5 game with a running clock takes about an hour with warm-up and changeover; half-court 3v3 games to 21 take 20–30 minutes. One court, one day (9am–5pm) is roughly 8 full-court games — an 8-team single elim exactly — or 16–20 3v3 games, which covers a 16-team single elim with time to spare.
Two half-courts double 3v3 throughput. Put the bracket link on the gym door QR-style or in the group chat; the most common tournament-day question is "when do we play again?"
Seeding and Consolation
Seed strongest against weakest (1v8, 2v7...) if you know team strength; random draw if you do not. For youth events, run a consolation bracket — create a second bracket here for first-round losers so no kid's tournament ends after one game.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many games is a 16-team single elim?
15. Eight first-round games, four quarterfinals, two semis, one final.
Best format for 6 teams?
Round robin (15 games, everyone plays 5) if you have court time; otherwise seed a 6-team single elim where the top 2 seeds get first-round byes.
Can I run gold and silver brackets?
Yes — make two brackets and share both links. Pool winners into gold, the rest into silver.
Is this the same as a March Madness bracket?
Structurally yes. For running an NCAA-style pick contest specifically, see the March Madness template.