Playoff Brackets and Byes
Information about ACC-sanctioned tournament procedures can be obtained from any of the regional tournament commissioners. The ACC requires that the following procedures be adhered to in a sanctioned tournament (unless an exemption is granted):
- All qualifying scorecards must be checked using a cross-checking system and tallying players' totals.
- One in four entrants must qualify for playoffs. Any fraction is rounded up to the next whole player (e.g., a tournament with 121, 122, 123, or 124 entrants will have 31 players in the playoffs). Do not round up to the next full bracket.
- The chart below displays the only approved bracketing for playoffs. Sections with multiple columns are read as if succeeding columns appear under the first column (e.g., in the 256-player bracket, the 5-60 pairing is below the 8-57 pairing: 3-62 is below 4-61; and 7-58 is below 6-59).
- Playoffs without a full bracket award first-round byes to the highest qualifier(s). To compute the number of buys:
- Determine the number of qualifiers per #2 above.
- Determine the size of the next full bracket (a power of 2: that is, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, etc.).
- Subtract a from b to determine the number of byes.
- Examples:
| Number of Entrants |
Number of Qualifiers |
Next Full Bracket |
Numberof Byes |
Explanation |
| 108 |
27 |
32 |
32-27=5 |
top 5 qualifiers get byes and 22 qualifiers play in first round |
| 132 |
33 |
64 |
64-33=31 |
top 31 qualifiers get byes and 2 qualifiers play in first round |
| 60 |
15 |
16 |
16-15=1 |
top qualifier gets a bye and 14 qualifiers play in first round |
- The second round of the playoffs must have a full bracket.
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