ConferenceCentral is engineered from the ground up to be the premier collegiate tournament platform. We chose to launch Phase 1 exclusively with the Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference for the 2026–27 season.

Focusing on the 16 member institutions of the Big 12 allows our engineering team to battle-test and verify complex real-time mathematics:

• Multi-team tiebreaker permutations involving head-to-head mini-round-robins and SOS splits across all 16 programs.
• 5-Round Championship Tournament ladder with Tuesday first rounds, Wednesday single-byes (Seeds 5–8), and Thursday double-byes (Seeds 1–4).
• 76-Team NCAA National Tournament feeder capturing automatic bids and Selection Sunday seeds.

Once initial tournament operations and features are perfected, we will expand to additional power conferences.

Our long-term architectural roadmap includes dedicated portals for each of the major collegiate conferences:

• SEC (Southeastern Conference)
• Big Ten Conference
• ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference)
• Big East Conference

Each conference hub will feature its own official tiebreaker rules, conference championship bracket challenge, and university color schemes, all connected to our master postseason 76-team national tournament challenge.

Our seeding simulator implements the official Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference tiebreaker protocol verbatim:

1. Two-Team Ties: Head-to-head regular season results between the two tied teams. If split 1–1, compare each team's record against the #1 seed, then #2, descending down the standings until the tie is broken.
2. Multiple-Team Ties (3 or more teams):
   • Step 1: Combined winning percentage in games played among the tied teams (mini-round-robin).
   • Step 2: If still tied, compare each team's record against the highest-seeded non-tied team (#1 seed, then #2, down to #16).
   • Step 3: Best combined scoring margin in head-to-head games between the tied institutions.
   • Step 4: Coin toss or random drawing by the conference commissioner if all statistical criteria remain tied.

The Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's and Women's Basketball Championships feature a 16-team, 5-round format held at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City:

• Seeds 1–4 (Double-Bye): Skip Tuesday's First Round and Wednesday's Second Round entirely. They begin play directly in the Thursday Quarterfinals.
• Seeds 5–8 (Single-Bye): Skip Tuesday's First Round and enter play in the Wednesday Second Round.
• Seeds 9–16 (First Round): Must play in Tuesday's opening round (Seeds 12 vs 13, 9 vs 16, 11 vs 14, 10 vs 15).

Picks earn escalating points each round as the stakes increase toward the Kansas City trophy:

• Round 1 (First Round): 10 points per correct pick (4 games = 40 pts max)
• Round 2 (Second Round): 20 points per correct pick (4 games = 80 pts max)
• Round 3 (Quarterfinals): 40 points per correct pick (4 games = 160 pts max)
• Round 4 (Semifinals): 80 points per correct pick (2 games = 160 pts max)
• Round 5 (Championship Game): 160 points for correctly picking the Champion

Total Maximum Score: 600 points.

Tiebreaker Points: Each participant also predicts the combined total score of the Championship Game. When pool participants finish with the same point total, the closest prediction breaks the tie!

All bracket challenge picks lock precisely at tip-off of Game 1 on Tuesday morning in Kansas City.

Once Game 1 tips off, the bracket submission system switches to read-only mode so participants cannot modify picks after outcomes begin to unfold.

The winner of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship automatically claims an official automatic qualifier bid to the 76-Team NCAA Division I Tournament.

Prior to Selection Sunday, the NCAA Tournament tab remains gated with an active countdown. Once the NCAA Selection Committee announces the national 76-team bracket, the full national tournament challenge unlocks across the East, West, South, and Midwest regions.

You can personalize your ConferenceCentral experience to rep your university! Head to Account Settings and select any of the 16 Big 12 programs (e.g., Baylor Green/Gold, Kansas Blue/Crimson, BYU Navy/White, Iowa State Cardinal/Gold).

Once selected, your dashboard cards, active borders, status badges, and hero banners adapt dynamically to your school's official colors.

Why is index.html neutral? The public landing page at / remains in classic Big 12 crimson, charcoal, and black so that prospective fans and alumni encounter an unbiased, conference-neutral entrance.

To maintain trademark compliance and clean performance, ConferenceCentral features custom collegiate monogram color boxes (.team-color-badge) displaying university abbreviations (e.g., BAY, KU, ARIZ, HOU, XII) formatted in high-contrast official primary and secondary colors.

Clicking "Quick Guest / Demo Access" provides immediate 1-click access to the platform without creating a password or entering an email.

• Unique Session Isolation: Each guest receives a unique temporary user ID (e.g., guest_3a9f1b). No guest ever collides with or overwrites another guest's picks.
• 2-Hour Auto-Purge: Guest accounts and their temporary test ballots vanish automatically after 2 hours.
• Sandbox Poll & Leaderboard Protection: Guest votes in the Weekly Fan Poll and guest brackets are strictly sandboxed—they do not affect the official conference consensus poll standings or the prize leaderboard.
• Seamless Upgrade: Guests can click "Create Free Account" anytime in the header pill to register permanent credentials.

Upon registering an account, ConferenceCentral automatically generates 8 single-use cryptographically secure backup recovery codes (formatted like B12-A4B7-C9X2).

If you ever forget your password, you can use any unused backup code at Account Recovery to immediately set a new password without needing an external email verification step.