Overview
What Is the Paymon Score?
The Paymon Score is a bracket accuracy metric that measures how precisely you predicted the NCAA tournament's seed lines — not just which teams made it, but where they landed.
Instead of rewarding picks by how far a team advances in the tournament (the traditional bracket pool model), the Paymon Score is entirely about the Selection Committee's seeding decisions. You're being measured against the same data the committee uses.
Maximum possible score: 68 teams × 6 points = 408.
Workflow
How to Use It
1
Build your bracket in The Nest
Open
The Nest and place teams on seed lines 1–16 before Selection Sunday. The Nest saves your bracket automatically — no export needed. Seeds 11 and 16 hold 6 teams each (to account for First Four play-in games); all others hold 4.
2
Come back after Selection Sunday
Once the official bracket is announced, return to the
Paymon Score Calculator. Your predictions from The Nest will load automatically. If you updated your bracket after opening the calculator, hit
↺ Reload from Nest to pull in the latest version.
3
Enter actual seeds
For each team in your bracket, type the seed the committee actually gave them (1–16). You can use the Enter key to move quickly through the list, and the search bar to jump to a specific team. Your entries save automatically as you go.
4
Tag regions (optional)
Select an active region (East, Midwest, West, South) before entering seeds to track per-region performance. Any seed you enter while a region is active gets tagged to that region. Per-region scores appear in the summary at the top.
Scoring
How Points Work
Every team in your bracket is scored independently based on the difference between your predicted seed and the actual seed assigned by the committee.
| Result |
Condition |
Points |
Example |
| Exact seed line |
Predicted = Actual |
6 |
You said #3 seed, committee said #3 seed |
| Within one seed |
|Predicted − Actual| = 1 |
4 |
You said #4 seed, committee said #3 or #5 seed |
| Correctly selected |
|Predicted − Actual| ≥ 2 |
3 |
You had the team in the field, but wrong seed line |
| Not in your bracket |
Team not placed on any seed line |
0 |
Team made the tournament but you left them in the pool |
Stats
Reading the Summary
Total Score
The sum of all points earned across every team you've entered an actual seed for. This is your Paymon Score.
Max Possible
The maximum score you could still earn based on how many teams you've entered so far — calculated as entered count × 6. If you've entered all 68, this is 408.
Entered
How many of your bracket's teams you've filled in an actual seed for, out of the total teams in your bracket.
Exact Seed
Teams where your predicted seed exactly matched the actual seed (6 pts each). This is the hardest category to score well on.
Within One
Cumulative count of teams that earned 6 or 4 points — meaning you were either exact or off by just one seed line.
Correct Pick
Total teams you correctly placed in the tournament field, regardless of seed accuracy. Any non-zero score counts.
East / Midwest / West / South
Per-region score totals. Only populated when you tag teams to a region using the active region selector during entry.
Tips
Things Worth Knowing
↺
Reload from Nest re-reads your bracket without clearing any actual seeds you've already entered. Use it any time you update your predictions in The Nest after you've started scoring.
⌨
Enter key moves focus to the next input field, so you can work through all 68 teams without touching the mouse.
💾
Entries save automatically as you type. Closing the tab and coming back won't lose your work, as long as you're on the same browser and haven't cleared site data.
🔍
The search bar filters teams by name in real time. Useful when you want to quickly find a specific team rather than scrolling through all seed lines.
⚠
Reset All clears every actual seed and region tag you've entered. Your bracket predictions from The Nest are untouched — only your scoring entries are removed.
🌐
The Nest and Paymon Score share a theme. Switching dark/light mode in either app applies to both — they use the same setting in your browser.
