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College basketball fans have long been working with brackets. March rolls around and the office pools get going and folks follow along as their picks are whittled from 65 teams down to one. But, how many rodeo brackets have you looked at lately?

Yes, you read that correctly; rodeo has gotten into the bracket act. Two of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's major events, San Antonio and Houston, and the independent Calgary Stampede have entered the world of "bracketology."

The bracket format for these rodeos consists of several small rodeos, usually three-day events, or series, within the major rodeo where the contestants' advancement is determined by money won in their respective series. They place highly enough in these series, and they advance to the semifinals.

In the semifinal round, all of the previous scores are thrown out and the competition begins anew. A wild card round follows the semifinals, where two contestants in each event who failed to advance from the semis have another chance to make the finals.

In Houston and Calgary, there is a four-contestant shootout following the final round in each event to determine the ultimate winner.

The key to this entire setup is that there are always winners after each day's competition.

When Houston and Calgary first introduced the format several years ago, I was skeptical of the idea. At the time, I felt like the format was tampering with the way rodeo was being presented. You could say I was a rodeo traditionalist.

Three years later, I have become a convert. I have witnessed the fans enjoy the system, and realized that's what should be of most importance.

Leroy Shafer, the chief operating officer of RodeoHouston, has been touting the idea from day one. And he's been right.

"Fans come to an event, and they want to see a winner that night," Shafer says. "The majority of our fans follow other sports where that is true on a daily basis. So when they come to a rodeo, they expect to also see it here. And that's what we try to give them."

A lot of critics used to say the large number of fans Houston attracted came only to see the entertainers, not the rodeo cowboys. But, seeing the fans' wild response to the rodeo under the new format, especially the sudden death finals on the last day, one can easily deduce that Houston is creating a large number of new rodeo fans.

The system so impressed Keith Martin, the general manager of San Antonio's rodeo, that he decided to follow suit this year. "We decided to accomplish two things. One, we wanted to present a more fair playing field for our contestants," he said. "But equally as important was to present an event that was more understandable for our fans, including our existing fans and new ones."

With the use of a sudden-death format during its shootout round where contestants compete for a $50,000 first prize, the Houston fans literally hung on by their fingers. It's a nerve-wrecking affair that has the majority of the 70,000-plus fans standing and screaming.

The same kind of enthusiasm is true in Calgary. Only this year the money given as a first-prize in its shootout has been jacked up to $100,000. It's truly an exciting performance.

San Antonio didn't have a shootout, but it had 12 competitors in its finals with the contestant who earned the most money for the duration of the rodeo designated the champion. This also created a very exciting atmosphere.

Martin said they had the champion on each night during the rodeo ride a victory lap after the conclusion of the event. "On most nights the fans would give the winner a standing ovation," he said. "That never happened before, because there never was a clear-cut winner after a performance. They had to wait until our eighteenth day to see who won."

Traditional rodeo can become very confusing to the fan, especially when the event runs for a length of time. The go-round and average system is a complicated one that only the most knowledgeable followers understand. With rodeo trying to reach out to a wider spectrum of fans, it needs to come up with methods that will make the product easier and more accessible to the fans.

Upon leaving a traditionally scored rodeo, many fans have no idea who is leading the overall standings. No one has an idea of who is a winner or loser. Not so in the bracket format. There is always a winner and a loser at the end of the day.

Not only do the fans enjoy the system, but the contestants like the format as well.

Ryan Watkins, who won the tie-down roping title at Houston recently, said he's all in favor of the format. "It's real neat. I just kind of sneaked through the bracket system, and I still had a chance to win it," he said. "Also, you only have to hang out here for three days, and then you can do whatever. It's really a great setup."

Heath Ford, who was the bareback champion in San Antonio, said it was a lot of fun competing against a lot of the world's top contestants. "The format puts you against the very best in the world. You can sit through 10 rounds of the (WNFR) Finals and not see what you saw in the finals here," he said about the performance in San Antonio.

Martin and Shafer said they have received some queries from other rodeo committees around the country concerning the possibility of them employing the system. "No one that I know of has added it this year," Martin said. "But there is a lot of interest."

Some rodeo insiders say that the bracket format is not for everyone. It works in Houston, San Antonio and Calgary because of the big money offered and the limited number of entries.

For events like Fort Worth or Cheyenne, Wyo., who annually draw more than a total of 1,000 entries each, it would become very difficult to employ the bracket format because of the large number of competitors. Meanwhile, Houston limits its entries to 50 contestants in each event, while San Antonio caps its total at 60 and Calgary at 50.

In order to pull it off, rodeos such as Fort Worth and Cheyenne would have to install qualifying rounds prior to the bracket format. And that is something that neither rodeo is interested in doing at this time.

Another factor is the amount of cash put up by the rodeos. "You have to have a lot of money available for the contestants, or else it won't work," said John Davis, who is in charge of the PRCA's member relations. "It works at Houston and San Antonio because of the large purses they offer." Houston offered $1.4 million, San Antonio one million and Calgary $2 million.

Although I have come to enjoy the bracket system, I also still like to see the old-style rodeo that Fort Worth and Cheyenne present. I think there definitely is room for the two systems.

Some have questioned if the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo would consider the bracket system. "We've already got winners decided every night at the NFR," said Martin, who also serves the PRCA as the chairman of its board of directors. "So it's pretty easy to follow, although the average does present some confusion."

Overall, it's a good idea that rodeo is attempting to make its product more fan friendly. The more fans, the more money will be available.

And that always seems to be the bottom line.

— Ed Knocke

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