A 10 team bracket is really an 8-team bracket with a play-in: the four lowest seeds play two games for the last two quarterfinal places, and seeds 1 to 6 go straight through. Type the ten names in ranking order and the page draws the 16-line bracket with six byes marked.
How the ten seeds meet
| Quarterfinal | Matchup |
|---|---|
| 1 | Seed 1 v winner of 8 v 9 |
| 2 | Seed 4 v seed 5 |
| 3 | Seed 3 v seed 6 |
| 4 | Seed 2 v winner of 7 v 10 |
Seeds 1 and 2 sit in opposite halves, so they can only meet in the final. Seeds 4 v 5 and 3 v 6 are already set when the bracket is drawn, which means those two quarterfinals can be scheduled before round 1 is over.
Scheduling nine games
With two courts: the two opening games first, then 4 v 5 and 3 v 6 (they don’t depend on round 1), then the other two quarterfinals, the semifinals, and the final. That is five time slots. With one court, nine back to back, and the bye teams can arrive an hour later. Leagues often use this layout for a playoff where only the bottom four of ten play an extra game.
When ranking is a guess
If you aren’t sure who is seventh and who is tenth, it hardly matters to the top seeds, but it decides who plays an extra game. Shuffle the list for a random seeding, or pair the teams in list order if the league already set the games. For more games per team, a 10 team round robin runs 45 games over nine rounds.