NCAA Host Bid Management System
Resource Center

Section
Business Area
Application
NCAA Host Bid Management System
Audience
Version
Author

NCAA Host Bid Management System overview

Introduction

The NCAA Host Bid Management System is the single application NCAA uses to run the hosting of a championship end to end — from defining a championship and its rounds, through collecting and evaluating host bids, to reconciling the finances after the event.

Every NCAA championship has to be held somewhere, and choosing where is a competitive process. Host institutions put forward bids describing the venue they can offer, what it will cost, and how the event would run; NCAA staff compare those bids and select a host; and once the championship is over, the actual figures are submitted, reviewed, and settled. Before the portal, this work was spread across spreadsheets, email, and documents. The portal replaces that with one structured, tracked process.

How it fits into the championships lifecycle

Hosting is one part of running a championship. The portal owns the hosting thread of that lifecycle: it begins once a championship needs a host, runs the bid and selection process, and continues through the event’s financial closeout. The full sequence — and how the pieces relate as parent, child, and grandchild cases — is summarised below.

Who should use the portal

This guide is for hosts — the membership institutions and conferences, and their local organizing committees, who submit bids and, later, actuals. Your bids are reviewed and selected by the NCAA, and the finances settled by them once the event has been held. A fuller breakdown of the host roles is under Roles and responsibilities.

Key features and capabilities

What you can doDetail
Submit a bidPrepare a complete bid for a championship round — facility, video boards and control room, budget, ticketing, hotels, key contacts, agreements, insurance, forms, and supporting documents.
Work sections in parallelBid sections are independent assignments, so different members of your team can complete different sections at the same time, in any order.
Track bid statusSee where your bid stands at any point without having to ask.
Respond to correction requestsWhen a reviewer asks for a change, the specific section is reopened for you with the reason attached.
Provide budget actualsAfter hosting, enter actual ticket, revenue, and expense figures and attach the required receipts.
Keep everything in one placeDocuments, contacts, forms, and financials all live on the bid, so there is a single record for the whole cycle.

Benefits to users

  • Time savings and reduced manual effort.
  • Improved visibility into bid status.
  • Streamlined communication with the NCAA.
  • Fewer errors through guided data entry and validation.
  • A centralized information repository — one source of truth for every bid.
ⓘ How to move around this guide

The left-hand menu is a map of this guide, and every item in it behaves the same way: clicking it takes you to that part of the guide.

  • Items with a ▾ arrow have sub-topics. Click the arrow to open or close the list; click the title to go to that topic’s own overview.
  • The heading, breadcrumb, and detail panel at the top of the page update to match whatever you are reading, so you always know where you are.
  • Search looks across the guide and takes you straight to the match.
  • Screenshots and diagrams can be clicked to enlarge; press Esc or click outside the image to close.
  • Every link produces a web address you can copy, bookmark, or send to a colleague.

Please note: this describes navigating this guide. Navigating the portal itself is covered under Layout and application navigation.

Roles (Personas) & responsibilities

The portal is role-based: each persona has its own responsibilities and the points in the lifecycle where it interacts with the system. The table below is the day-to-day summary for host organizations; the full access detail is on the Personas reference page.

PersonaWhat they do in the systemWhen they interact
Bid CoordinatorOwns the bid on behalf of a membership institution, conference, or Local Organizing Committee. Creates it, supplies or delegates facility, budget, hotel, forms, and contact detail, submits it, responds to correction requests, and submits actuals after the event.Bid submission, corrections, and actuals
Board OperatorDelegated by the Bid Coordinator to complete the bid elements specific to video boards, LED, and the control room.Bid preparation
BroadcasterDelegated by the Bid Coordinator to complete the elements specific to linear TV, streaming, or radio.Bid preparation
Ticket ManagerDelegated by the Bid Coordinator to complete ticket-related revenue and expense elements, and the corresponding actuals.Bid preparation and actuals
Concession ManagerDelegated by the Bid Coordinator to complete concession-related revenue and expense elements, and the corresponding actuals.Bid preparation and actuals
ⓘ A note on role names
Role names in this documentation are aligned to the system’s access roles. Where a screen shows a different label for the same person (for example an approver selected during championship setup), the underlying role is noted on the Personas page.

Logging in (Authentication)

Access to the portal is through single sign-on (SSO) using your NCAA credentials. Your SSO account carries the role assignment that determines what you can see and do, so two users may sign in to quite different views.

Credential requirements

To sign in you need both of the following:

  • An NCAA Single Source Sign-On (SSO) account.
  • NCAA Host Bid Management System access with the appropriate role assignment.

Obtaining access

How you request access depends on who you are:

If you are…How to obtain access
Member Institution / Conference HostContact your organization’s SSO administrator.
Local Organizing Committee (LOC)Visit https://championships.ncaa.org/, click Request an Account, and submit the required information. NCAA staff will review your request and grant access as appropriate.

Session & sign-out

TopicDetail
Signing inOpen the application URL and authenticate through SSO with your NCAA credentials. You arrive at the Home page.
What governs your viewYour role assignment. The workflows available to you, the cases in your worklist, and the actions you can take all follow from it.
Session & timeoutSessions end after a period of inactivity defined by NCAA. When a session times out you are returned to sign-in and re-authenticate through SSO to continue.
Logging outUse the sign-out option in the user profile menu to end your session deliberately.
If something is missingIf a workflow or action described here is not visible to you, it is most likely a role-assignment matter rather than a fault; raise it with your administrator.

Layout and application navigation

The portal is built using the standard Pega Constellation interface, which means users will see a consistent layout and navigation experience across all screens: a top navigation bar with search, a left-hand navigation for the areas of the application, the central work area, and a right-hand panel for attachments and followers. What appears in each is governed by your access role.

Top navigation and search

The top bar carries global search and account controls. Search finds cases and records across the application; results respect your access role.

The search filter

The control immediately to the left of the search box narrows what is searched. It opens as a dropdown and defaults to All. Choosing a category restricts results to records of that type, which is the quickest way to cut through a long result list when you already know what you are looking for.

Filter optionWhat it searches
AllEvery record type available to you. This is the default.
Bid LifecycleBids across their whole lifecycle, from submission through actuals.
ChampionshipChampionship records, including defined championships and their templates.
Form MaintenanceQuestionnaire and form records.
Round BidRound-level bid records.

The filter is a starting point rather than a permission: results always remain limited to records your access role allows you to see. To widen a search again, reopen the dropdown and choose All.

Top navigation search with the category filter dropdown open, showing All, Bid Lifecycle, Championship, Form Maintenance and Round Bid.
Figure — Search filter dropdown

Left-hand navigation

The left navigation is the main way you move around the application. The Create (+) action starts new work — for a host this is Create Bid (see Bid Submission).

Host personas see a focused set of menu items relevant to preparing and tracking their bids. You reach your bids through My Work and Recents.

Host left-hand navigation panel showing Create, Home, My Work, View Defined Championship Rounds, Notifications and Recents.
Figure — Host left-hand navigation
The Create menu expanded in the host navigation, showing the single Create Bid option.
Figure — Create menu, host view
Menu itemWhen and why it is used
Create (+)Starts new work. For a host this is Create Bid.
HomeThe landing page displayed after sign-in. For a host it shows Available Bids — the bids your organization can see — with filters for Year, Division, Championship, Round, Bid Status, and Bid Secondary Status.
My WorkView and manage bids, assignments, and tasks that are assigned to you or to your team’s work queue based on your persona. See My Work.
View Defined Championship RoundsThe Championship Rounds list — every round available to you, grouped by division, showing Championship Name, Division, Round Name, and the Bid Start and Bid End Dates that define the bidding window.
NotificationsDisplays notifications when a new Pulse comment has been posted for your attention, and when your bid requires action such as a correction request or status change.
RecentsRecently opened cases and records, for quick return.

Use Collapse navigation at the foot of the panel to widen the work area; the icons remain visible so you can still move around.

View Defined Championship Rounds showing the Championship Rounds list grouped by division, with Championship Name, Division, Round Name, Bid Start Date and Bid End Date columns.
Figure — View Defined Championship Rounds, host view
💡 Opening the ID vs. the assignment
Clicking a case ID opens the case to view it; clicking the assignment opens the specific step that is waiting on you and lets you action it. It is worth knowing the difference — the ID is for looking, the assignment is for doing.

Right-hand navigation

The right-hand panel holds Attachments (documents on the case) and Followers (people kept informed of it).

Button actions and workflow navigation

A small set of buttons and navigation actions recur throughout the application. The first column shows the button as it appears on screen.

ButtonActionWhat it does
CancelCancelDiscards the current action without saving.
SubmitSubmitCompletes the current assignment; validates required fields and moves the case on.
Advance this CaseAdvance this CaseConfirms the current selection (for example, forms) and moves the case to its next stage.
Save for LaterSave for LaterSaves your progress as a draft without completing the assignment.
GoGoOpens an assignment so you can work it.
SaveSavePersists what you have entered.
Pick up where I left offPick up where I left offReturns you to your most recent in-progress work.

Navigation basics

Work in the portal is organized as cases, and each case moves through stages, which contain processes, which are made up of steps. You will see this vocabulary throughout the documentation. Interactive elements in the navigation reveal more when clicked — for example, clicking the navigation chevron shows the full case lifecycle (“See Full Lifecycle”), so you can see where the current step sits in the whole process.

My Work

My Work is your to-do list inside the portal. It answers one question: what is waiting on me right now? Rather than opening each bid to check whether it needs attention, open My Work and the portal shows you only the items where you or your team are the next to act.

How the page is organised

My Work is divided into sections, each a separate list. As a host user you see two:

SectionWhat it holdsWhen you use it
Bid Bid assignments routed to you personally — typically because you created the bid or were named on a step. Every working session; this is your own queue.
Bid WorkQueue Bid assignments routed to your team rather than a named person. Everyone in that role at your organization sees the same list. Items are grouped under the bid ID with a count of open assignments. When your Bid section is empty, or when you are picking up work on a colleague’s behalf.

These two sections are the whole of the host My Work page. Championship setup work is not routed to host organizations, so no Defined Championship or Championship WorkQueue section appears for you.

Host My Work page showing the Bid section and the Bid WorkQueue section grouped by bid ID.
Figure — My Work, host view
What actually appears

My Work lists assignments, not bids. A bid is the whole piece of work and may run for weeks. An assignment is a single step within it that someone has to complete before the bid can move on. One bid can produce several assignments at the same time — which is what allows your team to work sections in parallel.

An assignment appears when both of the following are true:

  • The bid has reached a step that needs a person to act, and
  • that step has been routed to you personally (Bid) or to a queue your role belongs to (Bid WorkQueue).

It leaves the list as soon as it is completed, reassigned, or — in a queue — picked up by a colleague. The first person to complete a queued item clears it for everyone, so it is worth confirming a colleague has not already started before you begin.

What governs what you see
FactorEffect
Your persona Determines which kinds of assignment can reach you. A Bid Coordinator receives bid-completion and submission steps; a delegated Ticket Manager or Board Operator receives only the sections assigned to them.
Your organization Determines whose work you see. You see only bids belonging to your own institution, conference, or Local Organizing Committee. You will never see another organization’s bid.
The status of the bid Determines when work reaches you. A bid produces assignments while it is being prepared, goes quiet while it is under review, then returns to you if a correction is requested or when actuals become due.
ⓘ An empty My Work is not a problem
If both sections are empty, nothing is currently waiting on you. A bid you have submitted is still progressing — follow it through Recents or by opening the bid directly. It simply is not your next step.
Reading the list
ColumnWhat it tells you
IDThe bid reference, for example BID-45032. Quote this in any email or query.
Championship NameThe championship the bid belongs to.
DivisionThe division of that championship.
Round NameThe specific round being bid for.
AssignmentThe step waiting on you, named for the action required.
StatusWhere the bid currently stands in its lifecycle.
Bid Start / Bid End DateThe window during which the round is open for bidding.
Create / Update DateWhen the item arrived and when it last changed. Sort on Update Date to bring recent activity to the top.
Assignments you will see, and when
StageAssignmentWhat is expected of you
Bid SubmissionKey ContactsEnter contact details and assign a responsible person for each role.
FacilityConfirm the facility and enter basic details, signage, amenities, emergency contacts, media, and documents.
Video Boards / LED / Control RoomProvide board capability, availability, specifications, contacts, and control room equipment.
Budget – Expense DetailsEnter budgeted amounts by expense category, revenue details, and ticket operations.
Hotel(s)Add hotel accommodation details.
Alcohol AgreementConfirm the alcohol position for the venue.
Certificate of InsuranceAttach the certificate, or defer it if permitted.
FormsComplete each sport- or championship-specific questionnaire until all show Completed.
Review & Submit BidCheck the whole bid and submit it. This is the last host step before review.
Bid ReviewCorrect [section name]
e.g. Correct Basic Facility Details
Read the reviewer’s notes, correct only the section named, and submit.
Actuals SubmissionTicket Actuals – Ticket DetailsEnter actual attendance and ticket figures by session.
Add ConcessionRecord concessions against the ticket actuals.
Enter Expense ActualsEnter real expense figures and attach receipts where required.
Enter Revenue ActualsEnter real revenue figures by category.
Statuses, and what they mean for you
StatusWhat it meansAction needed?
Bid in ProgressThe bid is being prepared. Section assignments are open.Yes
Bid SubmittedYou have submitted; the bid is with the NCAA.No
Update RequiredOne or more sections have been reopened for correction.Yes
ValidatedThe bid passed review and is eligible for selection.No
BID SELECTEDYour organization has been chosen to host. Actuals become due after the event.Later
Actuals Submission in ProgressYou have started entering actuals; partial work is saved.Yes
Actuals ReviewActuals submitted and under review.No
Not SelectedAnother bid was chosen for this round.No
WithdrawnYou withdrew the bid before final approval.No

Status controls what you can edit as well as what you can see. While a bid sits at Bid Submitted or Validated it is locked to you; at Update Required only the reopened sections accept changes; at BID SELECTED the actuals assignments appear and the bid becomes editable again for those sections only.

A worked example

A Bid Coordinator preparing a bid for the Division I Women’s Basketball Championship, First and Second Rounds, opens My Work and sees:

SectionIDAssignmentWhy it is there
BidBID-45032Enter Facility Details Routed to them personally because they created the bid.
BidBID-45032Key Contacts A second open section of the same bid. The same bid legitimately produces more than one assignment at a time.
Bid WorkQueueBID-45019Correct Basic Facility Details Routed to the team, not a named person. A colleague could take it instead.
Bid WorkQueueBID-40022Enter Expense Actuals That championship has been hosted; post-event figures are now due. Status shows BID SELECTED.

A delegated Ticket Manager at the same institution, on the same bid BID-45032, would not see Enter Facility Details. Their My Work shows only the ticket-related steps assigned to them.

Common questions
QuestionAnswer
An item disappeared before I finished it. It was in a work queue and a colleague picked it up. Open the bid by its ID to see the current position.
A colleague can see an item I cannot. Almost always role assignment rather than a fault. Raise it with your administrator.
I have several items on the same bid. Expected. Bid sections are designed to be worked in parallel and do not have to be completed in the order listed.
I started an item and had to stop. Use Save for Later. The assignment stays in My Work with your entries preserved. Pick up where I left off returns you to it.
My bid is not in either section. Nothing is waiting on you. Check its status by opening the bid; it is most likely under review.
🎯 Before you go further
  • Work is organized as cases, moving through stages, processes, and steps.
  • Nothing can be bid on until a championship is defined and approved.
  • Much of a bid can be worked in parallel — the assignments list does not have to be completed top to bottom.
  • Your access role determines what you see.


Confidential — NCAA Host Bid Management System · Documentation v1.5 · [[Author]]