FINAL

• PAYBACK looks unstoppable as they crushed Community Credit 186-14 yesterday. Will they be tested in the Final Four? Stay tuned. 

UPDATE on Monday at 9am PT

• Yes, you are reading this correctly: PAYBACK 151 - Community Credit 11. Looks like their starters will be extra fresh as PAYBACK appears close to punching their ticket to the Final Four. 

The pretenders have left town and the field has been whittled down to 8 NGPF resources. What patterns can we discern from the Elite 8 of NGPF:

• Educators love interactives with 6 of the Elite 8 coming from that NGPF division. 
• McKinney, the developers of PAYBACK and Spent, received lots of love with both of their teams advancing. Stay tuned as NGPF has partnered with them to produce several new games. With April's purr-fect release, you will never think of managing credit quite the same way again. 
• Lots of different ways to advance to the elite 8 with five different financial topics covered in these NGPF activities: managing credit (3), paying for college (2), career, investing and budgeting.

MAKE YOUR SELECTIONS FOR THIS GAME HERE

Game Report: #1 PAYBACK vs. #8 Community Credit

Don't think that PAYBACK is resting on their laurels after their squashing of Overdraft Fees by almost 200 points last week. They still have a serious chip on their shoulder after being overlooked by an award-granting organizations this spring for "Educational Game of the Year." They plan to take it out on the court so don't be surprised by another rout. Rumor has it that there is a Spanish version of PAYBACK about to launch too [early April] so they clearly are not resting on their laurels. [Send us an email at info@ngpf.org to let us know you are interested in the Spanish version].

Their coach Jenny, the creative genius at McKinney behind PAYBACK, had this to say during a pre-game presser: "All of these tools are educational. But how many of them have the potential to change educational futures? drops mic The PAYBACK supporters have come out in force again and their signs clearly indicate why they love the game:

• Think before you student loan
• Playing PAYBACK with parents/guardians...PRICELESS
• [Chanting this mantra] Happiness, Connections, Focus, Debt!
• TOTAL Student Loans < First Year Salary

Ok, well its certainly easy to overlook Community Credit given all the accolades received by their opponent. Community Credit's supporters which number somewhere between 5 and 5,000, tell us how difficult it is to make this concept of managing credit interesting. They point to these amazing national maps in this activity that show how the individual states (and counties) are doing on various credit criteria.

Ok, images are not supposed to be included in these write-ups, but Community Credit needs all the help it can get.  This map shows percentage of population in a given state making on-time payments.This activity hits the trifecta of thin files, credit reports and credit reports. All in one sitting! Just imagine how these maps will spur your students' curiosity (and questions) when you start getting down to the county level. That's more exciting then a buzzer-beater in the Final Four! And its I-N-T-E-R-A-C-T-I-V-E. 

As for our intrepid prognosticator, Melissa, her comment at press time was that this game was not even worthy of a prediction. If that doesn't fire up Community Credit supporters I don't know what will! 

Upcoming Games: 

• Tuesday: #3 Let's Make a Mutual Fund vs. #11 A Tale of Two Credit Scores
• Wednesday: #2 Can you Make It As An Uber Driver vs. #10 Earnings By Major
• Thursday: #5 Spent vs. #13 FICO Score Simulator 

MAKE YOUR SELECTIONS FOR THIS GAME HERE

Bracketology by Christian:

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.