Bracket Picking 101

March Madness is officially here!  The 68-team tournament bracket is set and will start with the "First Four" on Tuesday & Wednesday.  The First Four is a new wrinkle to the tournament this year and it consists of 4 play-in games between 8 different teams who were the teams that were seeded #61-68 by the Selection Committee.  The NCAA Tournament will start in full force on Thursday and continue through the Championship Game on April 4.  Now is the time for millions of people who may or may not watch College Basketball to pick up the bracket and fill in the predictions from the "First Four" all the way to the "Final Four".

There is no one right or wrong way to pick your brackets.  There will be upsets, Cinderellas, no one will have a "perfect" bracket, and there will be a lot of money that is won and lost (if you're into that sort of thing).  There are multiple methods that you may use to fill out their brackets, but here are ten things to think about as you pick up your pen:

10. Pick as many upsets as you can.  History says this will not be nearly as successful, but it sure will be fun when Oakland actually beats Texas and you can say, "I picked that one!  I picked that one!"  Careful though, 16 seeds are 0-104 all-time against 1 seeds, 15 seeds are 4-100 against 2 seeds, but the 8 seeds actually have a losing record against the 9 seeds (48-56).

Hampton, a 15 seed, beat Iowa State in 2001.  Only 4
Number 15 seeds have ever won a game in the tourney.

9. Pick the team that has the best school colors.  This totally would depend upon which colors you like, but if it was me, then I would have North Carolina vs. UCLA in the championship game this year.  UCLA has won 11 national championships while North Carolina has won 5.  Hmmm...this one seems to have worked before.

8. Pick the team with the best star player.  It seems that there are always 2 or 3 players every year that carry their team further than where they were expected to go.  18 of the 20 Naismith Award (College Basketball's "Heisman") finalists are going to be playing in the tournament.  Check them out.  They could be the key to cutting down the nets.

7. Pick the team with the best road record.  A team that proves themselves throughout the season and goes into a hostile environment (as opposed to a "neutral" court) is prepared to play in a plethora of environments and situations.  Teams such as Michigan State and Connecticut continually schedule tough road games throughout the season in order to prepare for the NCAA tournament (Michigan State has been to 8 Final Fours and Connecticut has been to 3).  Interestingly, San Diego State led the country with a 12-1 road record while BYU was percentage points behind at 10-1.  Does anyone else wonder what Jimmer said to Kawhi Leonard at the end of the MWC championship game on Saturday?  "See you in Houston!"  Maybe?

6. Pick the team that had the highest finish in its conference tournament.  Since there are 31 teams in the tournament that won their conference tournaments, you may have to resort to another method for a tiebreaker, but how well a team is playing coming into the NCAA tournament can spill over into a national championship run.

The mascot method may not be for you, but the Long
Island Blackbird loves it!

5. Pick the best mascot.  Similar to the "school color" method, this one may be much more subjective but if I  employed this method, this year's championship game would feature the Long Island Blackbirds and the St. Peter's Peacocks.  I think I just realized that I subconsciously really like birds.

4b. Pick the same team to win the championship every year.  This was my wife's "go-to" for years until she got tired of picking Duke and resorted to another method in 2010.  Do you happen to remember who won the national championship last year?  I'll give you a hint...the team's name rhymes with "fluke".

4a. Pick the team whose students enjoy the best weather throughout the year.  I believe this is the method my wife resorted to last year and believe it or not, she still didn't get the 2 final teams: Duke (North Carolina-it's not terrible in the winter, but there are too many hurricanes) and Butler (Indiana-Freeze out in the winter and too many tornadoes...not even close).  Looks like the forecast calls for a championship game between San Diego State and Florida this year.  Mmmm....interesting.  Sorry, Pittsburgh, I know you're a #1 seed and all, but I've seen those Steeler playoff games in January.

3. Pick the team with the best overall record.  The team that wins the most games throughout the season should win the most in the tournament, right?  Kansas, San Diego State, and Ohio State all tied with 32 wins this year.  All the "experts" seem to be picking Kansas and Ohio State, so maybe we should all get paid to go on TV and count a team's number of wins, too?

2. Always pick the highest seed.  The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee spent an entire week narrowing the field and selecting the teams by putting them in order from #1-#68, so they should know something, right?  Well, only once (in 2008) have all four #1 seeds actually reached the Final Four.

1. Be Loyal.  That's right, pick your favorite team no matter what and you may leave everyone saying, "Oh man, my bracket just got Jimmered!"

BYU fans would love it if the phrase
"My bracket got Jimmered" catches on.