For most college basketball fans across the country, this is the greatest time of the year. Several basketball games a day, upsets, and buzzer-beaters are all wrapped into just a few weeks known as "March Madness." However, when it comes to filling out your bracket, it can be stressful. Whether you are in a bracket pool or just filling out your own brackets for fun, the following tips will make it easier.
Take a few risks. It's easy to go through your bracket and chose every single favorite to advance to the next round, but what's the fun in that? Take a few educated guesses at which favored teams stand a chance at going home empty handed. Maybe that injury-riddled three-seed actually will lose to that red hot 14-seed. Of course, checking out a few experts' predictions on potential upsets won't hurt, either. Take the risks that you believe it, and don't pay attention to what your friends think about it.
Don't pick the school that you attend to win it all. Yes, I know it's hard to not pick the team that you love. I have been guilty of this myself, in the past. However, making a non-bias bracket is the safest way to go. Unless, of course, you really think that your team will when it all, then go ahead.
When in doubt, trust in mathematics. Using data, such as strength of schedule and pace-adjusted states, a website called Prediction Machine ran 50,000 simulations of this year's NCAA tournament and came up with each team's odds of advancing to the next round. Use this if you are dead serious about winning your office pool.
Most importantly, have fun. Do not let all the brackets stress you out. Have fun filling out the brackets and enjoying watching good college basketball games.
