With March Madness fast approaching I'm assuming all avid sports fans are excited, as well as other people who just make brackets to see how well they do. Whatever the case is, there are a few things that everyone should remember while making their brackets, talking about brackets, and also watching the games.
First of all, when making your bracket, use a pencil. I guarantee you will want to change many picks after you've written them down. No one wants to see pen scribbles all over the paper, and save a few trees instead of starting over with a new bracket every time you want to change one pick.
Second, go with your gut, but not too much. What I mean is you should go with an upset if you're just feeling it, but not with a 16 seed or a 15 seed. I understand that over the past few years there have been 15, 14, and plenty of 13 and 12 seeds upsetting their higher ranked opponents, but that doesn't mean that your gut feeling will guess them correctly. Unless there is a good reason to pick a lower seeded team, don't do it, because when that team gets destroyed, pretty much everyone else gets a point while you sit there and look stupid. The risk is great but the reward is sweeter, so I guess you could throw in a few big upsets here and there, because it is called madness for a reason. And this year is going to be even crazier with no real front runner to win the championship like we've seen in the past few years.
Third, don't pick all number one seeds to play in the final four. Because that almost never happens. Three of them is okay, but sprinkle in some variety here and there.
(I'm not saying that March Madness is all about luck, because it takes a lot of thought once you get into the later rounds, but in the past I've noticed that the people who winfamily and work Bracket challenges are the ones who put zero thought into it.)
Okay so you have your bracket all set, unless you're one of those people that makes 600 brackets, and if that's the case, please do less. It's now a few days before the tournament starts and you're talking with your buddies about the games. Word of advice: do not call someone stupid for picking a certain team, because ITS MARCH MADNESS AND LITERALLY ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN SO DON'T MAKE A FOOL OF YOURSELF BECAUSE THAT PERSON CAN EASILY GET THAT GAME RIGHT. Nothing is worse than having a friend go "oh hey remember when you told me I was stupid for picking N.C. State to beat Villanova? Who just won? Oh that's right N.C. State." Yes my friend Dan picked N.C. State last year and I told him he was stupid every day until that game. Very embarrassing. Don't be that guy.
So the games are finally on and its the round of 64, also known as my favorite two days of the year. What could get better than two straight days of nonstop, overlapping NCAA basketball where nearly all of the upsets happen. It's actually an exhausting day. I even skipped class one day last March because I was too caught up in the games. Sorry professors if you are reading this.
Here are a few tips to maximize your March Madness experience.
1. Set up a wall of brackets. If you're in college, make all of your friends do a bracket whether they want to or not and tape them all up on a wall. It looks so cool and it's a great way to keep track of them all.
2. Get as many televisions and laptops on as you can. During the first few days, there are usually two or three games going on at the same time and you can stream all of them live on laptops and mobile devices. My idea is to set up two televisions next to each other and use laptops for other games. It's overwhelming but who actually wants to flip between channels. You might miss something.
3. Food. Lots of food. You need to come out of March Madness weighing like ten to fifteen pounds heavier. Unless you sweat all of it off because of all the nervousness you experienced during the games.
4. If you're going to put money on your bracket(s), don't put too much down. Putting down a ton of money is so stupid because it's so hard to actually have a good bracket. $10-$30 is enough. No one needs to drop $100 on a bracket pool that you most likely aren't going to win.
Stick to all of these guidelines and who knows, maybe you'll have a great bracket, or not. Who knows. No one knows. Because it's March Madness. What I do know is that if you follow these tips you will have an awesome March Madness experience.
