Bracketology: A Guide to Filling Out Your NCAA Tournament Bracket

Find all the tips you’ll need to become a winner here

March is here, which means it’s time to enter into the madness that is the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Fans across the country will be filling out their brackets and cheering on their teams, and if this is your first time joining this legion of basketball fans across the nation or your fiftieth time, we have a refresher to help you win your way to the top.

Bracketology

Bracketology is the science (or art) of filling out your bracket by picking the winners of every game. You can download your own bracket from any major sports website including Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, and CBS Sports, or you can use an online system to join a pool.

Fill out your bracket by selecting the winner of each match-up. You choose who you think will win in the first round of games, then the second, and so on, until you've chosen winners all the way through the tournament, including the championship game.

You can join the fray online (it's usually free) or you can have your own pool with friends or co-workers. It's a fun way to have someone to root for in every game.

Not Sure Who to Pick?

There are a couple ways to leverage your choices. Try a few of these strategies:

• Never use permanent ink. You will change your mind, we guarantee it.
• It’s okay to be a little reckless with your picks… in the beginning.
• But remember, only four times since 1979 has a team seeded lower than third won the National Title (#4 Arizona, 1997; #6 Kansas, 1988; #6 N.C. State, 1983; and #8 Villanova, 1985).
• Stuck and not sure who to choose? Use some logic. Any logic. Which mascot would win in a fight? Which colors do you like better? Which team has the coolest fight song? Find a system that works for you, and then never waver from it.

If you still can’t make a decision, walk away for a few hours. Go have a cold beer and some hot wings. When you come back, your decision probably won’t be any easier, but hey, that’s the madness of it.