This is my bracket. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My bracket is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My bracket, without me, is useless. Without my bracket, I am useless.
How do you fill out your NCAA tournament bracket?
There’s no right or wrong way.
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
So goes the March Madness creed. It’s just you and your bracket through a series of office pools and friendly contests and attempts to win $1 billion from Warren Buffett. But how do you actually go about picking the teams? Well that’s up to you. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Favorite color
This is the person who will win your pool in the end. They have never watched a college basketball game and never will.
Higher seed
For those of us who really don’t have the time, just go chalk. Chalk is actually seen to be the way to go after the first weekend of games but if you’re up against it just always go for the 16-seed to beat the 1-seed. That one’ll never come back to bite you.
Random!
Grab the dartboard and go nuts. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
Picking the basketball teams that were good when you paid attention to college basketball
UCLA and UNLV right to the Final Four. Book it.
Doing it by football program
Oklahoma is the only 2018 College Football Playoff team in the tournament this year, so let’s just just go with who’s historically been good on the gridiron.
A Final Four of: LSU, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Auburn wouldn’t be awful.
KenPom studying (or other fancy math)
NET rating, RPI, KenPom. The numbers never lie ... until they do.
Our friends in the desert always know what’s up.
Flipping a coin
Because life is about toss-ups.
Upsets
Go nuts. Not just one 12-5 upset ... let’s go with all four. Grab this year’s version of UMBC. Take a 15 over a 2 for good measure and a couple 14s over 3s. It’s you’re gonna go down, go down swingin’.
Mascot
Whether it’s via cuteness or literal which animal would kill the other, going by mascot is not the worst way to go. Things do get awkward with the human versions. Just be thankful Western Kentucky isn’t in the tournament though.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Listening to the folks on ESPN
Be careful what you wish for here. The talking heads may be legitimately knowledgeable about the dance, but remember they haven’t had much more time to digest the picks than you or I have. They’re shooting from the hip with their picks on the selection show. Wait til their brackets later in the week for some more educated guesses.
The paper bracket
Why are you still doing a bracket by hand in 2019?
Fading your friends
If your friend is picking their alma mater, go the opposite way every time. Bonus points are you being psyched that you looked smart while they’re livid their team’s going home.
Student comes first in “student-athlete” for a reason.
Teams with most NBA prospects
Not the worst way to go about it because talent usually does win the championships.
Teams with best alum
Now go forth and makes you picks. Choose your method wisely.
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