» NCAA Bracket 101
Monday, March 15th, 2010
We have finally made it to March! March is one of my favorite months because March Madness is here. That means that a lot of you will be filling out NCAA tournament brackets with your friend, family, and co-workers.
If you have never filled out a bracket before, or if you haven’t done so well in the past; use the following NCAA tournament tips to improve your score.
Here is some background information on the tournament that you can use to help. There are 64 teams in the tournament. Those teams are then divided into 4 regions ( East, South, Midwest, and West). Then in the regions, the teams are seeded from top to bottom. The #1 seed plays the #16 seed, the #2 plays the #15 seed, and so on. There are then 7 rounds of games to determine the National Champion. This format of 64 teams had been used since 1985.
Now that you have some background information, grab some friends, get comfortable on the couch in your MSU apartment, and fill out your bracket using the following tips:
1. Do not pick a #16 seed to beat a #1 seed. It has not happened in 25 years of competition.
2. Do not pick a #15 seed to beat a #2 seed. It has only happened four times.
3. When looking for an upset in the first round, look at seeds 9-12.
4. With the #8and #9 match-up, the #9 seed wins more times than not.
5. Pick one #12 seed and one #13 seed to win at least one game. #4 and #5 seeds have been upset in most years of the tournament.
6. Keep in mind, that teams lower than a #12 seed rarely pull off more than one upset.
7. Pick 3 of your #1 seeds to make the round of 8.
8. Pick 2 #2 seed to make it to the round of 8.
9. Pick 1 of your #3 seeds to make it to the round of 8.
10. Pick 1 of your #4 or #5 seed to make it to the round of 8.
11. Do not pick a #7 seed to make the Final Four. It has never happened before.
12. Pick at least one #1 seed to make the Final Four. A #1 seed has made it every year except 2006.
13. The sum of the seed of your Final Four picks should not exceed 11.
14. Two number one seeds in the National Championship game rarely happens, but it has happened the last tree out of four years.
I hope this helps, now get ready to watch some great basketball action in the comfort of your East Lansing apartment. Go STATE!!
– Shaun Holness
Tags: Basketball, March Madness, National Championship, NCAA bracket tips, NCAA Brackets
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