march-madness-15With March Madness upon us, it is only natural to be giving thought to how one will choose their bracket this year. Everyone has their own way and reasoning for how they fill out their bracket and why they move certain teams on and not others.

Plus there are those people who have been following majority of the teams throughout the entire season, and there are those who only enjoy filling out a March Madness bracket since it’s the thing to do during March.

For those of you who are not crazy college basketball lovers and only know who’s doing great this season and who is not doing so great, I have compiled a list of “Dos and Don’ts” for creating a March Madness Bracket. Even if you do follow college basketball, here are a few helpful reminders to maybe help you avoid what went wrong in your bracket last year.

 

Do: Put at least one no. 1 seed in your final four.

Don’t: Put all no. 1 seeds in your final four. (This is not very likely to actually happen, it has only happened once, in 2008)

Do: Advance a double-digit seed to the sweet sixteen, but do not advance them any further than this.

Don’t: Pick your teams to win based off of their mascot, jersey color, or how good the players look.

Do: Pick a past champion to win it all. (10 of the last 15 champs are multi-time winners)

Don’t: Pick the defending champion to win it all.

Do: Research the teams before filling out your bracket

Don’t: Put too much stock in conference tournaments

Do: Pay attention to what others are saying

Don’t: Pick your entire bracket based off of seeding

Do: Follow your instincts

Don’t: Pick a 16-seed to beat a 1-seed. (This has happened once since the bracket grew to 64 teams in 1985)

Do: Pick at least one 5-seed beating a 1-seed

Don’t: Overthink the first-round match ups if you don’t have the team getting past the second round

Do: HAVE FUN while following your bracket selection throughout March Madness!!!

Hopefully these few Dos and Don’ts of picking a March Madness bracket can help those of you who are not crazy college basketball followers and maybe even give some helpful reminders to those of you who are. Happy picking!