How to Build the Perfect March Madness Bracket

As many of us know, it’s that time of year again – time to set up the perfect bracket for college basketball.

March Madness is the largest national single-elimination competition anywhere in the world. The odds of getting a perfect bracket are one in over nine quintillion – odds that don’t seem very promising, yet this doesn’t stop millions of people from filling out a bracket or two every year.

Here’s how you can join the madness this March and create the perfect bracket for the season.

Step 1: Print out your own bracket form. The best place to find a bracket form would be NCAA.com under the bracket challenge tab.

Step 2: Understand the teams playing. Understanding which teams are playing is important to knowing how to fill out your bracket. Some of the important players this March Madness are Melo Trimble (Maryland), Trevon Bluiett (Xavier) and Isaiah Taylor (Texas). A special shout out to my university, Temple, for making it into March Madness this year as the 10th seat. “Fight, Fight, Fight for the Cherry and the White!” 

Step 3: Choosing a Strategy. Everyone has their own way of filling out their March Madness Brackets. Some pick the highest seeds (seeds are the seat or placement based on their record in the season that year), and some pick their favorite teams while others fill their brackets with upsets in hopes that they will find great luck. (An upset is when the underdog in the match up wins against a team favorite that many thought would win.) However, the best strategy to win is to instead stick with the odds that the linemakers come up with. (Linemakers and handicappers use all sorts of information to create and move their lines, including past betting lines, past wagers, the team or competitors recent win/loss streaks, overall winning percentage of the teams involved, etc.) Contrary to what you might think, the highest seed is not always the favorite.

Step 4: Doing Research. Check the odds of each team’s chances with an online sportsbook. This will help to provide you with the best choice for who will most likely win each game. The best place to do research would be ESPN. They will give full coverage of the ups, downs and possibly upsets that happen between each game.   

Step 5: Calculating Points. Each round is worth a set number of points, and normally the NCAA, Fox Sports, CBS and Yahoo all use a point system as follows: (Round 1= 1 point, Round 2= 2 points, Round 3=4 points, Round 4=8 points, Round 5=16 points and Round 6= 32 points out of a total of 192). You can refer to these sites to see how your bracket is performing.

Step 6: Stay updated on the games. Now that you have a bracket, stay updated, and get in on that March Madness fun! Enjoy the time with your friends, and don’t be afraid to get a little competitive!

Step 7: Celebrate your victory!

A few Fun Facts:

* A #1 seed has never lost to a #16 seed

* All four #1 seeds have only advanced to the final four 1 time

* The lowest seed to win a championship was a #8 Seed

* A #5 seed has never won the championship

* Some believe strongly that it’s important to consider how well a team did in recent games, late in the season, right before March Madness.