Spring is in the air and with that comes spring cleaning, longer days and, of course, “March Madness.” But what’s all the commotion behind the “madness?”
The NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship, is made up of a field of 65 teams for a showdown to reach the final four.
Teams can reach the “Big Dance” by either winning their outright conference championship or achieving an “at-large bid.” These are determined by a selection committee who look at factors such as strength of schedule, RPI ratings, power wins, record and other aspects.
The seeding of each team is also determined by the mentioned factors and then teams are placed in their respective regions.
This year we have East, Midwest, South and West. The winner of each region will meet on April 5 in San Antonio, Texas for the Final Four.
The teams that have earned an automatic bid are Belmont, Winthrop, George Mason, Siena, Drake, Austin Peay, Davidson and San Diego.
Each year fans enjoy watching most of the games, or if they are lucky, attending one, but the majority fill out the infamous brackets.
Most will just guess, pick the pretty names or even worse have a 16-seed winning it all.
So for those of you that are serious about winning that pool here are some tips.
The first emphasis here is never, never pick a No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed, this has never happened in history and I’m pretty sure we won’t be writing history anytime soon.
Secondly, No. 2 seeds versus No. 15 seeds are possible upsets but not likely. Over time there have been a few upsets.
The catch-22 here is if you pick a No. 15 to run into the final four and they don’t quite make it, your bracket is probably busted for good.
The No. 5 and No. 12 games are where the upsets usually begin, and the dubbed “Cinderella” is born. But just like the story, midnight usually strikes in the sweet 16 for the “Cinderella.”
The other games in the first round become tricky for the amateur when other things have to be considered in the decisions for who advances. Take into consideration the leadership of a team, number of NCAA tournament appearances, great defense and a superb scorer.
All the conference championships wrap up on Sunday afternoon, then the committee will then select the field of 65 teams.
Immediately following the selection the brackets should be available.
Brackets can be found on various sports sites like ESPN.Com and CBSSPORTSLINE.Com.
Also for Facebook junkies there are some snappy applications you can add to fill out your brackets online. This features online instant scoring, creation of groups and other ways to network the madness.
Next week look for Bracketology 202 after “Selection Sunday” and some input on this years “dancers.

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