In the sports world, there are a few premier events but as any March Madness betting site will tell you the NCAA tournament is up there. When tournament time arrives, fans both casual and dedicated fill out tournament brackets with all of their picks and predictions.
If you have never been a part of the March Madness bracket process, it is easier than it looks. In this guide, you will learn all that there is to know about March Madness, how to choose a bracket, and a few strategies that could potentially put you in a position to pick the winners.
Understanding March Madness
Before you can worry about filling out a March Madness bracket, you must first understand March Madness as a whole. The NCAA tournament has been around for decades, but it really didn’t start to be a “thing” until the 1980s. From there, the lore and the moments only started to grow.
Each March, buzzer beaters are hit, upsets are achieved, and one team stands at the top of the heap. The name itself comes from all of those things. It also comes from the sense that any team can pull off the win at any given time. One needs to look no further than No. 1 seed Purdue losing the opening game a year ago.
Because of the popularity of March Madness, bracket challenges have now become commonplace. Which means that you need to know what a bracket is and how to put one together.
What is a March Madness Bracket?
A March Madness bracket plays off of the bracket format of the tournament. In the tournament, there are four regions that divide the 68 teams in the field. Each is denoted by a bracket and the winners progress through its own respective bracket to reach the Final Four.
Fan brackets are exactly the same. When Selection Sunday passes and all 68 of the teams – and their regions – are set, the bracket is created. From there, people can fill out the bracket with their picks for each round, eventually coming to a national champion.
GREENSBORO, NC – MARCH 10: A ticket to March Madness sit among the confetti in the college basketball game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the NC State Wolfpack in the championship game of the Women’s ACC Tournament on March 10, 2024 at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC. (Photo by Nicholas Faulkner/Icon Sportswire) (Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
How Do I Get a Bracket?
Given the popularity of March Madness and filling out brackets, finding one is really very simple. You can find a March Madness betting site, like ClutchBuzz, that runs their own contests, for starters or find printable brackets on the NCAA or ESPN pages. You can fill out your bracket there and even check up on your picks without having to print anything out.
In workplaces and schools, brackets are typically printed out and distributed to contestants. Players then fill out their brackets by hand and turn them in. Each has its own scoring system to help declare a winner. The ease of accessibility is one of the key reasons why brackets are so important in the first place.
Researching Teams and Matchups
One thing that a lot of people do before making their bracket picks is to research the teams and matchups. Even the most dominant regular season teams can match up poorly with a lower seed, leading to potentially huge upsets in the process.
That research can also be helpful in finding a winner. Perhaps a team with a dominant big man or a lockdown backcourt would fare better against the competition. While there is no guarantee when choosing an NCAA tournament winner, there are definitely factors and traits that the best of the best possess. Doing your homework is key.
Evaluating Teams
Before you go through the matchups to find the ones that stand out most, you need to look at the teams involved. There are 68 in total, each of which has their own unique resume. Some teams arrived at the tournament by winning their own respective conference tournament while others put together a complete regular season resume.
In order to familiarize yourself with the bracket as a whole, it helps to look at each individual team. Maybe one team has a somewhat mediocre resume but plays in one of the toughest conferences in the country. Or maybe a team struggled with injuries at one point in the year.
The point of evaluating the teams is to get a big picture look at it all. Checking out records and seeding is part of the process, but it isn’t all of the equation. You may come to find that there is a pick that makes more sense than it seems when just comparing records and seeding.
Analyzing Matchups
When the teams and bracket have been announced, it’s time to also look at some of the matchups. There will obviously be only one guaranteed matchup to look at since so much can happen and change when the round of 68 has concluded.
A great example is last year’s 1-vs-16 matchup of Purdue vs. Fairleigh Dickinson. The Boilermakers dominated the regular season largely due to Zach Edey, arguably the best player in the nation. But they struggled when they played FDU because they couldn’t shoot from three and FDU got hot. On their heels the entire game, Purdue never recovered.
Some no doubt saw it ahead of time. Others probably glossed it over because Purdue had dominated throughout the regular season. Looking at the matchups provides an opportunity to see the game within the game. It also provides the opportunity to potentially find those upsets that others may overlook.
March Madness 2024 Bracket Predictions
Knowing all of that, we now find ourselves in the position of preparing for the 2024 NCAA Tournament. March Madness has nearly come, and we are simply awaiting the rest of the conference tournament winners as well as those who make it in on Selection Sunday.
Whether you are a veteran of March Madness or are just joining the fray, there are a few tips that can help. Check out a few of the most important strategies and get ready to put your bracket together like a pro this year.
Strategies for Filling Out Your Bracket
If you are planning to watch and keep track of March Madness, it helps to have a strategy of some kind. The beauty of filling out a bracket is that you can have really any kind of strategy and be on relatively even footing. Sometimes, research is a great thing and helps create logical picks. Other times, chaos reigns supreme and your guess is as good as the next person’s.
As it stands, there are a few semi-regular methods through which you can pick a March Madness bracket. Let’s take a look at the various strategies out there, and look at why they could work (and why they won’t) so that you can go into the tournament with a better idea of what it is you’re doing.
Seeding and Upsets
The first two ways that people pick their brackets are by looking at seeding and trying to predict upsets. While that might sound easy on the surface, it is one of the biggest challenges out there. For instance, the aforementioned upset of Purdue sacked more than a few brackets last season.
Seeding is important because having a more favorable path to the title game can make one team a better pick than another. For instance, last year’s national champion, UConn, only had to face one team higher than their own seed (No. 3 Gonzaga) on their path to the title.
While it isn’t a guarantee, the prospective “ease” of the path can make a difference in who you pick.
Bracket Pools and Scoring Systems
Generally speaking, bracket contests are run in a pool system by any March Madness betting site. Thousands, if not millions, of users all play in the same pool. They operate under a scoring system and the one standing when all has said and done will win it all. Even better, the scoring system is relatively simple, all things considered.
For instance, a common bracket scoring system will award points for picking a winner. The more teams you pick right, the more points you get. Picking teams that run deeper and deeper into the tournament provides more chances to earn points. Even in the event of a tie in points, players are required to predict an exact score for the national championship game, separating any players who may have reached that point with the same point total.
Contrarian Approaches
On paper, it might seem simple to go with the favorites and hope for the best. While that might take some regions further than others, it is an approach used by millions. Another way to go about things is to create a contrarian bracket. But what is that and how does it work?
The goal behind a contrarian bracket is to pick against some of the biggest favorites without going completely against them. For instance, it would have likely been beneficial for players to go with UConn (No. 4 seed), San Diego State and Miami (FL) (both No. 5 seeds) last year. Three of the top seeds were gone after the first two rounds last year, so the contrarian approach does have some credence under the right circumstances.
You back some dark horses, like Iowa State and Drake Bulldogs as well.
Filling Out Your Bracket On A March Madness Betting Site
Now, the question becomes, “How do I fill out a bracket?” The good news is that it is very simple to fill a bracket out whether it be for a contest on a March Madness betting site or for fun. Check out our simple guide to filling out a bracket in no time.
Step-by-Step Guide
Filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket takes no time whatsoever. Start by figuring out where you are going to play. You can choose one of the large pools out there, join an office pool, or play with friends and family.
Fill out a digital bracket in one of the aforementioned pools. Those are great because you can simply click to make your picks and the bracket will save its place. It will even update after each game to show you how your picks are doing.
The other way to do it is to print out a bracket and fill it out by hand. You choose who will win in the first round, then fill out the remainder of the bracket as well as your picks as you go. That takes a little longer and is a bit sloppier, but it is perfectly fine as well.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Each year, those filling out March Madness brackets fall into a few simple mistakes. While there is no guarantee that you can avoid the pitfalls of picking, a few simple mistakes can wind up doing more damage to your chances.
For starters, forget last year. A lot of things can change in a year and a team can look exponentially different from one year to the next. For instance, Gonzaga was a No. 3 seed last year but looks as though they will fall somewhere around a No. 7 seed this year. They are simply not the same team.
Another mistake is to avoid picking upsets for the sake of upsets. Some make sense on paper others are just wishful thinking. What you should be focusing on is recent play. Are the teams you choose doing well of late or are they struggling? Check injury reports as well because just one missing piece can wind up having a major detrimental effect on their team. Try to approach your picks with logic in mind and leave emotion out of it.
Final Thoughts
March Madness continues to be one of the most exciting times of the year. While the tournament itself is always worth the watch, it is the implementation of the bracket challenge that has really pushed itself into another realm.
Millions of players partake every year hoping to create the perfect bracket. In fact, there are even contests that pay out millions – and in some cases, a billion dollars – to those who can get the picks right. There are few opportunities that can quite match March Madness in terms of action both on and off the court.
