March Madness Bracket Ideas

In a 65-team NCAA men's basketball tournament bracket, there are 8,446,744,073,709,551,616 possible brackets that be created without duplication. While that's an absurdly high number, it is testament to the random nature of March Madness. Even well-informed experts can have trouble faring better than someone who is watching college basketball for the first time. Therefore, it isn't outrageous to forget everything you knew about each team and create your own "alternative" bracket. Here are three ideas for alternative brackets that have worked before and make for a fun way to mix things up come March.

  1. Team Names

    • Ever wonder whether how a North Dakota State Bison would fare against a Xavier Musketeer? Or whether a Minnesota Gopher is cooler than a Wisconsin Badger? One alternative way of filling out your bracket is pitting team nicknames against each other. The school with the most interesting nickname advances to the next round. You could rank certain aspects of the nickname on a scale of 1 to 5, such as singularity, logo design and amount of "fight." This takes a little imagination and a good sense of humor. If schools with the same nickname play each other, which happens quite often, the "tie" can be broken by who has the more appealing team mascot.

      For more unique nicknames, such as Tarheels or Sooners, it is worthwhile to do some research into how the nickname originated. This not only helps your bracket, but also offers valuable trivia information come tournament time.

    Equal Number of Seeds

    • The most exciting and unpredictable aspect of the tournament is the upset. Choosing how and when upsets will happen is difficult, but could be made easier by forcing yourself to choose an equal number of high seeds and low seeds in each region. While this may make it tough to have a successful bracket, if you are in an office pool or group with others doing the same, it presents an interesting scenario in trying to choose the right upsets. If it turns out to be a particularly upset-heavy tournament, you might fare better filling out a bracket with this strategy.

    Graduation Rates

    • Every school discloses information on the percentage of its athletes who graduate. It's a revealing statistic to see not only how committed the players are to their teams, but how many are committed to their academics as well. Since the vast majority of basketball players do not go on to the NBA, credit is due to schools that retain and graduate as many players as possible. While this doesn't always guarantee bracket success, it's fun to root for players for their "smarts" as well as their basetball ability. In 2008, ESPN's David Schoenfield took a unique twist on this idea by using "inverse graduation rates," with the schools with the lower graduation rates advancing. The final? No. 8 seed UNLV over No. 14 seed Georgia.