How to Complete an NCAA Basketball Bracket

Every spring brings the excitement, intrigue, passion and pure joy of the basketball spectacle that is March Madness. Many experts boast philosophies about filling out the perfect bracket, but by just following a few consistent steps, you can make the most out of your bracket every year.

Things You'll Need

  • Internet access
  • Paper and pencil
  • NCAA bracket
  • Newspaper
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Instructions

    • 1

      Get an NCAA bracket as soon as it is released. Printing several brackets will give you an opportunity to look at the field of 65 teams from a broader perspective. These brackets can be found at most major sports Web sites (see Resources below).

    • 2

      Familiarize yourself with the different NCAA conferences and the Associated Press (AP) poll and NCAA coaches' poll. These polls are published weekly in newspapers and on Web sites throughout the season. Studying them will give you a glimpse of the teams that played well during the season.

    • 3

      Evaluate individual teams and their conference and overall records. Teams with more wins than losses have a good chance at the NCAA Tournament, but that doesn't make them locks for the Big Dance.

    • 4

      Determine how well each individual team faired against teams ranked in the top 50.

    • 5

      Pick with your brain, not with your heart. Remember that the lower seeds (1-6) generally perform better at neutral sites than higher seeds (7-16), so consider the seed regardless of emotional ties to a particular team. Use the same criteria for picking winners in the early rounds as you would in the later rounds.

    • 6

      Locate the four regional sites and determine if any of the teams may have local fan support in that region. A neutral site not too far from a school can give a team a bit of home-court advantage.

    • 7

      Sit back and watch your bracket come to life.