The Recipe: March Madness Bracket Strategies

There's no denying the excitement and anticipation of March Madness. Wether you're a hardcore Basketball fan or simply someone who wants to root for their alma matter, the NCAA March Madness Tournament brings out the College kid in all of us! This also means participating in bracket contests adding to the excitement & subsequently, adding stress to the event. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do, the NCAA bracket contest is fun for everyone. Its that time of the year when the weather is finally decent and the dog days of the NBA are to unbearable to watch . March Madness is right on time!

With all excitement buzzing it's easy to get caught up in the energy of it all. Because of this you may have found yourself committed one to many bracket contest. You're probably a few hundred dollars in across the board and you're hoping the strategy you have been using for the past 5-10 years finally pays off. But maybe it's time for something new? Here are a few strategies to consider this year when making your picks.

#1 GOING CHALK

The term going chalk means writing in the favorite for each game. This is a straight percentage play. You're banking that each team does what they're supposed to do and win outright. Most people who do this are always in the fight until the end. That's because going chalk is a safe and reliable way to go. However, we know for a fact that EVERY YEAR there will be an upset. So remember, when going chalk you're hoping that your co-worker who knows nothing about the game and picks their teams based off the jersey color scheme doesn't get to many upsets in their favor.

#2 PICK THE FAVORITES TO MAKE THE FINAL FOUR

This strategy is founded in the Chalk strategy but with a little difference. With this strategy you work your way backwards by selecting the Final Four first. This gives you the opportunity to feel comfortable with your Final Four and allowing you to be more loose in selecting upsets. Typically the Final Four features the top seeds, meaning 1's, 2's and 3 seeds.

For a history of past NCAA Tourney brackets check out: www.allbrackets.com

#3 TRUST IN VEGAS

Have you ever heard the saying "Vegas didn't build these massive casino's by loosing"? It's true, Vegas always has the edge when it comes to sports betting, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have an edge too! The Trust in Vegas strategy means picking the favorites based on the odd's or using the point spread to determine the winner.

For example Duke is favored to beat Troy by -19.5 points in the first round of the tournament. What does that mean? The point spread is for betting purposes, so if you bet $1 on Duke to cover the spread, then Duke would need to win by 20 points or more (because of the half point system). These are really good odds in favor of Duke, which means Duke would be a good bet to win this game. The only problem with this system is its only good for the first round of the tournament. Once you submit your bracket you cannot change, so you will have to do some forecasting.

#4 HISTORY LESSON

If history teaches us anything it's that history always repeats itself. You can bet that history will be showing its old head during the NCAA tournament. To use the History Lesson method you will need to do some research. Start by gathering data on the winners by round from past tournaments. As a rule of thumb, only go as far back as five years to collect data. The game changes from year to year with rules, trends and style of play. Look at what upsets happened and when/where they happened. You will begin to see trends in certain matchup's and the data you collect can give you some nice percentages to play around with!

#5 DUMB LUCK

Probably the most logical and concrete way to guarantee a contest win! Let's be honest, the one who always wins these things know little to nothing about College basketball. So don't be afraid to block all the noise on ESPN, the talking heads who think they know everything and go for random luck!

Have fun and make sure to comment below on your thoughts and if any of these methods work for you.