Jovenitti: Tips for filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket

After five months of fans and analysts arguing over who should make the NCAA Tournament and… After five months of fans and analysts arguing over who should make the NCAA Tournament and which teams should be seeded where, fans finally found out these details on Sunday night.

Now, over the next few days, millions of Americans will spend countless hours filling out brackets. So for my Top 10 this week, I give you 10 ways to fill out your bracket.

10. Merit. Sure, you could fill out your bracket based off which teams you think are better, but where’s the fun in that? Choosing winners based on the quality of the teams is difficult, and many teams play over their heads in the tournament, whereas others underperform. I advise you to use one of these other methods — especially if I’m competing against you in a pool.

9. Seeds. Choosing the higher-seeded team in each matchup is obviously a boring way to fill out a bracket. But believe it or not, the higher seeds typically win — that’s why they’re the higher seeds. Actually, if you chose based off seeds, you would have done pretty well in 2008 and 2009.

8. Pedigree. If you pick winners based on which teams have success in the NCAA Tournament, you might actually do pretty well. Old Dominion has pulled off a few stunning upsets — such as beating Notre Dame in the first round last year — and Pitt is susceptible to upsets in March. And you might just look like a genius if you pick Michigan State to make it to the Final Four.

7. Gut. You could simply go with your gut for each game. This could be reliable if your gut is really knowledgeable about college basketball. But be careful so you don’t confuse a gut feeling with a gut-wrenching feeling. I know Pitt would likely beat Butler or Old Dominion, but the thought that Pitt could lose to Old Dominion gives me a gut-wrenching feeling — which I might be confusing for a gut feeling that Pitt will get upset.

6. Colors. What’s your favorite color? Choose the winners based on the answer to that question. You might not do very well in your bracket pool, but it would be fun to see how many games you pick correctly. You’ll probably do much better if your favorite color is blue, as opposed to orange.

5. Education. Since these players are student-athletes, why not make out your bracket based on which school is better academically? Hint: Princeton would go to the Final Four.

4. Size. While we’re looking at the actual schools, let’s pick the winners based on the size of the schools. Pitt would go pretty far, but Texas would probably take home the crown. Considering that Texas actually has a legitimate shot at a national championship, this might not be a bad method.

3. Copy someone. Watch ESPN’s Bracketology special, decide which analyst you like best and copy him. I might copy Jay Bilas, since he won some brownie points with me when he questioned if the Selection Committee knew that the ball was round.

2. Mascots. Imagine if panthers actually faced off against bulldogs? Not only would it be entertaining, but the Panthers would undoubtedly win. In fact, Pitt would go pretty far based off this method, but the NCAA Tournament would easily come down to the Michigan State Spartans versus the St. John’s Red Storm. But I’m not sure if a Red Storm would defeat a Spartan, since I’m not sure what a Red Storm is, although it sounds pretty fierce.

1. Do they have a Kemba? I know you’re probably trying to forget about it, but did you see what Kemba Walker did last week? He put his Connecticut team on his back and won five games in five days to take home the Big East tournament championship. Players like Walker often step up big time in the NCAA Tournament and lead teams to big wins. It wouldn’t be crazy to see Jimmer Fredette and BYU against Connecticut in the national championship game.

Certainly, if you actually choose to stick with one of these methods to fill out your bracket, you would probably fail miserably. That’s why I advise an 11th option: all of the above. I have no idea whether UNLV or Illinois will win, but I know that a Runnin’ Rebel would probably beat whatever the heck an Illini is, so I’m going to have UNLV moving on in my bracket. But my gut tells me UNLV will probably lose to Kansas in the second round.

Find your own happy medium, have some fun and good luck.