᷾Tis the season for one of the most entertaining and inspiring playoff series in all of sports. March Madness is upon us, and as we near the start of the tournament today, this year might be the most unpredictable we have ever seen. There is no security in any pick you make this year as the field of teams have failed to provide any certainty about their potential to lift the trophy. Last year we saw unprecedented upsets, with Florida Atlantic, San Diego St. and Miami making the final four for the first time in their program’s history. Yet ultimately we saw a familiar face lift the championship in UConn, a team favored to win it all again this year in the one seed spot.

Throughout this season we have continually seen upset after upset, number one teams in the country falling to teams not even in consideration for a top spot. We saw teams shock the country in conference championship games with all the odds stacked against them. Even though you may have a better chance picking the winning team by blindly throwing at a dart board, I will try to provide some insight before tipoff.

My first piece of advice is don’t look heavily into seeding. Despite it often showing the powerhouses like UNC or UConn, there are bracket destroyers hidden in those lower seeds. We saw this last year as Florida Atlantic (9th seed) and Miami (10th seed) each won games that destroyed brackets across the world. This year we see schools like McNeese State, Grand Canyon and James Madison receiving heavy recognition for having upset potential in their spots at the 12 seed. But also schools like New Mexico and Nevada gained attention for being potentially underseeded for the tournament giving them a tough road ahead. Overall, cast aside judgements based on seeding and look more for how schools match up with each other, don’t let a program’s history sway you. We have seen it in the past… anyone can beat anyone during March Madness.

My next suggestion for the serious bracket makers is to use outside resources to help shape your perceptions about teams. The KenPom rankings are one great resource you can find online, they help show the efficiency in areas like offense and defense for every program in the nation and how they rank among each other. When looking for a potential champion, they usually fall within the top 50 for both defense and offense within these rankings as nothing matters more in March than efficiency. I would also recommend talking to friends about what they think about certain matchups, but don’t follow their every word for every game. It’s important to trust your own gut when making your bracket because one different choice could make the difference in the perfect bracket.

One last piece of advice is to just sit back and enjoy the tournament, making these brackets is supposed to be a way to socialize with others around you. Perfect bracket or not, the tournament always offers some of the best entertainment sports can provide. Even if you don’t get every pick right remember it’s all for fun, and also it is nearly impossible to get everything correct. No one has ever gotten a perfect bracket. You have a better chance at hitting two holes-in-one in the same golf round than making these 63 correct selections.

I suppose I should share with you some of my teams to look out for as well before this tournament gets underway. Personally I see it hard to stop a dominating UConn team that can repeat as National Champions, but I also believe there are numerous challengers in their own region with schools like Iowa State and Auburn. I am still skeptical of teams like Arizona and Purdue after falling flat on their faces last year, but we saw similar actions from a Virginia team in 2019 who followed up their embarrassment the year before (losing to a 16 seed) with a National Championship the next. But whether it’s  big schools like UNC or Duke, or smaller schools like Drake or Samford, ultimately everyone has a shot for the title which makes it impossible to be certain of any team. All I truly know is that this is about to get fun!