Your guide to filling out the bracket without knowing the teams.

So I started planning out my go-to bracket picking strategies. Things like, picking your Final Four first, picking at least one and probably two 1 seeds to make it and not picking any team lower than a 4 seed. When I like the teams, I really try to pick a 1,1,2,(3 or 4), with the 1 seeds on the same side of the bracket. As I was mentally planning what to write, it all sounded really familiar. That's because I laid out most of my ground rules last year. So instead of rehashing it all, just go back and read what I wrote last year. Come back next week and I'll give some thoughts for the actual teams. And my analysis this year will be much better because I won't be biased by the presence of UCLA. :(

5 Long Steps to complete your March Madness bracket

Here are the rules to follow when making your March Madness bracket. Just like everything else on this blog, this doesn't guarantee to get everything right, but maximizes your chances of winning money via your office pool. That means that we're not going to be taking crazy risks and we're not trying to be perfect. You need to get insanely lucky to win on ESPN or Yahoo simply because those groups are so large, but to win your office pool your biggest priority is to mitigate risk. My bold prediction for this tournament: A Pac-10 7 seed will make the Sweet 16. Either Washington will beat UNC or UCLA will get revenge against Florida. But I'm not going to make those picks in my official bracket. The slight advantage I stand to gain if I happen to pick the correct Pac-10 team does not outweigh the points I will lose to everyone else in the field when the favored 2 seeds advance an extra round or three. And if I pick the 2 seeds to advance, but I was correct that they lose? Then I am in the exact same boat as everyone else and still close enough to the lead. The philosophy of picking a successful bracket is "Don't be stupid."