Geml: Top 10 March Madness bracket trends
It's that time of the year again when millions of people fill out brackets in hopes of winning an office pool for bragging rights for year or a pool filled with cash. People have had many ways of filling out brackets and here are the trends that people follow when making their brackets.
1. The Seed Picker- These types of bracket predictors are the ones that start off by picking the highest seed in every match up in the first round. No chance of upsets in these brackets as all the projected favorites win. As these people move down the bracket into further rounds of the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four, all of the higher seeds win. Like a 2 over a 3 or a 1 over 2. Once they get to Final Four, they have all number one seeds left. These are the type of people that really have a long shot to win it all or can have everything go right for them.
2. The Statistical Picker- Probably one of the most common types, these people will look at all the stats on every matchup and listen to every expert on making their picks. Like a 13 see team has beaten 4 seeded team 4 years in a row. ESPN’s Jay Bilas is a well-known master of Bracketology and people will go to the extreme of copying his bracket team for team based on his well-known knowledge of the statistical side of each matchup. Then there are the people who flip-flop between each matchup
3. Every Other Picker- These people will fill out their bracket by going down the bracket and picking every game. For example, starting off with Gonzaga and Georgia State. The person would pick Gonzaga, the favorite, then the next matchup, Boise State and Memphis, the underdog, to win that matchup. This will be the theme of their bracket filling style as picking upsets is a part of it, but not like these next ones.
4. The Upset Picker- These fans are all for the biggest March Madness upsets possible. These are the people that pick a 16 seed to beat a 1, a 2 to lose to a 15 and 14 beating a 3 seed. Sure, not every game will be an upset, but these people hope that the lower seeds make it farther than the higher ones. Then there are the ones that pick teams and just have all the luck in the world.
5. The I have No Clue What I am Doing/Dumb Luck Picker- These are the people that have no clue what a March Madness bracket even is. They just want to be in on the fun and try and beat their collages. When they fill out a bracket, they more in likely will not look at the seed numbers and future matchups when picking. Instead, they may resort to these two ways of picking.
6. The Mascot Picker- Probably one of the most common types on how people fill out their brackets. When these people fill out their bracket, the seed number, team record and everything else are completely out the window. When Texas and Virginia Tech match up, these people will think, who would win a fight a Longhorn or Hokie or a Dragon, 12 seeded UAB, or a Cougar, 5 seeded Houston. A Buckeye or a… wait a minute that goes my ties a Michigan or Michigan State fan. These next people go based off of emotion.
7. The Emotional Tie Picker- When these March Madness goers fill out their brackets, they go based off their emotional ties with the schools that are in the tournament. Let's keep Michigan and Michigan State on the sideline for a moment but teams like UCLA or USC can have people select them because they visited California two months before the tournament.
Another emotional tie can be, oh I have a friend that goes to Iowa State so I will pick them to win at least two or three games just for that reason alone. Now putting Michigan and Michigan State back in the picture, people in the state of Michigan have an emotional tie to either school or in rare cases both.
Parents that have kids that went to both schools and rooting for them both in tournament are those reasons. But most of the time it's either Michigan goes to the Elite Eight and Michigan State loses in the first round or vise versa. There are also people that just go by on what the past says alone.
8. The History Picker- These people take a dive into the history books and make their selections this way. For example, when Ohio State lost to Oral Roberts last year in the first round, the history picker will pick against Ohio State to lose again in the first round. Ohio State faces off against Loyola-Chicago this year in the first round so history pickers will be relying on history to repeat itself again in tournament.
9. The Only Time Picker- These people are the ones in your pool or group that have either have never filled out a bracket before and only are doing so because everyone else is, or they just want to live or die by their picks in just one bracket and not having another one, three or nine to fall back on unlike the next types.
10. The Every Possible Scenario Picker- These people go all in on March Madness and fill out the maximum amount of brackets that can be filled on a website. These people fill out brackets with every possible scenario with a different Elite Eight, Final Four and Championship. These people like myself, want to fill out as many brackets as possible so there is a great chance for a near perfect bracket. I don’t say perfect because nobody has ever had a perfect bracket. Come on its March! Something will not go right and bust your bracket.
So, which one are you? Are you more than one of the top ten when filling out your brackets? Be sure to get your brackets in by 12:15 tomorrow before Colorado State and Michigan tip-off and let the madness begin!
