OK Skippy, I know a lot of people out there are going to throw a lot of expertise and knowledge at you, about how to fill out your brackets. Stop. Above the clouds, the nonsense, and everyone’s an expert mentality, there’s a beautiful thing called history that shows us the way. I am no expert, don’t believe in the term. I don’t have life experience playing college basketball, nor do I have it coaching the game. So there’s that, plus I can’t honestly sit here and tell you I have the skinny on every one of the sixty eight teams invited to this monstrosity. I do enjoy a nice game of numbers, and always like to entertain patterns. Sports is a game of math, always has been, just doesn’t always mean the  math and act of playing a sport go hand in hand. Here’s the bottom line, let’s look at some trends from recent Final Four Tournaments, and you can see the overwhelming trends. Again, I don’t think a lot of people really have a clue as to what will happen, most of it will be luck, but that doesn’t mean you can swing the odds in your favor. Let’s start with throwing out any team that didn’t finish in the AP Top 25. Only three teams in the last decade have made it to the Final Four unranked at the end of the season, odds are stacked severely against you. Of those three, two snuck in with at-large bids, while Butler won their conference tournament. Feel kind of weird about discarding an at-large squad you had your heart set on, that is outside the top 25? Don’t worry, we did the research for you. The following goes back and shows you the Final Four teams, in parenthesis is where they were ranked in the final AP poll:

2012:
LOU (16)
UK (1)
OSU (7)
KU (5)

2011:
VCU (unranked) (at large)
BUTLER (unranked) (Horizon Conference Tournament winner)
UK (15)
UCONN (21)

2010:
BUTLER (12)
MSU (11)
WVU (7)
DUKE (4)

2009:
MSU (7)
UCONN (3)
NOVA (10)
UNC (1)

2008:
UCLA (3)
MEM (2)
KU (5)
UNC (1)

2007:
GTOWN (9)
OSU (1)
UCLA (4)
FLA (6)

2006:
LSU (19)
UCLA (7)
FLA (11)
GMU (unranked) (at large)

2005:
ILL (1)
UNC (2)
LOU (4)
MSU (15)

2004:
UCONN (9)
OKST (7)
DUKE (5)
GTECH (15)

2003:
SYR (11)
KAN (4)
MARQ (8)
TEX (3)

OK, so now we no longer have any teams in our Final Four that are unranked, even if they won their conference tournaments. It’s time to break out that chalk, because this is how you are going to make your money. The Final Four can be the bank breaker, but getting there comes in the first two rounds, specifically the first two days. Here are the all time match-ups:
1 v 16 = 112-0 
2 v 15 = 106-6
3 v 14 = 96-16
4 v 13 = 88-24
5 v 12 = 91-41
6 v 11 = 88-44
7 v 10 = 81-55
8 v 9   = 70-66

Here is where you will be swayed, taunted almost, by loudmouths masking to be experts just like myself. Except what I’m selling is logic, and I’m not even selling it. The buzzword this year is parity in College Hoops. That’s the same word that will be given to you, in order to get you to bite on some pretty absurd upsets that won’t happen. Stay away from seeds 1-3, odds will show you they will win, if you really want to gamble hit a 3 seed to be upset, but that will prevent you from picking another upset with better odds. 5 v 12 is always another sexy pick, one used by experts to sway you one way while they collect big bucks in their office pool. Math shows you the 6, 7, & 8 seeds are most likely to be upset. So now you have already scratched your Final Four teams off, and you can work backwards using the numbers above. You’ve just significantly increased your odds, without even knowing what blunders the committee crew made this year. If you need one more piece of info to sharpen your pick making pencil, since 1991, the winning NCAA basketball coach’s first name has had either three or four letters. This is where you take the money you’ve saved for your boat, and put it on a couple of brackets. Hit it big and I won’t even ask for a penny, of course if you lose I can’t really take credit for that either.