March Madness

My name is Murrell, and I run a bracket challenge group on the CBS Sports website every March for the NCAA Tourney.  Like most players, I have good years and bad.  I have a formula for picking the winner of the championship game that I use every year, and I'm going to share it with you now.

First off, I only pick a #1 or #2 seed to win the title.  That leaves me with 8 teams I can pick.  This year the #1 and #2 seeds are Ohio State, Kansas, Duke, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Florida. 

Teams that win their conference tourney rarely win the national title, so I eliminate any of the 8 remaining teams that won their conference tourney.  This year that eliminated Ohio State, Kansas, Duke, and San Diego State.  I'm left with 4 teams now. 

Teams that lose their first conference game rarely reach the Final Four, so Pittsburgh was eliminated.  Now I'm left with 3.

Of the 3 teams remaining, Florida was over-rated as a #2 seed, and North Carolina was probably too high for a #2 as well.  Many people were saying the Notre Dame could have been a #1, so they might have been raked a bit low.  Therefore, I picked Notre Dame.

Some years it works.  Some years it bombs.  I'll let you know how I do this year.

Thank you for reading.