March Madness 2017 Brackets: How to Download Printable Sheet on Selection Sunday

The 2017 NCAA men's Division I basketball bracket will be revealed on Sunday, March 12, from 5:30 p.m. through 7 p.m. ET on CBS.

If you're like me and, for whatever reason, fill out a printable bracket as the Selection Sunday show goes on despite all the technology that allows you to fill out brackets online right afterward, check out NCAA.com for a blank printable bracket to print out beforehand.

If you're fine with waiting, look at NCAA.com or Bleacher Report after the Selection Sunday show. Both sites typically offer full printable brackets on their websites before the first round of the tournament kicks off on Thursday.

Here are some tips for filling out your bracket next week.

1. Don't Pick Too Many First-Round Upsets

Yes, first-round upsets happen every year in college basketball, but more often than not, the favorites still win. Furthermore, if you pick the wrong upset, you'll be down points to the rest of the field, who most likely took the favored team in that matchup.

That doesn't mean you should just pick the higher seeds throughout the first round, of course, because that's boring and will fail to come to fruition. Rather, you should be smart about picking a lower seed to beat a higher seed.

The way to do that: Check the lines at the sportsbooks (they are available at OddsShark) before the first-round games to see how much a team is favored by.

For example, if a No. 6 seed is favored to beat a No. 11 seed by a sizable margin (e.g. six points), take the No. 6 seed unless you have a strong gut feeling the No. 11 seed is going to win for a strong, objective, basketball-related reason (don't take the No. 11 seed because you like the mascot or the best player's name).

But if the game is even, or if a team is only favored by a point, that's a prime upset spot. If you're feeling good about that No. 11 seed, then go for it.

2. Know Your Competition

Are you in a pool with a bunch of sharps, or are you in a family-and-friends pool with people who only turn the television onto basketball in mid-March?

If it's the former, and you want to win, study up beforehand and try to gain an edge on the field with your research. Check out some websites (kenpom.com and the Sagarin ratings) for some advanced statistical takes on all of the Division I teams. Read some articles from a few team beat writers, who know all of these teams best, beforehand. Review the matchups and see if one team has trouble with bigs or if another team can't shoot the three against a team that does so well.

On the flip side, you probably don't need to exert all that much effort against people who may not know what they are doing. In that case, you should still do a little research, but you should make smart, safe picks throughout the bracket and let your relatives take a No. 9 seed to win the tournament.

3. Adjust Your Picks Based on the Size of the Pool

You can play it a little safer for smaller pools (say 10-15 people), but for the big bracket-challenge games with up to millions of participants, you need to take the path of least resistance to the top of the mountain. Unless a team is near a stone-cold lock to win the NCAA tournament, as Kentucky was in 2012 when Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist crushed college hoops en route to a 38-2 record and a national title, try to find a slightly different path to first.

If everyone is on the Villanova train this year heading into the first day of the tournament, consider another No. 1 seed or No. 2 seed you like to win the championship that isn't getting as much press. If you hit, you have a massive edge on the rest of the field.

Such was the case last year for anyone who picked Villanova. It seemed like everyone was picking Michigan State and Kansas to make the final, which would make it hard for anyone who picked those two teams to win their pool simply because they would have to beat out so many other players who did the same.

But if you picked Villanova and grabbed all those points for picking the champion correctly, you traveled on the path of least resistance to the top and didn't have to beat as many teams to win it all.