Show of Hands, Filling Out Your Bracket

'Tis the end of February, which for college hoops fan means one thing: March Madness is here. About now, we should be hearing about possible No. 1 seeds, teams on the bubble, and the ways and means of filling out your bracket. The last one is where I'm going.

There are different ways in "Entertainment" value for, ah, bracketology.

The common way seems to be filling out a bracket all the way to the championship game, with points giving for each win. I have played where you got "upset" points for picking a No. 1, 2, or 3 seed losing to a 16, 15, or a 14 seed in the first round.

Another way, I've heard, is that you just pick the current round, and rack up points each round. Not as much fun, in my opinion.

One other way I play, is where you pick out of a hat one or more teams, depending on the pool size of players, and play that team vs another with the point spread involved.  For example, I have the fourth seed vs the 13th. The spread has my team favored by 10 points. 

If my team wins AND covers by 10 points or more, I continue on with that team.  If my team wins but doesn't cover the 10 point spread, my opponent takes over my team and advances to the next round. 

This doen't take any brain power but a couple of years ago I won with a 14 seed, so I threw it out there.

So...how do you fill your bracket?

Are you the search over the Internet, guy (or gal) looking for the little nuggets of information to put you ahead of the competition?

Or maybe a hometown favorites guy. The one that calculates the distance from a school to where they will be playing.

How about the way I tend do it, forgetting to do a sheet, and five minutes before deadline, flying through a bracket, struggling to remember anything about teams or how a No. 12 or 13 always wins in the first round. That way doesn't work so well, from my own experience.

Then, there is the "my four year old picked my teams" gal (or guy!).  The boss' secretary who likes the team's mascot or colors.  Do we need to go there? Because they win 99 percent of the time!

Take time out of your research, hit the poll, and type a comment. I am interested in how everyone fills out the seeding.