NCAA Brackets 2015: Idiot's Guide to Making Multiple March Madness Selections

Just because it's mad doesn't mean there can't be a method.

And just because you have a method doesn't mean you have shut out the madness.

You see how that works? It's all about balance in life. Know what I mean? It's all about harmony. You can't have the light without the darkness.

We can peel all these wise cliches from the bumpers of our nation's hatchbacks and paste them right into this discussion. We're talking about March Madness brackets. To be more specific, we're talking about how best to fill out your brackets if you're filling out more than one. 

As with most things, there's a little bit of science involved and a little bit of art. Even in the best of circumstances, filling out a Big Dance bracket for your office pool or whatever doesn't amount to much more than blind dart-throwing. Filling out multiple brackets doesn't necessarily improve your aim, although it does award you more darts.

But it's still worthwhile to fill out more than one bracket, and there can be plenty of reasons to do so. You just have to do it right, and for the right reasons. Balance the method and the madness. The March Madness. Call this a pocket guide to the practice. An idiot's guide, if you like.

Examine Your Reasons

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Are you filling out more than one bracket for the purpose of being able to say, no matter the game or situation, that you picked the winning team?

Are you doing it so you can have a proverbial horse in as many races as possible? Are you doing it to maximize your chances of winning a pool?

What I'm getting at is this: You have to look at the whys. If your only goal is to be a smarty pants and snap your suspenders, you don't need multiple brackets. Not only is this behavior obnoxious, but also, nobody cares.

It's like your fantasy football team, or your children. The radius of caring extends to the point of your own nose. Don't be the person who forgets that. Take it from somebody who has been on both sides of that line on multiple occasions.

By the same token, if you're just trying to increase your chances of winning a single pool by entering more than once, that's a little better, but in and of itself, it may not markedly improve your chances. More on that momentarily.

So what are the good reasons for doing it? Maybe you're doing one at your current office but remain tight with a group of ex-co-workers, and they've asked you to keep participating. Or maybe your friends or neighbors run a separate pool. You don't want to be rude in the face of such invitations. 

So just think about why you're doing multiple brackets. And be prepared to offer that reason if need be. After all, you don't want to be That Guy.

Go Big or Go Home

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I alluded to this in the previous slide. 

This is as real as my advice is going to get. If you fill out two or more brackets, make them different. Like, really different.

Remember the metaphor I made about the dartboard in the intro slide? There you go. If you're going to do multiple brackets, the goal should be to widen the dartboard as much as possible. If you're flip-flopping your eight/nine winners and leaving it at that, you're missing an opportunity.

Take a conservative approach in one bracket; pick big upsets in the other. Do one before researching; do the second after lots of research. Strongly consider home-court proximity in one; ignore it in the other. Choose your favorite uniform colors in one; do the other one blindfolded.

There's so much chance in any case that the actual strategy is secondary. Just pick something and go with it; then make sure that it's serving to draw major distinctions between your selections. Dartboard expanded.

Divide the Heart and the Head

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Bo Ryan

When I had more vim and vigor, I did multiple brackets a few times. I didn't like the feeling of rooting for and against the same team at the same time, so I stopped. That's my story.

Given the chaos of the upsets and so forth, the exact nature of the strategy is less important than just having a strategy, period. With this being the case, you might as well pick a strategy that will maximize your fun as well as expand that dartboard we've been talking about.

I've found the way to care most about the tournament is to divide your brackets on a "head/heart" basis. Meaning, use one bracket to pick the teams you believe will win and then use the other to select the teams you want to win.

In most cases, the difference between the two will be significant, without being wild or arbitrary. What's more, you'll be able to remember the two brackets and distinguish between the two. Finally, if you need to tell someone you have multiple brackets, rather than being viewed as some kind of hypercompetitive degenerate gambler, you'll be a person who understands the emotion and passion of the game but at the same time demonstrates solid horse sense. Everybody wins!

Consider Helping Someone Else Instead

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There are two kinds of help. There is help. And there is "help."

Either is a way of having a stake in multiple brackets without actually filling out multiple brackets. If you have a friend or family member who doesn't care a whit about college basketball but wants to participate in an activity that builds workplace camaraderie, offer to help—or "help"—that person with his or her selections.

You can help them out of the goodness of your heart, offering your advice and then rooting them on. Or, you can "help" them by filling out the thing yourself and putting their name on it, with potential spoils of victory potentially being divided in a mutually agreed-upon fashion (assuming they are willing to let you do that, of course). Either way, this is a good strategy for checking off multiple boxes.

Just Pick Kentucky

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This season is not the season to be a hero.

Don't get cute with your championship pick. Don't try to rub against the grain on this one. Save that for a year when the top team is not head and shoulders above the rest. 

That's Kentucky, of course. The Wildcats are in the driver's seat this season for both a perfect run and a national title. Go ahead and hitch your star to the bandwagon. Sit back, relax and enjoy the dominance. Anything less would be uncivilized.