NCAA Bracket 2016: Early Advice for Top Bracket Challenge Games

It's almost that time of year where a simple piece of paper with a few brackets controls and consumes the lives of millions of college basketball fans. 

For one month a year, you pay attention to schools like Florida Gulf Coast, UNC Asheville and UNC-Wilmington. You can only use one type of pen when filling out picks, and for the love of everything holy in basketball, your significant other is not allowed to help. 

So break out the lucky headband, stock up on chips and make sure your boss isn't looking as you watch that No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup that you flipped picks on roughly 63 times. Here's some early advice on how to approach your bracket this year. 

Choose Your Upsets Responsibly

No one has ever won their office pool by picking every single No. 12 and 14 seed to move past the second round. It just doesn't happen, and it won't this year. 

However, it's important to realize that there will be some upsets. Going down the line and simply picking the higher seed isn't going to end well. 

Take a moment and look at the matchups. If you see that a No. 13 seed with a huge frontcourt that can control the glass is playing against a team that isn't an excellent shooting team from the field, take that into consideration as an element that could create an upset. 

Picking Austin Peay to move on because you like the chant "Let's go Peay" won't get you anywhere on the leaderboard. 

Don't Be Too Ambitious When Picking A Champion

Everyone loves a Cinderella story. Whether it was George Mason in 2006 or VCU in 2011, both as No. 11 seeds out of the Colonial Athletic Association, runs from these low seeds into the Final Four captivate the nation and give college basketball fans an underdog to rally around. 

The problem is they rarely win it all. There might be a mid-major school this season that you believe could shock the world and make a serious run at the title, but the harsh reality is that there is a big school that is going to take them down at some point. 

Just take a look at the past 25 Final Fours and the seeds of each team, per Fanbay.net:

Year	Champion (seed)	Runner Up	Final 4	Final 4
2015	Duke (1)	Wisconsin (1)	Michigan St. (7)	Kentucky (1)
2014	UConn (7)	Kentucky (8)	Florida (1)	Wisconsin (2)
2013	Louisville (1)	Michigan (4)	Wichita State (9)	Syracuse (4)
2012	Kentucky (1)	Kansas (2)	Louisville (4)	Ohio State (2)
2011	UConn (3)	Butler (8)	Kentucky (4)	VCU (11)
2010	Duke (1)	Butler (5)	West Virginia (2)	Michigan St. (5)
2009	North Carolina (1)	Michigan St. (2)	Villanova (3)	UConn (1)
2008	Kansas (1)	Memphis (1)	North Carolina (1)	UCLA (1)
2007	Florida (1)	Ohio State (1)	UCLA (2)	Georgetown (2)
2006	Florida (3)	UCLA (2)	George Mason (11)	LSU (4)
2005	North Carolina (1)	Illinois (1)	Michigan St. (5)	Louisville (4)
2004	UConn (2)	Georgia Tech (3)	Duke (1)	Oklahoma St. (2)
2003	Syracuse (3)	Kansas (2)	Texas (1)	Marquette (3)
2002	Maryland (1)	Indiana (5)	Kansas (1)	Oklahoma (2)
2001	Duke (1)	Arizona (2)	Maryland (3)	Michigan St. (1)

A school from the power conferences will most likely win it all, so don't put all your eggs in a mid-major basket. If you do, be prepared to rip up those brackets.