March Madness 2016 Brackets: How to Download Printable Sheet on Selection Sunday

With conference tournament play in full swing and Selection Sunday fast approaching, only a few short days stand between college hoops fans and the annual release of their beloved brackets. 

So as anticipation mounts and the agonizing annual process of projecting upsets, penciling in Final Four picks and examining every possible metric begins, here's a rundown of where you can turn to get the ball rolling on Sunday. 

For starters, you can check out the Bleacher Report homepage, which will prominently feature a printable bracket and breakdowns galore as seeds are revealed. But beyond B/R, you can always turn to Yahoo Sports or CBS Sports, each of which will have brackets available for download and printing purposes. 

Tips, Tricks and Fun Facts

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In case you were wondering just how huge March Madness is, here's the answer: According to ESPN.com's David Purdum, the American Gaming Association estimated last year that 40 million Americans would "fill out more than 70 million brackets and wager approximately $9 billion" during NCAA tournament play. 

That sort of engagement would seem to indicate perfect brackets could emerge from time to time, but the fact of the matter is the odds of picking a completely clean sheet are unfathomable. 

According to NCAA.com's Tyler Greenawalt, different formulas suggest the odds of selecting a perfect bracket range from 1 in 9.2 quintillion to 1 in 128 billion. 

A general rule of thumb: Any time the low end of the spectrum is 1 in 9.2 quintillion, you should probably abandon hope that your bracket is going to wind up being perfect. 

But when you boil it down, picking brackets is a numbers game. Not only is the objective to emerge as the player in your pool with the most correct picks, but it's about uncovering trends and odds that can help dictate selections that are equal parts bold and reasoned. 

With that line of thinking in mind, it's generally a good idea to try and stand out from the other competitors in your brackets with some more uncommon picks that could actually pay dividends. 

For instance, NCAA.com's Mike Benzie writes that No. 12 seeds tend to win games 12 percent more often than the public believes they will. And considering No. 12 seeds wield a winning percentage of 35.4 since 1985, per Yahoo Sports' Brad Evans, it wouldn't be crazy to target a pair of No. 12 seeds to come out on top in the round of 64. 

Seed	Winning %
1	100.0%
2	94.3548387%
3	83.8709677%
4	79.8387097%
5	64.5161290%
6	65.3225806%
7	61.2903226%
8	50.8064516%
9	49.1935484%
10	38.7096774%
11	34.6774194%
12	35.4838710%
13	20.1612903%
14	16.1290323%
15	5.6451613%
16	0.0%

The same logic applies when it comes to picking a Final Four. 

Since you're trying to stand out, don't bother picking all four No. 1 seeds to advance to Houston. Not only are the odds of all four No. 1 seeds advancing that far roughly 57-1, according to the BracketOdds calculator, but it's only happened once (2008) since 1979, per CBS Sports. 

Factor in that this year in college basketball has been defined by parity, and Houston could temporarily turn into Upset City by the time the Final Four rolls around.