March Madness 2019 Brackets: How to Download Printable Sheet on Selection Sunday

Get those pens ready and those apps downloaded—March Madness is almost here.

On Sunday evening at 6 p.m. ET, this year's NCAA tournament bracket will begin to be revealed during a one-hour Selection Sunday show on CBS. Some of the 68 teams will already be known, and we will just be watching to see what seed they will be getting and in which region. Meanwhile, bubble teams will wait anxiously to see whether they made the tournament.

NCAA.com has blank brackets available to download from its site, which can be printed out and filled in as the selections are revealed.

Alternatively, many sites run bracket challenges for fans who want to fill out them out electronically. Those will be available after the field is announced.

It's always difficult to fill out brackets, trying to balance the right number of upsets and chalk picks while also determining whether to take a gamble on a potential Cinderella team.

There's no perfect method, but here are some tips for filling out brackets ahead of this year's March Madness.

March Madness Bracket Tips

Don't Pick a Cinderella to Win It All

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Sure, there are always multiple upsets, and some are even huge. Take last year, for example, when UMBC became the first No. 16 seed to ever beat a No. 1 seed in taking down Virginia in the first round.

And who could forget teams such as the 2006 George Mason squad and the 2011 VCU team that made incredible runs to the Final Four as No. 11 seeds? Last year, Loyola-Chicago became the latest No. 11 seed to make it to the Final Four.

However, no team seeded lower than No. 8 has won a national championship—or even made it to the final game of the NCAA tournament. And the only No. 8 seed to win it all was Villanova in 1985.

Here are two other key stats: no Nos. 12-16 seeds have ever made a Final Four, and only three teams seeded lower than No. 4 have won a national championship.

Don't Leave Out All the Top Teams

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It's fun to pick the No. 1 seeds to lose and to root for the underdogs, but those aren't always the smartest choices.

In fact, there's been at least one No. 1 seed to make the Final Four in each of the past seven seasons.

In recent years, No. 1 seeds have had even more success. In 2015, there were three No. 1 seeds in the Final Four, while two made it there in 2017 and 2018.

Three of the past four national champions were No. 1 seeds: Duke in 2015, North Carolina in 2017 and Villanova in 2018. The only team that wasn't a No. 1 seed to win it all in the past four years? Villanova, a No. 2 seed, in 2016.

It's probably not the best idea to pick all four No. 1 seeds to comprise the Final Four. But it's also likely not a good strategy to have all four eliminated before that round.

Don't Overthink It

Some people do tons of analysis and read many experts' predictions in the days after Selection Sunday and leading up to the start of the NCAA tournament. But with the unpredictability of March Madness, even those who spend the most time researching don't always have the best results.

That's why the final tip is simple: Don't overthink the bracket.

Go with your gut, and don't try to have something happen that's never happened before. If it feels like a bad idea, such as predicting all the No. 16 seeds to upset the No. 1 seeds, then it probably is.

Some of the people who are most successful at filling out March Madness brackets just go with their instincts and don't put too much thought into analyzing every first-round matchup and future matchups later in the bracket.

Most of all, just have fun. This is one of the best events in sports, and it only comes once a year, so enjoy it.