Every year when the brackets come out we all get excited.  Sometimes a little too excited.  There are so many choices and now with the internet there are also so many choices of where to play your brackets too.  Some sites have huge prizes and some are for pride only, like the ones on Yahoo you and your buddies may do.

I have been a top finisher many times.  There is some method to "March Madness" whether you think so or not. Here is some real advice to picking your brackets as a winner.

1. Take your time picking your brackets.  Look past the name of the school and there seed number, unless it is the first round and they are a one or two seed.  The chance for an upset gets a lot better for the middle seeds.

2.  Don't take advice from Beano Cook.  He has never been a good sports guy to take predictions from.  He is so old he still talks about way back when John Wooden was just a high school kid looking up to him.

3.  Who is hot and who is not.  Look to see who won their conference tournament and who got out played and lost in the first round.  Also teams that have great records, no matter what the school and current overall RPI rank, will do better in the tournament because they know how to win and did it most of the year.

4.  Don't pick teams based on last years tournament.  It is a new year.  Florida does have a shot to repeat but the likely hood is that they won't. Besides, their best player looks like Tyra Banks on Crack after she got hit in the face with a shovel a few times.  Well they did win their tournament but didn't play as well as they could have this whole season.

5.  This year, Dude is not Duke.  That may be a good thing though.  Maybe they can go to the final four this year without having any pressure on them.

6.  Look at Wisconsin to make another trip to the final four.  They are a team built for the Final Four.  They have been there before, and recently, and they were a top five team most of the season.  They have a grind it out offense and solid defense that is perfect for the tournament.

7.  Get in as many brackets as you can.  There are many sites on the net that have huge prizes.  When you do get in them, pick different teams.  It is like playing the Big Game Lottery, when you play you don't just buy one ticket do you?  Usually you buy 2-5 tickets so your chances are better, you also pick different numbers as well, so why change that for bracketology?  Mix it up!

There you go, your ticket to your "Final Four" of what ever league or contest you enter.  But also remember that predictions are like a-holes, everyone has them, only use yours.