2014 NCAA Tournament: Tips and trends for filling out your bracket

Now that the 2014 NCAA Tournament bracket has officially been released, you can begin going through the 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 possible bracket combinations as you attempt to win the office pool or a friendly wager with your friends.

With so many ways for the tournament to play out, picking a great bracket often turns in to a crap shoot but there are some simple rules to follow that can help you put together a bracket that will make your friends jealous.

Here are some tips and trends that will help you fill out your bracket, via RJ Bell of Pregame.com:

FIRST ROUND picks:
TIP: Pick ZERO #1 or #2 seeds to lose.
#16 seeds are 0 for 116
#15 seeds are 7 for 116

TIP: Pick at least ONE #13 or #14 seed to win.
At least one Top 4 seed has lost in the first round 25 of 29 years
#13 and #14 seeds combined win 18% of first round games

TIP: Don’t be shy picking upsets with #12 through #9 seeds.
#12 seeds have won at least one game 23 of 25 years
#9 seeds are 4 wins above .500 vs. #8 seeds

SECOND ROUND picks:
TIP: Advance #1 seeds into the 3rd round unless very good reason not to.
88% of #1 seeds advance to the Sweet 16

TIP: Keep advancing any #12 seeds you picked to win in Round One.
#12 seeds win nearly half the time in Round Two
#12 seeds have more Sweet 16 appearances overall than #7 seeds
A double digit seed has made the Sweet Sixteen 27 of 29 years

TIP: Pick at least ONE upset of a #2 or #3 seed.
Only ONCE in 29 years has all the top three seeds (#1, #2, #3) made the Sweet Sixteen

TIP: Do NOT pick any seed worse than #12 to win in the 2nd round.
Only 9 of 464 teams (less than 2%) advancing past Round 2 were seeded worse than #12

Sweet 16 round picks:
TIP: Advance exactly three #1 seeds into the Elite 8.
71% of #1 seeds make the Elite 8
(that’s a higher percentage than #5 seeds that win a single game!)

TIP: Advance no team worse than a #11 seed into the Elite 8
26 seeds worse than 11 have made it the Sweet 16
but only ONE (of 232) Elite 8 teams seeded worse than #11

Elite 8 round picks:
TIP: Advance exactly ONE or TWO #1 seeds to the Final Four.
The Final Four has included exactly one or two #1 seeds 23 of 29 years

TIP: Advance no team worse than a #9 seed to the Final Four.
Only 3 of 140 Final Four teams (since 1979) have been seeded worse than #9

FINAL FOUR round picks:
TIP: Advance NO team worse than a #6 seed to the Championship game.
Only ONE team worse than #6 has made it in last 28 years

TIP: Do NOT advance TWO #1 seeds to Championship game
Since tournament seeding began 35 years ago (1979)
only 6 times have two #1 seeds made the finals

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME pick:
TIP: Pick a #4 seed or better to win it all.
For 25 straight years the champion has been a #4 seed or better!