NCAA office pools

Most of my fellow friends are working people... and with work comes office gambling. You know it happens and at my job, it happens for football, basketball and baseball. Is it legal? Not so much. Do I care? Not at all.

I just came across an article online that has tips and tricks on how to win your office pool for NCAA Men's March Madness brackets.

Here it is... remember I found most of this information on FoxSports so there's a link at the bottom to go directly to the article. I think this really puts the pool into perspective. C'mon ladies, jump on the next opportunity to get in a NCAA bracket!!!

First Round:

Don't pick the No. 16 seeds: It's ok to pick a few underdogs, just don't pick the BIG underdogs. Since the field expanded to 64 (or more) teams in 1985, No. 16 teams are 0-84 against No. 1 teams. Only one game — Michigan State vs. Murray State in 1990 even reached overtime. Two others in 1989, Oklahoma over East Tennessee State and Georgetown over Princeton, were decided by one point. And no No. 16 has come within even 10 points of victory since 1997 (North Carolina 82, Fairfield 74). The rest were mostly over by halftime. 2005 may actually have been the most successful year ever for the No. 16 seeds — two lost by 11 points and another by 12.

If you're desperate, try for a No. 15 seed to make a big splash. Four of them have won first-round games; the most recent came in 2001 when Hampton defeated Iowa State. Two of them occurred in the East Region (now called by city name — in 2006 it's the Washington D.C. Regional) and Central Florida gave Connecticut a scare in 2005. So maybe Winthrop has a shot over Tennessee.

Pick at least one No. 3 or No. 4 seed to lose: There have only been three times in the last 21 seasons that a No. 3 or 4 seed did not go down in the first round. If a top seed is going to go down, it might be from the Big 12, which has seen three top four teams go down since 2001 — No. 3 Kansas in 2005, and No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 2 Iowa State in 2001. Texas and Kansas may need to sweat a bit.

Big East teams are almost immune — Villanova in 1995 and Syracuse a decade later were the only 3 or 4 from the conference to be upset since 1992 and both took overtime to do it (three of them in Villanova's case). That might mean former Big East member Boston College is safe.

Three schools — Arizona, Oklahoma and Indiana — have been dumped three times as top seeds. Too bad none are seeded that high this time around.

Take the No. 12 seeds: Teams slotted in the No. 12 spot are either good champions from one-bid conferences or the last teams picked as an at-large by the selection committee — usually for good reason. Only once (2000) since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 have the No. 5 teams gone 4-0.

Pick the No. 10 seeds: No. 10 seeds technically aren't supposed to beat the No. 7, but since seeding began in 1979, at least one No. 10 has beaten a No. 7 every season except for 1993 and 1985. Wait it gets better, at least two No. 10 seeds have beaten No. 7s nine of the last 12 seasons. In 1999, the No. 10s had a clean sweep.

Pick Iowa, Connecticut, Kentucky, Kansas, Georgetown, Boston College and North Carolina: Connecticut hasn't lost in the first round in its last 13 tournament appearances. Kentucky has done two better with 15 straight first-round victories. The best team in this regard until last season was Kansas. Before Bucknell got them, the Jayhawks hadn't lost in the first round since 1975. Boston College has only lost once in the first round since 1968 (11-1). Georgetown is almost as good — going 15-1 since 1981.

Former Kansas coach Roy Williams is still perfect in debut games so his current team (the Tar Heels) might be a lock to win round one. The Hawkeyes had won 10 straight first-rounders before losing in 2005 to Cincinnati.

Don't pick Utah Sate for one of your upsets: The Aggies are 1-10 in their last 11 first-round appearances — winning only in 2001. Of course Utah State has been seeded to lose almost every time. This means Illinois should be safe..

Don't pick Winthrop, Monmouth, Murray State, or Northwestern State: None of the conferences these teams represent have won a first-round game since 1989. Guess that Winthrop-Tennessee No. 15 vs. No. 2 upset won't be happening after all.

Now on to the important stuff: To win the whole thing:

Don't take anyone seeded No. 9 or below: No. 8 Villanova in 1985 is the highest-seeded team to win the national championship since seeds were introduced in 1979. That's half the field eliminated right there.

Don't pick first-time coaches: Steve Fisher of Michigan is the only coach since 1963 to win the title in his first NCAA appearance as a head coach. Wichita State is the only team that falls under this category this season among top eight seeds. Also, Tubby Smith was the only other coach besides Fisher since 1961 to lead a team to the title in his first season at a school. This eliminates Tennessee (Bruce Pearl).

Come from a power conference: Since the NCAA allowed more than two teams from each conference to compete, the champion has come from a conference that has sent at least three teams to the field — even the Big West had three when UNLV won in 1990. Goodbye, Memphis, Gonzaga, Nevada and George Washington.

Don't get blown out: Of the last 12 teams to win the tournament, only Maryland lost a regular season game by more than 17 points. So go ahead and eliminate Texas, Iowa, Boston College, Kansas, Syracuse, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Indiana, Marquette and Kentucky. All lost at least once by 18 or more this season.

Eliminate the No. 5 seeds: Goodbye to Washington and Pittsburgh. Only four No. 5s have even reached the Final Four. Florida in 2000 and Indiana in 2002 were the only ones to reach the title game.

Don't lose early the previous season: Only two title-winning schools since 1988 failed to advance at least two rounds in the previous year's tournament (provided the team was in the field). This eliminates Connecticut, UCLA, Florida and LSU.

Be ranked high to start the season: Every winner since 1986 except for Syracuse has been ranked No. 19 or higher in the Associated Press preseason poll. This eliminates Ohio State, North Carolina, California, Georgetown and Arkansas. All were unranked at the beginning of the season.

Don't reach the final, then lose: Kentucky in 1998 is the only team in the last 24 years to make the championship game, lose, then return to win it all the next season. This makes Illinois an extremely unlikely choice.

We're left with four teams: Duke, Villanova, West Virginia and Arizona. Note that this is not our final four, just the four teams left in our elimination process.

Don't pick a team from the Atlanta Region: Atlanta may be cursed. Six regional finals have been played in Atlanta since 1981. All six went on to lose in the national semifinals. So if Duke or West Virginia emerge from Atlanta, they won't go any farther.

That leaves only two schools that have passed all nine of our criteria. We can guarantee you one thing — we'll take the Wildcats. We'll know for sure which one by the Sweet 16 when they'll likely play each other. For the record, our choice is Villanova.

For more, see Michael Lazarus' article on FOX SPORTS. There's a bit more there that I didn't copy.