Tips for winning your NCAA bracket pool

Sunday, March 13, 2016 | 3 a.m.

Once reserved for die-hard basketball fans and statistics aficionados, March Madness bracket pools have become a time-honored tradition for millions of people each year.

Whether it’s a bracket pool for your corporate office, a pool among college buddies or a small-scale family pool for fun, here are tips that will lead you to victory , or more importantly, bragging rights.

1. Build your bracket in order. Work through the first round and double-check your picks before moving to later rounds.

2. Consider the size of your bracket pool. It’s easy to get caught up with your own bracket’s success, but when you’re bracket pooling, you’re playing against everyone else in the pool. If your bracket pool is small, you should pick favorites. If you’re part of a bigger bracket pool with more than 10 people, be willing to take risks.

3. You don’t need to follow every NCAA basketball game all season to be able to make a great bracket. Start tuning in during the conference tournaments, catch the highlights during the season, then supplement any other information you might need after the fact.

4. Don’t overthink it. You know there will be upsets, and you know your chances of creating a perfect bracket are next to impossible statistically, so don’t drive yourself crazy overanalyzing every matchup. At a certain point, you have to leave it to gut instinct and good faith.

5. Experience matters during the big dance. Look for coaches and teams who have made it through multiple rounds of March Madness in the past.

6. Expect upsets. This is particularly true during March Madness, when the pressure is on and emotions run high. That’s part of what makes March Madness brackets fun, albeit daunting. Although there’s no sure way to predict an upset, it’s a good rule of thumb to account for at least a couple during the tournament. If your bracket doesn’t have any potential upsets, especially in the first round, go back and pick a few.

7. Pay attention to free-throw percentages. A team’s free-throw percentage can be a good indicator of their success, especially when paired against a difficult team. Because college players tend to have less discipline than pros, there tends to be a lot of fouling, especially near the end of a close game. Teams with good free-throw percentages have a serious edge in college ball.

8. Know the seed history. Generally speaking, it’s unlikely that two No. 1 seeds will compete against each other for the championship. That said, it’s probably smart to avoid choosing a seed lower than No. 4 to win it all.

9. Review team stats later in the season. Look at a team’s statistics and rankings for the season to get an idea of how they’ve played, but pay special attention to recent games. How teams play later in the season can be telling of how they’ll play in the tournament.

10. Take stock in where games are played. Is it close to a team’s home base? Will their fans, friends and family be able to watch from the stands? Teams that are playing at home or close to home generally are better bets, especially if they’re slated against a team who has had to travel from far away.

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Did you know?

In 2014, Warren Buffett offered $1 billion to anyone who could create a perfect bracket and correctly guess every win in the tournament. Unsurprisingly, the prize went unclaimed.

The odds of creating the perfect March Madness bracket are less than 1 in 9.2 quintillion (9,223,372,036,854,775,808), according to DePaul University. We say: Dare to dream. But don’t be disappointed if your bracket busts.