Mad Cal's Exclusive Money Back Guaranteed 2005 Mad Bracket Tips
Rules 1 and 2 are the only two permanent tips in my yearly bracketology course and will be taken straight out of my archives.
Rule No. 1. Never pick a school with 'State' in its name when the school name is not a state.
In the past, this applied to schools like Murray State, but the selection commitee did a good job of not including any of these fake states in this year's pool. Therefore, Rule No. 1 is a lock.
Rule No. 2: Closely related to rule 1, do not pick any team that has a directional word before a state name when the directional word is not part of the actual state name.
Southern Illinois, SE Louisiana, Northern Iowa, Central Florida, and Eastern Kentucky are automatic losers because of Rule No. 2.
Rule No. 3: The top 4 seeds in each region will win their first round games.
Any team with a number 13, 14, 15, or 16 next to it will be doomed. No chance of any upsets. (By the way, a 10 beating a 7 or a 8 beating a 9 is not an upset.)
Rule No. 4: Do not pick any schools named after US Presidents.
I cannot tell a lie. George Washington will get crushed in the first round.
Rule No. 5: Any school with a strong football program with no ties to Urban Meyer will not reach the Sweet Sixteen.
Meyer was the coach at Utah, will coach at Florida this year. Pitt, the default Big East champ, is not considered a strong football program despite playing in a BCS bowl. (For similar reasons, Boston College is not a strong football program either.)
Rule No. 6: A school will lose when it plays against a team that comes from a region named the same as the school.
I'm just saying the Syracuse will lose in its Final Four matchup against North Carolina, which is in the Syracuse region. My other Final Four picks are Illinois and Georgia Tech. I am predicting an all ACC final, with UNC exacting revenge for its conference tourney loss.
Bonus tips:
UAB over LSU, Gonzaga over Wake Forest, Utah over Kentucky, NC St. over UConn, and Duke over Delaware St. The last one is a guess.
Players named Hakim tend to dominate. Not just in college hoops, either.
I'm getting ready for my annual trek to the sportsbooks. For the next few days, 5 tv's are just not enough.
.
