Ignorance may not be bracket bliss when it comes to the NCAA Tournament but knowledge isn't necessarily power either. Given the regularly-scheduled madness of March, the way you make your picks is at least as important to the bracket experience as the picks you actually make.
Whether you're more inclined to make data-driven selections or to advance teams based on mascot ferocity, there is a bracket strategy out there suited for everyone from college basketball neophytes to EPSN acolytes. There are also a billion reasons for everyone in both groups -- and those somewhere in between -- to try a bracket in 2014. Warren Buffet and Quicken Loans have teamed up for a $1 Billion Bracket Challenge at Yahoo!. If you correctly pick every single game in the tournament then the big prize could be yours.
Don't worry too much that Jeff Bergen, a mathematician at DePaul University, told USA Today Sports that the odds of actually getting every game correctly in the main draw are one in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. After all, NCAA Tournament history is full of teams that triumphed against the (much less daunting) odds.
Here are 12 bracket strategies that should offer something for everyone who wants to fill out a bracket in hopes of landing the $1 billion prize: