20 fun ways to pick your NCAA March Madness bracket

You can always go with all favorites. This is a simple and effective strategy, especially considering that a 16 seed has never beaten a 1 seed, and for the early rounds, the teams are favorites for a reason.

You could do just the opposite of that strategy and pick all underdogs to win the games. Just think, when that 16 seed does finally win a game against a 1 seed, you can say you called that game. Note: We strongly advise against this even if you're betting "gummy bears" with your friends.

You could just go through each matchup and flip your lucky quarter you've had since fifth grade. What? I'm the only one with a lucky quarter since... you know what, forget it. Just start flipping.

You're from Delaware? Yikes. There aren't many teams in your home state that will make the tourney. That said, you can choose teams that are close in proximity so you're at least cheering for teams close to home.

You could print up all the teams on sheets of paper and have a friend pin them to a dart board backward so you don't know whom you're choosing. Then you hit that triple 20 spot and luck out with Arizona, jumping on that bandwagon full force.

This one is pretty simple. Just tape each matchup to the front of two different food dishes, and whichever your pet chooses to eat out of is the winner for that round. Just don't feed your pets too much.

You could always choose to listen to the "experts" and follow whatever they say will happen. These people watch tons of games and have a lot of knowledge the casual fan doesn't, so listening to them isn't the worst idea ever.

Mascots are always a fun reprieve from the game, so why not choose your brackets based on the furry little friends that hype up the crowd during timeouts and halftime?  

You could always choose your brackets based on what color scheme you like the best. Carolina blue and white is a classic combo, but is it better than black and yellow? Wiz Khalifa would say no...

You could choose your bracket based on who is rocking the suit on the sideline. Don't know enough about each coach's strategy to know which one to choose? That's OK, pull a Donna Neal (hi, mom) and choose them by who is the best-looking.

You could just jump on the biggest bandwagon and ride that team to the championship, disregarding everyone else in the team's way. Find one bandwagon for each region and pray the team you take to win it all cuts down the nets!

Much like the coaches, you may not know a lot about each player or team, but the internet is a wonderful place. You can look up each roster and find out which player you think is the best-looking, then choose that team to win the matchup.

Your favorite number is four? Cool! Looks like you're riding Duke all the way! Wait, Grayson Allen acted like a petulant child and got suspended again? Well, Kansas is six letters, and that's close enough. Rock chalk, Jayhawk!

You can choose to root for your alma mater! What's that, your school didn't make the tourney? Root for your friends' and family members' alma maters! There are tons of games to pick, and it's not like Nevada is going deep (if it makes it) anyway. Maybe one of your friends chose a better school for this exercise.

He's not doing one for ESPN this year? Ugh!

He turned down ESPN's offer for doing a bracket? How are we supposed to cross our country's love for sports and politics now? Maybe he'll fill one out and share it with America anyway.

Do you ever feel like you could have let your daughter, son, niece or nephew fill out your bracket and you would have done better? That's probably not far from the truth. Put that theory to the test this year, and let your favorite youngster choose each matchup based on his or her strict qualification process for each team.

Are you active on social media? Research the teams' Twitter handles and see which teams are better at trolling for each specific matchup. Think Michigan State has a chance at making the tourney? Great, but is the Spartans' trash-talking game up to snuff?

Teams are sponsored by all sorts of companies, so why not choose your matchups based on different sponsors? Love Nike? Oregon is going to be in your bracket as a winner. Think Under Armour is the best sportswear company in the country? Looks like you'll be rooting for Maryland.

The fail-safe way to choose your bracket is to actually watch the games, formulate your own opinions and own those decisions on your bracket. It's more time-consuming than any of these other options, but it will feel so much better when you actually pick the right teams based on knowledge and not based on luck or Fido's decision. That said, this is also the least fun way to pick your bracket — know-it-all!