If any of you do brackets with family/friends, there is one that I think is pretty cool, unique, and keeps your attention a lot longer than if your final 4 is blown up in the first round.
Basically here is how it works - you have a snake draft - draw out of a hat to see what order you make picks in, then reverse it in round 2 and so on. So if you have 8 people participating, you draw 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and then whoever had 8 picks again and you go 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. What you are doing is drafting a team. You can pick any team out there, kind of like with fantasy football, except your universe is obviously limited to 64 teams (you get both of the teams in the play-in games). You keep going until all the teams are drafted.
Here is where it gets fun - each time one of your teams win, you get points equal to their seed. So if you pick Virginia - every time they win, you get 1 point. If you pick Kentucky, you get 5 points every time they win. If you pick Butler, you get 10 points every time they win.
Its an amazing thing, because there are always high seeded teams that win that nobody would have ever guessed. A #1 seed that wins it all only gets you 6 points. So if you can pick a team #7 or higher and they only win once, they still get you more points than that.
It makes for some interesting draft strategies when you look at the win history ESPNJacket just posted. For example, a #11 seed has a 37.1% chance of winning in round 1. But they have a 13.6% chance of winning TWICE and getting you 22 points based on past history.
So typically people's brackets are blown up by the sweet 16 - but most folks will have teams left because they were all drafted by somebody at least. Makes for a contest that can go late into the tournament where every point matters. You an also give bonus points for winning it all, and stuff like that if you want.
