ESPN Insider: Tourney Guide: Secrets If anyone ever tells you they have a foolproof system for filling out the NCAA Tournament bracket, just nod politely and look away like you would from some wild-eyed lunatic on the subway. Don't make eye contact. And, whatever you do, don't listen to them.

There is no single set of rules that will guarantee your filling out a winning bracket sheet for the office pool. What works one year -- picking the eastern-most team in every questionable match-up, going with the more experienced coaches, etc. -- invariably leads to embarrassment the following year. No matter how elaborate a system you construct to predict who will advance in the tourney, no matter how well that system reflects what happened in past tournaments, you simply couldn't depend on it working in the current year. It's like the fine print that zips past you on a stockbroker's TV ad: past performance does not guarantee future success.