Sick and tired of making your annual $5 bracket contribution to some stooge in Accounting? Does it hurt worse when the stooge’s name is Marcy? Stop being a March Madness loser and start taking some money out of the pot. Follow these five pick making tips and you too will earn your Master’s degree in Bracketology.

1. Nostradamus died 500 years ago. Don’t get cute early.
For too many people, the thrill of picking the gigantic early round upset is more exhilarating than going deep into the bracket. Trouble is, the upsets don’t happen as often as Billy Packer would like you to believe. Yes it’s cool to tell everyone you called the big shocker, but more often than not, the sexy upset pick doesn’t come through, and the favorite you missed on advances another round or two, completely destroying your bracket. The NCAA does everybody a favor by seeding the tournament. Follow the seeds early and strongly resist any upset pick involving any team higher than a 12 seed.

2. Gold runs deep
College basketball has several gold-standard programs that consistently deliver deep runs in the tournament. Picking any one of the following programs to get knocked out before the Sweet Sixteen will mean certain doom to your bracket: North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Georgetown, Memphis, and UCLA.

3. Take a shot at one 12 vs. 5 game in the first round.
Teams seeded fifth are typically big-conference programs that under-achieved during the season or struggled at the end of the year. Teams seeded 12th, are typically mid-majors that flew under the radar, but showed enough juice to avoid getting the death sentence that is a 13 seed or higher. Combine the two and you have a traditionally ripe environment for a first round upset. Do a little research and if one of the 12 vs. 5 match-ups looks good, go ahead and jump. Just remember to keep it at one (see tip #1).

4. Location, location, location
As the tournament advances past the first two rounds, the games become more competitive. As the talent level evens out, be mindful of intangibles such as location. A lower seed playing in front of regionally friendly crowd gets a boost. It’s the little things that make the difference as the stakes get higher.

5. Been there done that
Check your predicted champion’s schedule to see if they’ve won six-plus games in a row during the regular season. If it hasn’t, there’s no good reason to believe it will in the tournament. Want to turn the screws a little tighter? Don’t count any games played before the conference schedule began. This will eliminate the usual string of walk-over victories the big boys pile up prior to the conference tip-off.