The calendar has turned to March, snow is melting, baseball players are have reported for spring training, and the NCAA tournament is getting underway soon. Its time to start thinking about filling out those brackets, March Madness is here.

Before we get to some tips and pointers, remember, no one ever really knows whats going to happen, and your office pool is probably going to be won by someone who picks based on mascots, blind luck, or because they have a cousin who went to Oklahoma and they just like that school.  So remember to have a good time and enjoy watching the games, don't get too caught up in picking a perfect bracket.

1. Only one team higher than a 3 seed has won the tournament since 1988: Arizona, a 4 seed, in 1997. There will always be upsets, but don't go crazy and throw two number 9 seeds in the Final Four.

2. A lot of people get carried away with picking first round upsets. They are extremely exciting to watch, but remember that second and third round games are worth. Its much better to find that 7 seed that is catching fire and is headed to the Elite 8 then to find that 14 seed is wins a miracle first round game only to be blown out in the second round.

3. At the same time, you need to pick at least one 12 seed or higher to win: its happened every year but one out of the last 20. Try and find a talented team that hasn't played up to potential, or a team from a lesser conference that has dominated this year but hasn't gotten a lot of shots against the big boys.

4. Two key attributes of quality tournament teams: they can hit their free throws and they don't turn the ball over. Memphis was far more talented than Kansas last year, but lost because they couldn't hit their free throws down the stretch.

5. Never pick a 16 seed to beat a one seed. Will it happen eventually? Of course. Will it happen this year? Almost definitely not. Sure, you'll look like a genius, but remember rule #2 above: even if it happens, that 16 seed is probably going to get smoked by an 8 seed in the next round. But if it doesn't, you've got a top seeded power house marching into the later rounds and racking up points for everyone except you.

Besides the standard office pick'em pool, there are a number of other ways to enjoy the tournament. Here are a few ideas to move beyond the bracket:

The draft. Assemble a group of friends, then sit down and "draft" every team in the tournament in a back and forth fantasy football style format. So if you have people playing, each person would draft 8 teams, with the first person picking 1st and 16th and the last person picking 8th and 9th.

This format works best with 8 people, as every participants ends up with 8 teams. You can then divide the prize money however you like, a common method I've used in the past and enjoy is giving an eighth of the pot to each final four team (so you get your money back if one of your teams makes the Final Four), then the rest of the money to whoever drafted the national champion team.

The great thing about this system is that it gives you some flexibility with handing out prizes and gives you a set of teams to root for all tournament. Even if 6/8 teams get eliminated in the first round, you still should have at least a couple teams to root for until the final weekend.

The Free "Betting" Site: Always wanted to make it to Vegas for the tournament to bet on the games? Centsports allows you to "gamble" on tournament games (and almost any other sporting event you can think of) by giving you a few cents worth of money from advertisers. Yes, its only pennies to start out with, but it is real money that can be parlayed into a few dollars quickly if you know what you're doing. So while you might not have a chance to roll with the big boys, winning a dollar or two on a game can still make March madness that much more exciting.