The New York Times recently reported the popularity of the March Madness pool on the social-networking Web site Facebook has resulted in the NCAA having to clarify its position in relation to athletes entering the online pool.

The NCAA announced it ‘strongly discouraged’ participation in the free contest with a grand prize of $25,000, although filling out a bracket for the contest would not technically be a violation of NCAA policies.

Whether athletes are involved should not worry the creators of Facebook. The Web site garnered over one million contest participants for this year’s March Madness.

The Daily Orange polled Syracuse students who participated in the Facebook challenge on the appeal of filling out a bracket and the strategy for picking games.

The common response for why students love to obsess over this annual event – the competition. The universal lust for bragging rights over friends turns the most casual sports fan into tournament fanatics.

As for the typical approach to picking a bracket, apparently there exists a million different ways to pick 63 basketball games. Here are the selection strategies of the students who stand near the top of the Syracuse Facebook standings:

Matthew Belanich (Tied for third with 112 points – champion: Ohio State over Florida):Junior geology and education majorStrategy: The ‘No ‘Cuse, No Problem’ Bracket

‘It is a little ironic, but what really helped my bracket was the fact that Syracuse was not in it. If Syracuse was in the original field of 64, I would probably be more prone to choose them to go far into the Tournament. That is inevitably what screwed me over in the past two years because Syracuse had early round losses to Vermont and Texas A&M.’

Beth Ann Clyde (Tied for third with 112 points – champion: Ohio State over UCLA):Sophomore broadcast journalismStrategy: The ‘Know Your History’ Bracket

‘Well, I always pick at least one 12 seed over a five seed, won’t put more than two No. 1’s in the Final Four and I refused to advance Gonzaga because they always hurt me.’

Sarina Fiero (Tied for fifth with 111 points – champion: Florida over Ohio State)Junior industrial designStrategy: The ‘Your guess isn’t as good as mine’ Bracket

‘I was abroad for Spring Break and missed Selection Sunday and all

the drama. I was able to get onto a computer in an Internet caf for a short amount of

time, and my strategy became a mixture of limited knowledge, guessing and luck.’

Michael Lebson (Tied for 11th with 108 points – champion: Florida over Ohio State)Sophomore illustrationStrategy: The ‘Rule No. 76: No Excuses, Pick like a champion’ Bracket

‘Go for teams that have players you envision making big time plays, and vice versa. For example, when I had to choose between UNC vs. Georgetown, since they were closely matched talent wise, I said to myself, ‘Do I see Tyler Hansbrough making a huge shot if he had to get into the Final Four?’ Nah, he just looks like a choker, and there’s how I made that pick.’

Alyssa Nugent (Tied for 11th with 108 points – champion: Florida over Ohio State):Junior political science and newspaper journalismStrategy: The ‘Truthiness’ Bracket

‘I chose some teams just on gut feelings. I consulted an ESPN article or two. I also

heeded Stephen Colbert’s advice to go with the teams with God and chose Notre Dame to win in the first round. Unfortunately, that was bad advice to follow, as Winthrop pulled the upset.’

Published on March 27, 2007 at 12:00 pm