By bypassing the Blue Devils for the title, you can differentiate your entry. Duke’s prowess has made it the most popular title pick in ESPN’s bracket contest ( 25 percent of entries as of Tuesday) as well as CBS’s. Not going with Duke to win is a smart pool strategy Mock outlines here — while still collecting points by riding Duke to the finals.

May the best 1 win. Here’s the bracket for the men’s NCAA Tournament:

Let the madness begin. The NCAA selection committee had the difficult task of sorting through every tournament hopeful’s resume and determining the 68-team field. Fortunately, there are no qualifications to be able to fill out a March Madness bracket.

I've got more March Madness for you today, including some NIT thoughts. I also want to talk about NFL kickoffs and, separately, tattoos? But first, another update on the Reason Friends and Family Bracket Contest.

No. 1 Texas and No. 2 UConn won their respective Elite Eight matchups on Monday night to wrap up the second weekend of the women's NCAA tournament. The Longhorns fended off Hailey Van Lith and TCU to reach their first Final Four since 2003,

The NCAA Tournament is drawing to a close for men's basketball. Here are American-Statesman staff March Madness picks for the Final Four predictions.