March Madness is here. And the most interesting new way to get in on the action is FanDuel's new Bracket Pick'em contest. It's a seemingly simple free-to-play game, but there is some serious strategy involved.
All you have to do is pick five teams whose seeds add up to at least 20, and the deeper into the NCAA Tournament they go, the more points you'll rack up. For a more detailed breakdown of how to play Bracket Pick'em, check out our full introduction to the game here.
We've already run the numbers on the optimal five-team entry and pointed out five value teams to target in this year's field. But what does the numberFire staff see happening in this year's tournament? We polled our college basketball experts for their Bracket Pick'em picks, and the results are below.
Looking for trends? 11 of the 13 staffers polled picked Villanova, the top seed in the East Region, and 10 of the 13 staffers polled picked Gonzaga, the 4 seed in the West Region. Only three pick combinations included more than one team with a seed of 5 or higher (as in, worse).
Scroll down to see our full staff picks for the 2018 FanDuel Bracket Pick'em.
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JJ Zachariason, Editor-in-Chief
Picks:
(1) Villanova
(2) Duke
(4) Gonzaga
(5) Kentucky
(8) Seton Hall
Brandon Gdula, Senior Writer & Analyst
Picks:
(1) Villanova
(2) Cincinnati
(4) Gonzaga
(6) Houston
(10) Butler
Jim Sannes, Senior Writer & Analyst
Picks:
(1) Villanova
(2) Duke
(4) Gonzaga
(6) Houston
(11) Syracuse/Arizona State
Abe Schwadron, Managing Editor
Picks:
(1) Villanova
(2) North Carolina
(4) Arizona
(4) Gonzaga
(10) Oklahoma
Keith Goldner, Chief Analyst
Picks:
(1) Villanova
(2) Duke
(2) Cincinnati
(5) Ohio State
(10) Butler
Austan Kas, Contributing Editor
Picks:
(1) Villanova
(2) Purdue
(2) Duke
(4) Gonzaga
(11) Loyola-Chicago
Sam Hauss, Projections Analyst
Picks:
(1) Virginia
(2) Duke
(3) Tennessee
(4) Gonzaga
(10) Butler
Brett Oswalt, Contributor
Picks:
(1) Kansas
(1) Villanova
(3) Michigan State
(4) Arizona
(13) Marshall
Jesse Scudilla, Contributor
Picks:
(1) Villanova
(1) Kansas
(3) Michigan State
(4) Gonzaga
(11) Loyola-Chicago
Akash Bhatia, Contributor
Picks:
(1) Virginia
(2) Duke
(3) Texas Tech
(4) Gonzaga
(12) New Mexico State
Kyle Scudilla, Contributor
Picks:
(1) Virginia
(1) Villanova
(2) Duke
(4) Gonzaga
(12) New Mexico State
Dale Redman, Contributor
Picks:
(1) Villanova
(2) North Carolina
(3) Michigan State
(4) Arizona
(11) Loyola-Chicago
Ian Goldsmith, Contributor
Picks:
(1) Virginia
(1) Villanova
(3) Texas Tech
(4) Gonzaga
(12) New Mexico State
Those listed as "contributors" are not FanDuel employees. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Brett Oswalt, Kyle Scudilla, Akash Bhatia, Ian Goldsmith and Austan Kas also participate in DFS contests on FanDuel using their personal accounts, usernames BRO14THEKID, yankfan98k, tenswimrun1, zoidbergs_revenge and akas247. While the strategies and player selections recommended in this article are their personal views, they may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with their personal accounts.