NCAA Tournament Teams You Should Favor Given the Public's Picks

If you're trying to get through the madness of March with an office pool victory, then you should be paying attention to the game theory component of filling out a bracket.

What does that mean? Well, quite simply, you shouldn't just pick the best teams, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. Because, a lot of times, teams that are considered the best are also the most popular.

After looking at this year's bracket, maybe you're considering making Virginia the national champion. That's not a bad choice if you're just looking only at their probability of winning -- according to our stage odds, they've got a 20.31% chance to win this season's big dance, the second-highest odds of any team.

But the public likes Virginia, too. A lot. According to ESPN's Who Picked Whom data, over 23% of the public has Virginia winning the National Championship game. That means they're not necessarily an optimal pick.

Who is, though? Let's dig in and compare our stage odds and the Who Picked Whom data in order to find the smartest bets in the tournament.

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