SOURCE: The Times Online

Break out the flow charts boys and girls, it's time for the second-biggest sports event of the year. Selection Sunday is upon us with March Madness just around the corner.

That's right, it's time to study up on "bracketology" and grab a copy of your office's version of the NCAA basketball pool. For the next four weeks, secretaries as well as corporate executives, teachers and students, will match wits and try to pick the winners of the 63 games of the NCAA basketball championships. Only the Super Bowl draws more gambling interest.

That's right, office pools based on the NCAA basketball tournament are officially sports wagering - and thereby illegal throughout most of the United States. But the NCAA championships are one of life's guilty pleasures in which most everyone indulges. In at least one baseball clubhouse in Arizona, for example, the NCAA basketball bracket is posted right next to Major League Baseball's edict against gambling.

The beauty of the NCAA basketball pool is that anyone can play. You don't have to be a basketball expert. After all, no basketball expert would have picked George Mason to advanced to the Final Four last season. Will Winthrop win a game? Will Gonzaga advance past the first round? Will the four regional No 1 seeds all reach the Final Four championships?

Past performances say they should. But in the two-plus decades since the tournament was expanded to its present 64-team format it hasn't happened. Which means our office secretary, who always picks colleges named after people, did have George Mason advancing to the Final Four last year and thereby won a large share of our office pool.

While there are so-called experts out there who mull over every game, most people participating in the NCAA basketball pools are shooting from the hip. Home states, alma maters and colleges named after cities receive just as much support at those with a 26-4 regular-season record.

I have a friend who each year picks Florida to win the NCAA title in his office pool. Last year, Florida won. Mike looked like a genius. No mention of the fact that he always picked Florida to win and thus had eliminated himself some 15 previous years.

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