It might be one of the most celebrated Sundays in America. For many, it's the culmination of months and months of hard work. For others, it's just the beginning of a long, exhausting road.
No matter how it's sliced up, Selection Sunday is what nearly all college basketball fans look forward to.
By 7 p.m. Sunday, nearly 200,000 college basketball fans had already filled out their NCAA Championship brackets on ESPN.com.
Many had picked No. 1 seeded North Carolina to win it all. Others had No. 1 Louisville.
But there are unique ways people use to fill out their brackets - ways aren't based on how talented a team is, or how good they've been this year. These are ways that are conceived from everything that isn't basketball-related.
Crystal Taylor, a 4th-semester environmental science major, based her entire 2008 bracket on which team had the best school colors. Taylor used a system that gave any team with the color yellow an automatic win over its opponents, and in the case of a tie, the team with the best mascot won.
"I don't follow basketball," Taylor said. "But I like to get involved and make people mad who fill out their brackets seriously."
In her bracket last year, Taylor was doing very well, that is, until the Elite Eight, she said.
"Usually people don't see me as a threat," Taylor said.
But in light of the Huskies' six-overtime loss to Syracuse, Taylor will use another, new method this year when she completes her bracket - the Orange have to lose.
"Now I hate Syracuse, so they're automatically losing in my bracket," Taylor said. "No matter what."
Other people are using methods that aren't as superficial as team colors, but are still nonetheless unique.
Abigail McGlinchey, a 4th-semester literature major at American University, usually picks her bracket on teams that she knows play well. This year, she's basing the bracket entirely on her loyalty to teams she's associated with. Nonetheless, McGlinchey has American winning its first National Championship in school history.
"When you say you picked American to win it all, down here, everyone says, 'Damn right, American,'" McGlinchey said. "I don't really care what people think. I chose American because I go there. I think it's a reputable reason for choosing them. We're such an underdog."
McGlinchey and others at American may have their school headed to the championship in Detroit, but at the same time, she is realistic about what the actual outcome might be.
"Deep down, we all know we're going to be schooled," McGlinchey said.
While her own bracket-picking method may be unique, McGlinchey believes other methods, such as Taylor's, can't be justified like hers.
"It's a little weak," McGlinchey said. "Personally, I have a lot of respect for sports, so I think choosing on superficial facts doesn't give any credit."
Even though choosing teams based on mascots or on your own loyalties can be fun and sometimes correct, it usually leads to a ruined bracket.
Chris Rahusen, a 6th-semester mechanical engineering major, was the winner of Taylor and McGlinchey's NCAA bracket group last year and he stuck to a more conventional method of choosing winners.
"I follow college basketball pretty well," Rahusen said. "There are some videos that break down each region, but mostly I went with the highest seed. I like to hear what the experts think."
And when Taylor was making a run at winning their group's bracket, Rahusen admits he wouldn't have liked losing to a person whose bracket was based on team colors.
"If they beat me, it's kind of lame," Rahusen said. "People who don't follow basketball have to find some method to pick their teams. It's funny to see how that strategy works out."
But at the end of the day, it isn't about the how or why a person filled out a bracket the way they did. It's about the unifying effect the NCAA tournament has on people like Taylor, McGlinchey and Rahusen.
"There's something really cool about rooting for a team that has a serious shot," McGlinchey said. "I think smack talk is hilarious and picking brackets have become a cultural thing. It's all in good fun."
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