• The National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament is one of the most popular events on the American sporting calendar. It has a huge attraction for even casual sports fans who like to get involved in basketball pools and have a chance to win a large amount of money. The popularity of the tournament and the practice of filling out brackets keeps interest high among gamblers and non-gamblers alike. There are many different ways to get involved in basketball pools during the NCAA tournament.
  
  

The Bracket

• Every March, 64 Division I college basketball teams get invited to play in the NCAA tournament. These teams participate in an elimination tournament that sees the tournament field cut in half with every round. At the start of the tournament, basketball fans fill out draw sheets that detail the results of each round. After paying an entry fee, the fan who comes closest to filling out a draw sheet with the correct results wins an award. Depending on the amount of money in the pool, prizes for second, third and fourth places also are awarded.
  
  

Survivor

• This type of basketball pool finds each participant being assigned the name of one of the 64 teams in the tournament. To win in a survivor tournament, the team you have been assigned must cover the Las Vegas point spread assigned to the game to advance. So if your team is a team from a smaller conference like Stetson and is a 35-point underdog to Duke, it has a chance to advance if it can merely cover the spread. So if Duke wins the game 100-68, those who had Stetson survive the match-up and capture Duke for the ensuing round. If Duke plays Missouri in the second round and the Blue Devils win the game by 15 points as a 9-point favorite, Duke survives and advances. However, Duke had already been captured by Stetson, so it's the original Stetson backers who continue to remain alive in the tournament.
  
  

Seed 8

• Seed 8 is another type of basketball pool for the NCAA tournament. Instead of picking all games in the tournament, you pick the eight teams that you think will advance the furthest in the tournament, based on their seeding. In the NCAA tournament, there are four brackets. Each bracket has teams seeded 1 through 16. Pick one of the No. 1 seeds, one of the No. 2 seeds and keep on going in this manner until you have gone through the No. 8. seed. The object is to pick the seeds that will win the most games in the tournament. You pay an entry fee and the person who picks the most individual game winners wins a cash prize.