NCAA Tournament seedings and how to use them

As March approaches  there will be a lot of talk about the NCAA Tournament and what and where teams will be seeded.

But what those seedings mean to college basketball handicappers, may be insignificant and sometimes nothing more than a distraction.

With that, here is are a few tips for NCAA basketball bettors to take into consideration when looking at selecting their NCAA Tournament picks based on seedings.

First, they need to decide if the seeding for a particular team really matters, as tournament seedings can give bettors a sense of the relative strength of the teams involved – or at least of the perception of the strength of the teams involved.

For a handicapper that has not paid attention to a particular conference over the course of the regular season, seedings can be big help in giving them an initial sense of how strong a team is and how much regard they deserve.

Seedings can also indicate the differences of teams within the same conference.

For example. While the difference between a three seed and an 11 seed in a major college conference would be significant, that same difference in a small conference may not be.

Seedings can also shape public opinion, which experienced handicappers and sports services know will tell the books how to shade their betting offerings. The usual result is the higher seed being marked as the favorite in most games, creating real value on underdogs.

Experienced handicappers also know that seedings don't actually always indicate that higher seeded teams are always better than lower seeded teams, because it can be very tough for conference champions from mid-major conferences to break into the top half of the seedings. It is important to also see how the bookmakers have setup the March Madness college basketball Lines as that is often a key indicator of where the statistical analysis says a team is rated as opposed to what the public and the announcers on ESPN and CBS Sports are saying.

A mid-major conference team is often overlooked by the selection committee and can be a good opportunity for bettors who are paying attention to stats and facts, rather than to seedings alone.

Why does this happen?

Because sometimes the selection committee falls in love with a particular conference, and the result is biased seedings, with lower level teams in that conference getting more respect than they actually deserve. This is usually the case with teams in a major conferences.

Finally, lower seeds can almost always win. This is the nature of March Madness, and what makes betting on it so much fun.

Even the lowest of seeds are dangerous, because they are not only overlooked by handicappers, but by their opponents as well.

NCAA Tournament history is filled with countless games where a No. 12  team has taken down a No. 5 team.

And while relying on seedings can help shape betting decisions, college basketball bettors need to handicap every tournament game based on facts and stats. Not just seedings alone.