OK, I entered three NCAA men's bracket competitions this year and only won one of them.

I picked seven of eight Elite 8 teams, three of four Final 4 teams, the championship game and the winner. While I can see not beating out the 72,000 people ahead of me on ESPN.com, where I finished in the 97.9th percentile, I am pretty shocked I didn't win the office pool, even if it was against 71 other people.

I wasn't even in the final five.

My theory about these NCAA tourney brackets has always been thus: If you pick the champion and are the only one to pick the champ, then you win. No questions asked.

If there were seven submissions with Florida as champ, then you should look to see who had the Buckeyes in the finale. If there were none, then you win because you had Florida-Ohio State.

If three have Florida-Ohio State, then you look at who has what in the Elite 8. Then the Sweet 16. So on and so on.

Scoring should be done backward until a winner is declared because the point of submitting brackets is to try to come as close as possible to picking the champ.

I not only picked the champ. I picked their opponent.

I picked three of the final four, and -- heck -- even my buddy K, whose bracket I picked for him, didn't win his bracket. However, he came in second, losing to a guy who had virtually the same bracket with like one difference in the early rounds.

I wasn't even in the final five at work.

Truth is, the most fun competition I have each year come tourney time is with my two brothers. We play for a 12-pack of our favorite beverage, and I won that handily ... but not as handily as you might think. Truth is, this year's bracket went mostly to form.

It was tight until last Saturday, when Georgetown fell and Florida beat the Bruins.

As for the beverage? Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown Ale

Them's the spoils of winning our friendly family competition, but the bragging rights are golden until 2008. And, as for 2008, I think I'll save my dollar and skip those office pools.

If I didn't even finish in the Top 5 this year, I ain't ever gonna win it. Fo sho.