Bodog Beat

Take the following NCAA picks advice and you might celebrate like these guys. (AP Images)

The Washington's Post's Dan Steingberg is one of the most popular sports bloggers around. His blog, the DC Sports Blog, is a must-read for every fan inside and outside the Beltway.

Yesterday, Steinberg published seven rules for making smart NCAA tournament picks, which are as follows:

1) IGNORE THE 5-12 RULE, because "if, on average, almost 75 percent of five seeds survive the first round, you're simply better off taking all four favorites and accepting one miss than blindly chasing after that one 12th-seeded winner."

2) HATE CINDERELLA, because "the big boys have an incredible rate of success against the upstarts."

3) UPSET PICKS COME FROM THE MAJORS, because "the lesser lights in the best conferences often provide the choicest upsets."

4) PICK YOUR UPSETS IN THE SECOND ROUND, because "if you're going to take a few risks, they might as well be risks that would mean something if they actually come to pass.'

5) DON'T PICK THE FAVORITE TO WIN IT ALL, because "most scoring systems provide disproportionate weight to the final two rounds, the bracket winner almost always has chosen the champion correctly."

6) AT THE END, PEDIGREE MATTERS, because "for eight years in a row, and for 11 of the last 12 seasons, the eventual national champion has made at least one recent Final Four appearance."

7) EMBRACE ONE BIG CONFERENCE OVER ALL OTHERS, because "over the past six seasons, the eventual national champion's conference has gone 27-3 in first-round games and produced an average of a shade under three Sweet 16 teams each year."

Once you've got your NCAA picks strategy down, hit the sportsbook and throw down.

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines