There's a very odd article in the New York Times tims morning. I thought it was going to be a humourous essay when I saw the title "Don't Always Follow the Crowds" and the reference to the NCAA championship but it is actually a strategy piece to picking your pool picks:

In a small pool, with you and a handful of friends, the right strategy is to be really boring. Pick good teams to win, leave upsets alone. In a 50-player office pool, other players' picks make a difference. Avoiding the crowd can be worth the risk. In a huge pool, like the million-player online pools run by Yahoo and ESPN, choosing the favorites gives you almost no chance of winning.

How odd. I suppose it is good that the actual state of human affairs gets noted in the newspaper of record but does the winner of the Yahoo or ESPN pools also become news? Interesting to note that no advice is given on how to go with the most funny name question for in the most prestigeous pools.