Various methods are used to predict the winners in a bracket 2018. While some use math and statistics, others make selections based on team mascots or colors. President Barack Obama became famous for his bracket predictions. Since entering office, he has presented his projected winners annually on ESPN in a segment called Barack-etology.
Joe Lunardi is credited with inventing the term bracketology. Lunardi had been editor and owner of the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, a preseason guide roughly 400 pages long. In 1995, Blue Ribbon added an 80-page postseason supplement which was released the night the brackets were announced. So that the release could be timely, Lunardi began predicting the selection committee's bracket. On February 25, 1996, The Philadelphia Inquirer referred to Lunardi as a bracketologist, which is the first known instance the term was applied to a college basketball expert. While Lunardi did not recall using the term before its use in the article, Inquirer writer Mike Jensen credits its origins to Lunardi. Lunardi soon started the website Bracketology.net, and ESPN began running his predictions in exchange for a link to his website.