You once could fill out your NCAA Tournament pool without knowing a team’s NET Ranking or Quad 1 record.
You didn’t need to know the difference between KenPom or a pompom or whether a bubble team from a Power 5 conference had a better chance of advancing than an automatic qualifier from a midmajor.
Anyone with a casual knowledge of college basketball knew the higher seeds tended to move on, and the usual suspects such as Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State were always a solid bet to get to at least the Elite Eight. Then you just made an educated guess of which powerhouse would win it all.
