The key to a successful March Madness bracket? Pick against purple teams

It is with true shame and regret we must inform you that your coworker who fills out a March Madness bracket each year based on their favorite colors is actually onto something.

Even if you’ve watched no college basketball all year long. Even if you think Perry Ellis is still starting for Kansas. Even if you didn’t know the three-point line was a thing — there’s really just one key piece of information you need in order to build out a successful bracket:

Fade all purple teams.

The last team that wore purple to win the NCAA tournament was Holy Cross back in 1947. That’s 76 straight tournaments without a winner wearing purple. Weirder yet: LSU is the only school who primarily wears purple to reach the Final Four since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The Tigers made it to the final weekend of March Madness in 1986 and 2006.

Yep. It’s that simple. I’d love to tell you all about the fancy analytics that can separate contenders, busts and Cinderellas, but the truth is none of those are nearly as reliable as just straight up picking against teams who draped in a nice violet or magenta.

So before you go backing Northwestern, TCU, Grand Canyon or James Madison this year, just remember sometimes it’s less about the players inside a school’s jersey than the color of the uniform.

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?