NCAA Tournament: First Round's Biggest Financial Winners And Losers

HOUSTON - MARCH 28: Lance Thomas #42 of the Duke Dlue Devils celebrates a win over the Baylor Bears during the south regional final of the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Reliant Stadium. (Image credit: Getty Images North America via @daylife) Former Duke Basketball player, Lance Thomas, is being sued [...]

The NCAA Tournament bracket has been unveiled, so it’s time to sharpen your pencils, get to work and make some money. Here are 10 things to know before filling out the sheet for your office pool.

The Vegas odds for every major NCAA tournament team are out. Some notes:

Indiana's loss last night to Ohio State was the third in their last eight games, and may have knocked them out of contention for a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament. But is there anybody else to claim their spot? Gonzaga, the number one team in the AP Poll is likely to be one of the number one seeds, even if they lose in their conference championship game. Duke is close to sealing their claim to a top seed, but still has some work to do. After that, it is anybody's guess.

It was an exciting basketball tournament, right down to the final game. If the early rounds didn't blow a hole in your bracket, there was something wrong with your bracket! Congratulations to national champions Duke University, and to N. Noble, who had the most accurate entry in our 2010 Econbrowser NCAA Tournament Challenge. Congrats also to J. Graham, who took both second and third place in the contest.

This is what the NCAA tournament bracket would look like if winners and losers were decided by the average salaries of alumni according to data by Payscale.com. And for the second year in a row, Harvard comes out on top, with an average alumni salary of $92,200.