I have nothing against Joe Lunardi personally. But perhaps more than any other person on television Lunardi has become the "voice" of NCAA Tournament predictions despite the fact that, in my opinion, his whole facade is nothing more than corporate-sponsored branding.

In short, Joe Lunardi and his self-proclaimed "Bracketology" is a fraud.

On one hand I have to give him credit. Decades ago the man saw a niche - NCAA Tournament/March Madness prediction bobblehead - and he decided to fill it. I can't knock him for finding a good, healthy racket. And in the online world of hustlers and Hot Take Specialists, Lunardi isn't anything beyond the pale.

But Joe Lunardi is still a troll. And he uses his position as an "expert" to troll the general basketball public. This guy isn't really predicting or projecting anything. And, as a matter of fact, my January NCAA Tournament predictions have been better at projecting the NCAA Tournament field over the last four years than Joey's.

And that's because predicting the NCAA Tournament field isn't all that difficult! I understand that I am a college basketball addict. Part of that stems from my job as Greatest College Basketball Handicapper On The Planet . And part of that is simply an affliction from vengeful gods. And I understand that only about 5-10 percent of all sports fans (probably less) actually keep up with most or all of the major conferences in college basketball. There are too many teams, and there are a ton of other sports and distractions this time of the year. I get it.

But for those people that do have even a passing understanding of the sport, a pen, a piece of paper, and about 35-45 minutes, they have enough to put together a pretty decent list of the teams that will make the NCAA Tournament field. What this guy is doing isn't rocket science; he only acts like it is.

And part of Lunardi's appeal - and why an absurd amount of commentators simply ape what he says and use Lunardi's projections to give weight to their own theories - is the fact that he is doing all the work for us! People are lazy. And they don't want to look through Michigan State and VCU's nonconference resumes. So they defer to this guy.

But I really think that there are three reasons why Lunardi is extremely overrated and why I would call him a fraud:

1. There are reasons that this guy is constantly changing his mind.

I get that college basketball is very fluid late in the season. Everything is relative in this sport when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, and there are butterfly effects all over the field. But Lunardi is all over the place! He yo-yo's teams into and out of his "Last Four In" and "Last Four Out" categories seemingly on a whim. If he knows who is going to make the field then stake a claim and go with it!

But of course he won't. Andit is not a whim. It's actually pretty deliberate. There's two pretty clear reasons why he's so seemingly indecisive. First, shuffling teams around generates controversy and gets fans fired up. Lunardi knows that to maintain his station he needs to stay relevant. And since everything online is valued solely for its "clickability" rather than its actual substance, Lunardi knows that he has to stir the pot. So he does.

The second reason is that Lunardi likes to feature and discuss bubble teams that are playing on ESPN on a given night. Again, that's not coincidence. His job is to drum up business for the bosses. He doesn't have to be accurate, he just needs to stay relevant, keep people talking, and provide a faux air of legitimacy to the proceedings. That's currency in the digital world. And that's his value. And he plays people like a fiddle, be it on his Bracketology page or during his multiple appearances on ESPN during a given day. And one of his express goals is to get them to check out Whatever Game is on ESPN.

Finally, it is also not a coincidence that Lunardi is notorious for playing down the credentials of teams from leagues that ESPN doesn't own the complete rights to. He and his sycophantic followers are always underselling teams from the Big East, AAC, Atlantic 10 and Pac-12. And there's a reason that these teams - even when they are from traditional powers like Connecticut or Villanova - are considered such "surprises" when they win or perform well in the NCAA Tournament. Yes, it is a surprise - because the ESPN hacks have been ignoring them for most of the season because they want you watching games on their network instead!

2. His record isn't as great as people think.

The crux of Lunardi's "credentials" as a "Bracketologist" revolves around his seemingly amazing record of predicting the field on Selection Sunday. Do you know how easy it is to pick 67 of 68 teams on Selection Sunday?!?! By that point 65 of the 68 teams in the field are blatantly obvious. And then there's usually just five or six teams fighting for the last 2-4 slots. So even if Lunardi misses one or two of the final at-large bids - you know, the actual hard part of NCAA Tournament predictions - he still gets to tout nailing "97 percent of the field" or "99 percent of the field". When in reality if he got just two or three of the final four right he was closer to 50 or 75 percent.

Further, there is no doubt in my mind that Lunardi cheats on Selection Sunday. Remember when the tournament bracket leaked prior to announcement last year? Yeah, people know who's in before it is announced to the public. And I would bet money that this sweaty cheesesteak of a man has sources on the committee that tip him off on who those final teams are going to be. He's not leaving anything to chance. And ESPN has too much financially invested in his "expertise" to let him.

This is also the part where I remind you that I have outperformed Lunardi in three of the last four years, and I fully expect to do it again this year. Picking the field a few hours before it is announced requires zero skill. But picking the field in January is something else altogether.

3. This clown is actually influencing what he is observing and predicting.

Look, I am not going to go into a full diatribe about the collective dynamics of opinion formation or the influence of mass media on public opinion. However, I think it is pretty clear that Lunardi has sway over who and how teams are selected and judged. Whether it is with seeding or with actual at-large selections, he is the perfect example of how perception becomes reality.

For one thing, the guy is incessant. In the final week leading up to the NCAA Tournament Lunardi is a staple across all of ESPN's various platforms; he's on TV, he's in the studio for quick commentary, he has his Bracketology page, he's constantly interviewed on the radio and the Web. So we are being inundated with Lunardi's perspective over and over and over again. It is a feedback loop. And pretty soon every commentator is parroting what they heard him say.

And Lunardi has no foil. There is nothing to balance him out. One of ESPN's other famous hucksters is Mel Kiper Jr. Kiper also found a niche as the go-to NFL draft expert several decades ago. And several years ago ESPN realized that they needed someone for Kiper to argue with. Enter Todd McShay. So now we are at least getting a second opinion, even if that is mainly for show. Lunardi doesn't even have that. His credentials as a one-man judge and jury are never questioned, and there is rarely pushback or debate about anything he says.It becomes gospel.

Now, think about the selection committee. The people responsible for creating the NCAA Tournament field are watching hours upon hours upon hours of games the last two weeks leading up to Selection Sunday. Most of those games are on ESPN. So they are constantly getting pounded Lunardi's opinions. And not only are they getting Full Lunardi, but they are also getting fed his opinions by proxy from the other commentators!

"Well, right now Joe Lunardi thinksÃÆ'¢â‚¬Â¦."

"Our resident Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has Team X among his last four inÃÆ'¢â‚¬Â¦."

"Joe Lunardi thinks this team is one of the last four out, and as you know he has correctly predicted the fieldÃÆ'¢â‚¬Â¦."

It is the ESPN echo chamber and that stuff has an impact! Weeks of this could influence the people making the decisions. It is a form of confirmation bias.

I have been banging the drum against Lunardi for a decade, if not more. All I am saying is take everything this guy says over the next week or so with a giant grain of salt. He is more salesman than scientist. And if you are letting anything this guy or his cult followers say impact your betting opinions then you are falling into a trap at the worst possible time.

Robert Ferringo is a member of the Basketball Writer's Association of America and a professional sports handicapper for Doc's Sports. He is considered one of the best college basketball handicappers in the country and has a streak of 10 straight winning regular seasons. Robert's $100-per-Unit clients banked $16,900 in profit last year alone and there is no better moneymaker in the nation. You can sign up for his college basketball picks and get more information here .

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