NCAAcom

Great strategy. Bird and Weather teams have only met 11 times in the NCAA tournament since 1985, and your first guess is correct — Weather teams hold the 7-4 (63.6%) advantage. Against all other mascots, Weather teams win 47.9% of games, while Bird teams win 48.1% of games against all mascots but Weather. We went into (probably way too much) detail on the history of mascot matchups in the tournament here: http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/bracket-beat/2017-03-01/march-madness-how-pick-your-ncaa-tournament-bracket

• No. 14 Florida Gulf Coast over No. 3 Florida State – Dunk City has a history of upsets; Florida State is 4-4 in its last eight games. In-state rivalry could add some spice.
• No. 14 New Mexico State over No. 3 Baylor – Baylor is 10-7 after a 15-0 start to the year. Resume is more based on November/December than January/February. NMSU went on a 20-game winning streak in the middle of the season
• No. 11 Rhode Island over No. 6 Creighton – Bluejays haven’t been the same since Mo Watson’s injury, Rhode Island has two studs in Hassan Martin and E.C. Matthews and caught fire in the A-10 tournament
• No. 12 Middle Tennessee over No. 5 Minnesota – Middle Tennesee is a better team than it was last year, when the Blue Raiders upset Michigan State, and Minnesota is worse than last year’s Spartans.

We have no idea. But, red vs. blue teams have been the most common matchup in the tournament's history. Good news for the Tar Heels, blue teams are 271-196 in those games.

That... is a fair point. Our guess: ¯\(ツ)/¯

UCLA landed in probably the second hardest region (behind the East). Cincinnati is no cupcake, both Kansas State and Wake Forest have wins over top-10 teams this year, and getting past Kentucky and then either (likely) Butler or UNC is a nightmare. Can the Bruins get to the Final Four? Absolutely. But it'll take Lonzo Ball playing even better than his dad thinks he does.