I know it has been a while since my last post, but I have been fully engrossed in college basketball lately and all of the brackets that go along with it. I’m not talking about THE bracket. You know, the bracket that even the President fills out. I am talking about conference tournament brackets. This year I filled out three conference tournament brackets: America East, Big East and ACC.
Right now you are probably thinking... “You filled out an America East bracket? Really?” And the answer is YES. Brackets are the greatest invention since Velcro! When one of my colleague prints out a bracket, I fill it out. I can’t help it, I am addicted to the simplicity of (most) brackets. The Big Dance? Of course. The Frozen Four? Absolutely! Grand slam tennis? You betcha. MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL playoff brackets? Yes, yes, sometimes and YES!
Brackets offer you the ultimate risk/reward scenario. Pick chalk (low risk) and you might follow the herd to glory. Pick upsets (high risk) and you might be laughing all the way to the bank. But if you want to win your office pool there is only one thing you need to do - pick winners. At least pick more winners than the next guy. Just be right.
Being “right” is not always as easy as it sounds when you are talking sports. So many sports discussions are subjective and bold claims start flowing like Guinness on St. Patrick’s day. For example, “The 1997 Marlins were the greatest team of the steroid era.” Or, “Drew Brees is better than Peyton Manning.” See how easy that was? It’s tough to refute either of those statements with any real certainty.
Likewise, it’s really hard to make any substantiated claim that the 1976 Montreal Canadiens would beat the 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins in a seven game series. Unless, perhaps you were to create a video hockey tournament that would have the greatest historical teams of all time battle it out. But even that does not provide a concrete answer to the question at hand.
Brackets are different. Brackets are singular. Brackets are final. Brackets are so agonizingly simple, while the tournament outcomes are seemingly so random. Case in point, in my Big East pool this year seven people picked Syracuse as the champion and three chose Marquette. No one even picked Louisville to make it to the semis. Luckily there were enough sheep in my pool that I was able to win despite the chalkiness of my Syracuse pick.
Even more important than winning, brackets are a lot of fun. Brackets invite discussion and debate. Brackets make you pay attention to sporting events, or matchups that otherwise would not interest you. Typically, Vermont vs. Stonybrook would not be must-see TV, but that 51-43 slugfest held major bracket implications for me. So at 11am Sunday on morning that’s what I was watching.
Sure the intense competitor in me wants to win every bracket I fill out, but, as it turns out, I stink at brackets (Tom Brady would use a different word). The correlation between the effort and research put into a bracket and eventual success seems to be hovering right around zero. Does that get me down? No, I keep coming back for more.
Over the years I have reached somewhat of a zen-like state with brackets. I am able to float above the bracket and enjoy the spirit of the competition. When Kansas went down in the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament and completely sunk my bracket, was I upset? Maybe a little, but the underdog story of watching the Northern Iowa Kurt Warners triumph was entertaining enough to pull me out of the dumps. And when Northern Iowa fell in the next round to Michigan State, all of us could cheer for Butler. A 5th seed that was just seconds aways from cutting the nets down in Indy - a whopping six mile drive from campus!
It is these types of unlikely scenarios that make brackets so difficult and so much fun at the same time. When your bracket is busted, don’t tune out the tournament. Don’t be a hater. There is still a great deal of excitement to go around.
So for all you bracket junkies that picked VCU to make it back to the Final Four this year (first off, congrats on picking the annual 5-12 upset) no one can tell you that you are wrong... until you ARE wrong. And even then, there’s always next year. And for those who can’t wait until next year, you are in luck, there is another bracket starting next week. I know I can’t wait!
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