Although I’m not a fan of professional sports, I do like college basketball and football. That interest doesn’t extend far outside our favorite team’s conference, but I do actually get excited about the onset of March Madness. Invariably though, that excitement wanes over the course of the endless tournament, only to revive when it’s down to the Final Four games.
One of our sons gets a bracket together and family and friends get involved picking their favorites. Two of my grandsons also fill out brackets and have been known to blow some of the adults out of the contest. This year a new ‘rule’ was implemented that anyone who finished lower than they did would pay a penalty. It’s all fun and the good-natured jeering and complaining about game outcomes is always more entertaining than the games themselves.
I used to pick my winners based on how attractive the team uniforms were, but admittedly my success rate was unremarkable. Later I refined my picking process to the no-fail methodology of which-team-mascot-could-defeat-the-other-team-mascot-in-a-death-match. The method is quite simple: A Hawkeye is going to beat a Gopher because birds eat rodents. A Spartan is equipped with sword and shield, so has a big advantage over a Wildcat. (one can’t underestimate a crazed Wildcat who attacks the Spartan from behind, however.) Bears can take Bulldogs. Badgers and Wolverines are both quite vicious, so further research is necessary into team records, and the ever-reliable ‘how well do I like the team’s coach’?
Before dismissing my method, I should point out that I usually do quite well with my picks, normally placing in the top 25%. One year I actually gave the bracket quite a bit of thought. I researched each and every team’s records, and pondered their strengths and vulnerabilities. I ended up doing no better than my mascot death match method. So I figure, why bother going to all that effort?
How about you? Any NCAA fans out there? Who else has a foolproof way to fill out a winning bracket?
Riding With The Top Down 
This is my first attempt at picking bracket winners. My two teams went down in agonizing losses, Wisconsin lost by two and Florida by four. My two finalists have both been eliminated. I fear that I will be at the bottom of our 16 member group. I knew that Kentucky was favored to win it all but, I wanted another Cinderella team like last year’s winner Butler.
So you went for the Cinderella concept, Laurie 🙂 I have a son who does that, too. Who he’d like to see win, who would be an amazing win. When it works you guys look like geniuses!
Oh, my daughter-in-law, Amy, picked by where she’d like to visit. She also went down in flames.
LOL, that’s new one, Laurie!
I like your idea of the mascots… but my team, Indiana, doesn’t have a mascot… My bracket is usually bombed by the first round…
Haha, Cate, so they wouldn’t be hard to fill in for your bracket!
I always go with my University of Kentucky Wildcats…I am one of those rabid Biig Blue Fans..
Leisa, my hubby always has Kentucky winning it 🙂
I love your method of selection! I have no clue, but I like to hear others talk about it. Give me football!!!:)
Leanne you can use my method for football too .
This is how much I know about sports: I don’t even know the concept of ‘bracket’. I do like your reasoning with the team mascots, though!
Michele, my kids make fun of me every year, but they can’t argue with the results!
I don’t get involved in b-ball but I use a similar method when I go to the horse races. Horse has a cute name? I’ll look twice. Add to that pretty colors on the jockey and a pretty horse itself, it gets my $2 bet.
Iwrite, I totally go by names for horses myself!
My experience with betting – on anything – is something like this: My chances of winning a bet is roughly the same as tossing a $20 bill out the window of a car going 70 mph and expecting it find it’s way back to me.
So obviously, I don’t bother – but I do like how much fun you’re having with your bracket picks
Cindy I have similar feelings when it comes to betting (and Christmas shopping!). However, this is only $5. I do get made when I lose $10 of quarters at a casino, though!
The first year I entered I had no idea what those little numbers were next to the teams – I came in last – even a young child beat me lol. I go mostly now with the favorites but you really do have to pick a few upsets. I am in second right now but I will lose because the person ahead of me has the same teams to win and I didn’t understand the tie breaker – I have the lowest score of everyone so again, I’m going to lose roflmao.
It’s still fun to play isn’t it? I most enjoy the emails everyone starts sending taunting each other about our picks. No one takes it too seriously, which is what makes it fun.
I so wish I liked sports. Or at least knew something about them. But alas…
Lois, I just like the comradery. And tailgates. I’m a tailgating queen! It’s all about the party with me!
Hmm basketball bracket is rockin for me this year. I have 3 of the 4 in the final 4. I sort of follow basketball through the season…. more along the lines of watching some games and watching trends in top 25. At work we have a pool and was told that it is between me and one other person on winning the pool. But I still occasionally choose teams over others that I don’t like or wish would win. Sort of like your method though… maybe there should be a contest between mascots at the end of the season.
LOL, Kylie. I would definitely go with you idea of choosing the prettiest uniform, the coolest coach, or which mascot would be dominant, because I would have no clue. 🙂 After having horses all my life and showing for decades, the one time I went to a harness racing track I placed my first (and only) track bets on two different races–just a few dollars each. I looked at the conformation of the horses as they paraded past, eyed the spunk and level of excitement each one seemed to possess, and figured surely I had an advantage, with years of being around horses… and then watched both of my favorites finish dead last. Not just dead last. I think both of them stopped and had a good nap on the back stretch. My betting days were promptly over. 🙂