March Madness is here again. As anyone who has ever entered an NCAA tourney pool knows, the person that usually wins is the one that knows the LEAST about basketball. My wife -- who picks the teams based on mascots and team colors -- beats me more years than not. One year she picked Ball State to win in the first round simply because they had the word "Ball" in their name. "They must know what they are doing, right?" And of course, they won their first round game that year.
So that got me thinking: since my basketball knowledge is useless, what if I picked a bracket based solely on blue state/red state criteria? If a team is from a state that voted for Kerry, they advanced (no matter what the seed). If there were two blue state teams, the one that had stronger blue credentials would win. Likewise, if two red state teams played, the least red of the two advanced.
It's the Blue Bracket, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Some interesting things develop....
If you play this out, things really aren't so crazy. In fact, it may be the best bracket I've ever submitted.
My Final Four comes out to: Connecticut, Villanova, Syracuse, and UCLA. This doesn't sound insane, does it?
And there aren't any mind-boggling upsets, or at least the number of upsets is comparable to how the tourney plays out anyway. I have Duke losing to George Washington in the second round, Memphis falling to Bucknell (o.k., that would be odd, but Memphis IS overrated), and Texas going down to Penn.
Here's how it completely shakes out:
In the Atlanta region --
First round winners: Duke, George Washington, Syracuse, Iona, Southern Illinois, Iowa, California, and Penn (two upsets here are Penn over Texas and Iona over LSU)
Second round winners: George Washington, Syracuse, Southern Illinois, and Cal (GW beating Duke is a stretch)
Regional semis: Syracuse and Cal
Regional champ: Syracuse
In the Oakland Regional --
First round winners: Memphis, Bucknell, Pitt, Bradley, San Diego State, Gonzaga, Marquette, UCLA (Bradley beating Kansas would be an upset)
Second round winners: Bucknell, Bradley, Gonzaga, UCLA (Bucknell beating Memphis is the upset here, as well as Bradley over Pitt)
Regional Semis: Bradley and UCLA
Regional champ: UCLA
In the DC regional --
First round winners: Connecticut, Kentucky, Washington, Illinois, Michigan State, North Carolina, Seton Hall, and Tennessee (no real shockers here)
Second round winners: Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan State, Seton Hall (Tennessee losing to Seton Hall is a stretch)
Regional Semis: Connecticut and Michigan State
Regional Champ: Connecticut
In the Minnesota regional --
First round winners: Villanova, Wisconsin, Nevada, Boston College, Wisc.-Milwaukee, Florida, Georgetown, Ohio State (Oklahoma losing to UW-Milwaukee would be an upset. I also had to choose between Nevada [Majority leader Harry Reid] or Montana [kos' boyfriend Brian Schweitzer], so I went with Reid)
Second round winners: Villanova, Boston College, UW-Milwaukee, and Georgetown (Again, the Wisconsin school is an upset, this time over Florida)
Regional Semis: Villanova and Georgetown
Regional Champ: Villanova
In the final four I have UCLA beating Syracuse and Connecticut beating Villanova. And the National Chamion is Connecticut.
Go Blue! eh, Blue Bracket, that is... How's your bracket look?