March Madness bracket
Ah, the time has come to fill out your NCAA Division 1 Basketball Championship bracket. Some of you will spend less than three minutes filling out your bracket and others (my Dad) will refer to handwritten notes they’ve taken all year and second guess picks for 24 hours. The irony of the bracket is that it’s all fun and games until you realize anything can happen in March and your bracket will mentally abuse you or make you look like you watched a lot of college basketball.
Madness
It’s not Selection Sunday without madness. And this year did not disappoint. The University of North Carolina was the last team to get into the field of 68 teams and the world of college basketball exploded.
The Chairman of the Selection Committee, Bubba Cunningham, just so happens to be the Athletic Director for the University of North Carolina. My favorite response from Bubba was that ‘he was not in the room when they voted on UNC’. STOP IT! Does Bubba really think his short absence from the room during a single vote mattered? BLEEP NO! His influence was made during all the time spent at dinners, the hotel bar, and all the meetings and communications prior to the dang vote. He’s been their bleeping boss for five years, they are not going to vote against their boss. At least try to make a valid reason like they’ve won eight of their last ten games. Or just say UNC will always get selection privilege because it’s UNC.
But there’s more. Corruption is not just red and blue, it’s also baby blue. Bubba is going to make an estimated $104K bonus for the UNC men’s team making the tournament bracket. Again, the committee was never going to vote against their boss.
It’s not about who you play, it’s about who you beat! Well, at least that’s what we’ve lived by during the selection process. UNC was 1-12 against quadrant one teams. That one win was a two-point win against UCLA on a neutral site. (Quadrant one means home wins against a team ranked 1-30, 1-50 for neutral sites, and 1-75 for away games.) To summarize, UNC’s resume says they should not be in the field of 68 teams.
West Virginia
The Mountaineers had six quad one wins. WVU was the 69th team on the committee’s bracket and those country roads are taking the NCAA to court! Outraged by the bracket snub, the West Virginia Governor, Patrick Morrisely opened an investigation against the NCAA Selection Committee for leaving the Mountaineers out of the tournament. Now, nothing will change for the Mountaineers this year, but I hope this causes havoc to the Selection Committee. It’s very simple, active AD’s should not be on a selection committee for any sport.
Choose Wisely
The bracket is unpredictable. Each pick is a choice (or a guess) that will end in bragging rights or being downright disrespectful to teams. I play in a March Madness bracket pool where upsets matter. I love a good upset (when it’s not the Vols) and I will purposefully pick high-ranked teams to lose because I despise them and if I think they will not be cutting down the nets on April 7th. (I’m talking to you, Purdue- let’s go High Point!) If you want to play with us, click the link Bush’s March Madness Tournament and Venmo Big Bush $10 @ChrisBush21 per bracket.
The Lady Vols continue the streak as the only school to participate in all 43 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Championships. Brackets are due by noon on Thursday March 20th. Choose wisely and LET GO VOLS!
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