It's Madness!

For all those who thought I'd be naive enough to blog about AIG, you may now commence with the disappointment. The aforementioned "madness" actually refers to... college basketball! You might be wondering why I busted out an ellipsis for a sport that few care about during the month of December. Truly, I don't care to explain. 

I have once bracket finished! 

I've had a few hours to mull it over, and I've come to the conclusion that I made some poor decisons. The silver lining is that there are 4 brackets I have yet to complete and then subsequently become discouraged with. I've decided to listen to the Bill Simmons podcast in order to give me a shot at getting the $10,000, sedan, or Gomer Pyle alarm clock, whatever it is ESPN gives away to the lucky idiot who picked the entire round of 16 right including sending local #13 seeded school to the final 4 because his can of PBR gave him an intuition. Or her. 

Over the past few years I've become less enthused with college basketball as a sport (personally a huge Duke fan since I was 7), and thus the bias has gradually been removed for me come tourney time the last few years. Clearly, the gambling enthused part of my soul is that much happier. Hopefully my forthcoming decisions will be somewhat consistent with reality.

Usually, part of my bracket strategy involves sweeping generalizations about conferences. E.g., the S.E.C. is so weak, none of the teams will make it past the 2nd round, or gosh I love the ACC and its 3 teams in the final 4. I do not like the strategy of picking the best player in america's team to win the championship. I believe this has only happened recently with North Carolina  and 2003 Syracuse. This year I plan to do the opposite of all ideas I've ever had, a la George Costanza.

My 1st bracket is terrible. I picked Syracuse to win. Also I went stomping around bragging to my mom about how #14 seeded Cornell is my lock first round upset. What I do know is the following:

1. Maryland will beat California in the 1st round.

2. Neither Louisville or North Carolina will win the title. 

3. I don't expect any #16, #15, or even #14 seeds to pull off upsets, but as the tourney drags, the parody of this season will emerge and eliminate many of the #1-4 seeds.

4. Not all those ranked Big East teams will be that good. 

5. If you're looking for a lower seeded team to make a run, forget Binghamton.

6. Instead think Utah State, Butler, Minnesota, or Maryland.